Days have passed since the United States and Israel first launched attacks against Iran, and the conflict is growing by the hour, involving other countries in the region, causing uncertainty for the global economy and stranding thousands of travelers.
Israel launched simultaneous attacks on Tehran and Beirut on Tuesday morning, targeting Iranian military positions and the Iranian-backed group Hezbollah, as Iran selected neighboring Arab countries as targets, including the US embassy in Saudi Arabia.
The United States warned its citizens to leave the vast region of the Middle East by commercial flights, but airspace closures across the region left few options.
US President Donald Trump has predicted that the war with Iran could last “four weeks,” the clearest indication yet of the potential scale of the conflict.
Speaking at the Pentagon on Monday, Gen. Dan Kaine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, stressed that this was not an “overnight standalone operation” and that further U.S. losses should be expected. President Trump echoed similar sentiments, telling CNN’s Jake Tapper, “The big wave hasn’t happened yet. The big wave is coming soon,” but gave no further details.
Three U.S. military planes crashed in Kuwait on Monday “in an apparent cross-fire accident,” the U.S. military said, adding that all six crew members had evacuated and were in “stable condition.”
On Monday, the conflict spread to another front, with Israel launching a series of attacks against Lebanon in response to Hezbollah’s provocations. According to Lebanese authorities, more than 50 people were killed in the airstrike.
At least 555 people were killed in Iran in joint U.S.-Israeli attacks that began Saturday morning, including at least 168 at an all-girls primary school, the country’s state media reported, according to the Iranian Red Crescent.
These airstrikes also killed Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei, marking a turning point in Iranian history, and Iranians faced a surreal mix of relief, disbelief, and anxiety.
Here’s what we know so far:
New frontiers are being opened.
Hezbollah fired six projectiles at a military base in northern Israel early Monday morning “in retaliation for the death of Khamenei.” Although no damage was caused, the rockets triggered a ferocious Israeli attack on Beirut and southern Lebanon.
Israel launched further attacks across Lebanon late Monday after earlier issuing an evacuation warning that saw hundreds of people evacuate from the south of the country.
Six U.S. service members have been killed in combat as of Monday, according to U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM). The military added that 18 more people have been seriously injured since Saturday.
Meanwhile, three US fighter jets were accidentally shot down by the Gulf country’s air defenses in Kuwait, Centcom said, adding that the cause of the incident was under investigation. Video geolocated by CNN showed the fighter jet crashing and the pilot parachuting to the ground.
CNN reporters in the major Persian Gulf cities of Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha heard explosions and saw what appeared to be missiles intercepted in the sky on Monday morning.
Similarly, on Monday morning, missiles from Iran were intercepted over both Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
Qatar’s Ministry of Defense later announced that it had shot down two Iranian Su-24 bombers, marking the first time any country had shot down an Iranian aircraft since the start of the recent conflict. This also marks a further expansion of Qatar’s involvement.
In Iran, multiple explosions were reported in the capital Tehran. Iranian state media reported on Sunday that a hospital in the city’s north suffered severe damage and patients were evacuated. State media said one attack damaged the city’s Golestan Palace, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Why did America and Israel attack?
Both President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have said their primary goal is to protect their respective countries from the immediate threat posed by Iran, and in particular to prevent the Islamic regime from acquiring nuclear weapons, although they have offered no evidence that they are close to acquiring nuclear weapons.
That claim was undermined by a Pentagon briefing Sunday that admitted to Congressional staff that Tehran has no plans to attack U.S. forces or bases in the region unless Israel strikes first.
Uncertainty about what exactly the airstrikes were intended to accomplish continued after President Trump gave multiple media interviews Sunday night.
He outlined various possible scenarios to the New York Times, suggesting that the “perfect scenario” would be a repeat of what happened in Venezuela, where the U.S. military captured President Nicolás Maduro and accepted Vice President Delcy Rodriguez as his replacement leader. At the same time, he said he hoped the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps would “really surrender to the people.”
“This is not a so-called regime change war,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth insisted Monday, adding that the United States has no intention of falling into the same nation-building quagmire as Iraq. Instead, he said, the U.S. aims to “destroy the missile threat, destroy our navy, and have no nuclear weapons.”
Iran has been battling an economic crisis that has sparked nationwide protests since the beginning of the year. As the crackdown left thousands of protesters dead, President Trump said the US was “locked and loaded” and promised to help them.
Israeli and U.S. intelligence agencies, including the CIA, had been tracking Khamenei’s movements for months, waiting for the moment to strike, even as the U.S. envoy held regular talks with Iran over a new nuclear deal.
Inside Iran, the regime has suffered a blow with the loss of its supreme leader, but it is still capable of launching attacks across the region.
A three-member leadership council currently holds power until a new supreme leader is appointed. Among them is the country’s moderate president, Massoud Pezeshkian. hardline attorney general Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei; and senior cleric Alireza Alafi.
It remains unclear how long the process of choosing Khamenei’s successor will take, a situation further complicated by the deaths of several senior military officials in Saturday’s airstrike.
Iranian missiles and drones target Israel and several countries in the region that host U.S. military bases, including Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia.
Most of these missiles and drones were shot down by air defense systems, but some reached their targets. At least 10 people were killed and more than 200 injured in Israel, according to Magen David Adom, head of the country’s emergency services. Nine of the deaths occurred when Iranian missiles struck air raid shelters in the city of Beit Shemesh, near Jerusalem.
For U.S.-allied Persian Gulf states such as the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Kuwait, the escalating conflict is puncturing the sense of security that has long attracted Western expatriates and tourists. Dramatic footage streamed from Dubai on Saturday showed a luxury hotel ablaze, people fleeing through smoke-filled hallways at the airport and four employees injured.
In Bahrain, an Iranian drone attack caused a fire in the upper floors of a high-rise building about a mile from a US naval base.
Merchant ships in the area have also come under shelling. On Monday, two projectiles hit a ship anchored in Bahrain, causing a fire on board and forcing the evacuation of the crew.
U.S. embassies in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia were also attacked, officials said, but no injuries were reported.
The U.S. embassy in Riyadh was attacked by two drones believed to be Iranian, two people familiar with the matter said. The Saudi Ministry of Defense confirmed the attack and said it caused “limited fire and minor property damage.”
Meanwhile, Jordan’s embassy was temporarily evacuated “out of an abundance of caution” due to an unspecified “threat.”
Iran’s vast oil reserves and geostrategic position in controlling the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow stretch of water through which much of the world’s trade flows, mean the conflict will have serious implications for the global economy.
Oil and natural gas prices soared on Monday, with futures contracts for global benchmark Brent crude rising nearly 9% to trade around $79 a barrel, and U.S. benchmark WTI rising 8% to $73 a barrel.
Dutch natural gas prices, Europe’s benchmark, rose about 48% in afternoon trading on Monday after Qatar’s state energy company halted production of liquefied natural gas (LNG) following Iran’s attack on its Ras Laffan facility.
Brigadier General Ebrahim Jabari, advisor to the commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, warned on Monday that Iranian forces would target ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz. The Strait of Hormuz is the strait through which one-fifth of the world’s LNG trade and daily oil production passes.
“The strait is closed and whoever tries to cross, the heroes of the Navy and Army of the Revolutionary Guards will set fire to those ships. Do not come to this area,” he said in comments carried by the Islamic Republic of Iran’s state television.
Even before the adviser’s comments, traffic on the waterway had been effectively halted due to safety concerns and an attack on an oil tanker in the area over the weekend.
Energy facilities also remain a major target for retaliation, as evidenced by the attack on Ras Laffan and Saudi Arabia’s intercept on Monday morning of two drones at one of the country’s largest oil refineries, Ras Tanura, which has a capacity of 550,000 barrels per day.
The United States on Monday called on citizens to “depart now” from countries across the Middle East “due to serious security risks.” The State Department urged Americans to use “available commercial transportation,” but with wide corridors of air over the Middle East closed and air travel restricted, it may be difficult for Americans to follow this recommendation.
Much of the region’s airspace has been closed and airlines have been forced to cancel flights through several cities, leaving thousands of travelers stranded.
Major airports such as Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha have established themselves as important connecting nodes for global aviation routes, with millions of passengers passing through them each year.
Several major airlines based in the region, including Emirates and Etihad Airways in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, and Qatar Airways in Doha, have suspended flights to and from their bases until at least Monday afternoon local time.
