The war in the Middle East, triggered by a joint US and Israeli attack on Iran, has dramatically expanded, with casualties and destruction reported across at least nine countries, including major strikes on Tehran.
Escalation of Conflict
Israeli and US warplanes launched a fresh wave of strikes across Iran, where the Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS) said more than 500 people had been killed since the conflict began. Israel also launched intense attacks into Lebanon after Hezbollah struck northern Israel in retaliation for the Israeli strike on Saturday that killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Iranian attacks were reported on oil infrastructure and other targets across a 2,000km swathe of the region – with damage inflicted from the Gulf of Oman, where a bomb-carrying drone boat exploded against an oil tanker, to Cyprus, targeting a British military base.
The US military said Kuwait’s air defences mistakenly shot down three American F-15E fighters during an Iranian attack. All six crew members were safely recovered. Video showed one of the planes spiralling out of the sky, an engine lit up in flames, until it hit the ground and exploded in a fireball.
Black smoke rose above the area around the US embassy in Kuwait, where there was a heavy presence of security, ambulances and fire trucks. There were loud blasts in Dubai and Samha in the United Arab Emirates, and in Doha, the capital of Qatar. Saudi Arabia shut its biggest refinery after drone strikes caused a fire there, one of a number of oil installations that became targets.
In the first strike to reach US allies in Europe, a drone hit Britain’s Akrotiri airbase in Cyprus overnight. Britain and Cyprus said the damage was limited and there were no casualties.
The effort to oust Iran’s leadership is the biggest US foreign policy gamble in decades.
Trump’s Response and US Objectives
The US president, Donald Trump, repeated his calls on Iranians to rise up and overthrow their leaders, and said the air campaign could last weeks, telling CNN the “big wave” of attacks was yet to come.
“We’re knocking the crap out of them … The big wave hasn’t even happened. The big one is coming soon,” Trump told the network.
US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, said that the US goals were to destroy Iran’s navy, its ballistic missiles production, and its potential to produce a nuclear weapon. He repeatedly said that the US would not get bogged down in the conflict, saying that the US operation was not a “democracy-building exercise” and that “this is not Iraq. This is not endless.”
The US military said B-2 stealth bombers struck Iran’s ballistic missile facilities with 2,000-pound bombs. Trump said that 10 Iranian warships had been sunk and that the Iranian navy’s headquarters had been “largely destroyed”.
Within Iran, residents have jammed highways to flee cities as bombs fell, with uncertainty about the future and emotion ranging from apprehension to euphoria.
One Tehran resident said that Monday’s bombardment of the capital was the heaviest so far and seemed to be more indiscriminate with missiles striking across the city. He said hospitals and clinics were among the buildings damaged. “We are becoming like Gaza,” he said.
Another resident, Hosna, a 45-year-old lawyer, said: “Every time we hear the noises [of explosions], we get scared for just a second. But we experience some joy and excitement every time we hear a strike.”
The IRCS put the death toll in Iran at 555 and said more than 130 cities across the country had come under attack. Israeli officials said its strikes on Monday were aimed at command and control centres and senior leaders of the ruling regime. In Israel, 11 people have been killed, with 52 in Lebanon, according to authorities.
International Response and Economic Impact
European allies distanced themselves from Trump’s initial decision to go to war, saying it fell short of the legal threshold of meeting an imminent threat. But they have since said they would participate to help suppress Iran’s ability to retaliate, after Tehran struck their allies.
A senior White House official told Reuters that Washington would at some point talk with Tehran, but not yet.
Shipments through the strait of Hormuz – where about a fifth of the world’s oil trade passes along the Iranian coast – have been halted after threats from Iran and strikes against tankers. Oil prices leapt by double-digit percentage points on Monday and stock markets fell.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Sunday they had hit three US and UK oil tankers in the Gulf and the strait of Hormuz as well as attacking military bases in Kuwait and Bahrain with drones and missiles. Shipping data showed hundreds of vessels including oil and gas tankers dropping anchor in nearby waters.
Global air travel was also heavily disrupted as airstrikes kept major Middle Eastern airports closed.
Nuclear Facilities and Future Prospects
The UN nuclear watchdog had no indication Israeli and US attacks on Iran had hit any nuclear facilities, the International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi said on Monday, despite Iran’s envoy stating one was targeted a day earlier.
Iran’s nuclear programme is among the reasons Israel and the US have given for the attacks, alleging Iran was getting too close to being able to eventually make a nuclear bomb.
“We have no indication that any of the nuclear installations … have been damaged or hit,” Grossi said in a statement to a meeting of his agency’s 35-nation board of governors.
It remained unclear what the longer-term prospects were for Iran to rebuild its leadership and replace Khamenei, 86.
Iran’s elected president, Masoud Pezeshkian, said on Sunday a leadership council composed of himself, the judiciary head and a member of the powerful guardian council had temporarily assumed the duties of the supreme leader.
In a post on X on Monday, Ali Larijani, the powerful head of Tehran’s supreme national security council, said Iran would not negotiate with Trump, who had “delusional ambitions” and was now worried about US casualties.
“Iran, unlike the United States, has prepared itself for a long war,” he posted.
In Jerusalem, booms rattled windows as missiles launched by Iran towards central Israel were intercepted.
An Israeli military spokesperson said there had been fewer attacks targeting Israel overnight since Sunday, which he attributed to Israeli strikes degrading Iran’s military capabilities. Hezbollah had made “a big mistake” by “joining Iran’s war”, he said.
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