By Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali

March 5 (Reuters) - U.S. military investigators believe it is likely that U.S. forces were responsible for an apparent strike on an Iranian girls' school that killed scores of children on Saturday but have not yet reached a final conclusion or completed their investigation, two U.S. officials told Reuters.

Reuters was unable to determine more details about the investigation, including what evidence contributed to the tentative assessment, what type of munition was used, who was responsible or why the U.S. might have struck the school.

March 6 (Reuters) - Lebanon's Hezbollah warned Israeli residents to evacuate towns within 5 km (3.11 miles) of the border between the countries in a message posted on its Telegram channel in Hebrew early on Friday.

Hezbollah's message came less than a day after Israel warned residents to leave Beirut's southern suburbs, prompting an exodus from a swathe of the capital known as Dahiyeh.

Lebanon was pulled into the war in the Middle East on Monday, when Hezbollah opened fire, sparking Israeli airstrikes focused on Beirut's southern suburbs and on southern and eastern Lebanon.

(Fixes typo in headline)

SYDNEY, March 6 (Reuters) - Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Friday that three Australian defence personnel were on board a United States submarine that sank an Iranian warship with a torpedo in the Indian Ocean, but stressed they did not take part in the attack.

The strike, which occured off the southern coast of Sri Lanka this week, marked the first time since World War Two that the United States has sunk an enemy vessel with a torpedo. Sri Lankan authorities recovered the bodies of 87 sailors.

TAMPA, Florida, March 5 (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Thursday the United States was not expanding its military objectives in Iran, after President Donald Trump told Reuters that the United States must be involved in choosing the next leader of Iran.

The Pentagon earlier this week said the military campaign, known as Operation Epic Fury, is focused on destroying Iran's offensive missiles, missile production and Navy, while not allowing Tehran to have a nuclear weapon.

WASHINGTON, March 5 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Thursday said Tehran was reaching out to the United States about making a deal amid U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran, adding that further action to reduce pressure on oil was imminent.

"They're calling, they're saying 'how do we make a deal?' I said you're being a little bit late," said Trump, speaking at an event with the Inter Miami soccer team at the White House.

When the United States fought the 1991 Gulf War, president George H.W. Bush boasted of building a broad coalition unseen in decades. When his son attacked Iraq in 2003, he faced wide criticism but secured several steadfast US allies.

Now, a generation later, President Donald Trump has attacked Iran, and he is barely even trying to make friends.

Trump launched the war alongside Israel, which had long pressed the United States to strike Iran's ruling clerics.

By Patricia Zengerle

WASHINGTON, March 5 (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives rejected an effort on Thursday to stop President Donald Trump's air war on Iran and require that any hostilities against Iran be authorized by Congress, backing the Republican president's military campaign on the sixth day of the expanding conflict.

The vote was 219 to 212, largely along party lines, in the House, where Trump's fellow Republicans control a narrow majority of seats. Two Republicans voted in favor of the resolution and four Democrats voted against it.

March 5 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday he wants to finish the war in Iran first, but then it "will be just a question of time before you and a lot of unbelievable people are going to be going back to Cuba."

Trump, speaking at an event with the Inter Miami soccer team at the White House, said Cuba wants "to make a deal so badly."

"We want to finish this one first," he said, referring to the conflict in Iran.

(Reporting by Bo Erickson; Writing by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Daphne Psaledakis)

By Feras Dalatey

DAMASCUS, March 5 (Reuters) - Syria has opened a newly reactivated air corridor from the northern city of Aleppo toward the Mediterranean Sea for use by foreign airlines as well as its national carrier, the head of the country’s Civil Aviation Authority told Reuters on Thursday, as air traffic gradually resumes through Aleppo International Airport.

KYIV, March 5 (Reuters) - President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday that Ukraine would provide assistance to the U.S. in response to its request for help in dealing with Iranian drones in the Middle East.

Tehran has fired hundreds of drones at U.S. targets in neighboring countries after the U.S. and Israel began a massive campaign of air strikes against Iran on Saturday.

During its war with Russia, Ukraine has developed highly effective means of downing the Iranian-designed Shahed kamikaze drone, which Moscow has been using for much of the four-year war.