World news
The intensity of the attacks, the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and the lack of any clear exit plan set the stage for a protracted conflict with far-reaching consequences.
Iraqi Shiites carry pictures of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in a US airstrike in Tehran, during a symbolic funeral, in Najaf, Iraq, Sunday, March 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Anmar Khalil) AP
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Israel and the United States have bombed Iran in an escalating campaign that US President Donald Trump said Monday was likely to take several weeks. Tehran and its allies responded across the region, striking Israel and a variety of targets within the Gulf states, including energy facilities in Qatar and the US embassy in Saudi Arabia.
The intensity of the attacks, the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and the lack of any clear exit plan set the stage for a protracted conflict with far-reaching consequences. Places considered safe havens in the Middle East like Dubai have seen fires coming; Hundreds of thousands of airline passengers were stranded around the world. Energy prices rose; US allies pledged to help stop Iranian missiles and drones.
With no sign of the conflict abating, Trump said operations would likely last four to five weeks but he was prepared to “go much longer than that.”
In a sign of concern about the potential for escalating violence, the US State Department on Monday urged American citizens to leave more than a dozen countries in the Middle East due to safety risks.
“The strongest blows have yet to come from the US military,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters. He added, “The next stage will be more punitive on Iran than it is now.”
Trump said the goals of the military campaign are to destroy Iran’s missile capabilities, eliminate its naval forces, prevent it from obtaining a nuclear weapon, and ensure that it cannot continue to support allied groups such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which fired missiles at Israel on Monday.
The chaos of the conflict became clear when the US military said Kuwait “accidentally shot down” three US F-15E Strike Eagles while Iran was attacking with aircraft, ballistic missiles and drones. US Central Command said the six pilots exited safely.
While several air strikes hit the Iranian capital, Tehran, senior security official Ali Larijani vowed on the 10th: “We will not negotiate with the United States.”
Global markets were shaken as the fighting expanded in a region vital to energy supplies.
Early Tuesday, Saudi Arabia said the US Embassy in Riyadh was attacked by two drones, causing a “limited fire” and minor damage. A resident of the embassy neighborhood, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the security situation, described light smoke rising from the embassy. On Monday, the US Embassy compound in Kuwait was bombed.
A military spokesman told the state-run Saudi Press Agency that the Ras Tanura oil refinery in Saudi Arabia was also attacked by drones, but its defenses shot down the incoming plane. The refinery’s capacity is more than half a million barrels of crude oil per day.
“The attack on the Ras Tanura refinery in Saudi Arabia represents a major escalation, as the Gulf’s energy infrastructure is now directly in Iran’s sights,” said Torbjörn Soltvedt, an analyst at risk intelligence firm Verisk Maplecroft.
After two of its facilities were bombed, Qatar Energy said it would stop producing liquefied natural gas indefinitely, knocking one of the world’s largest suppliers out of the market. European natural gas prices rose by 40% in response.
Several ships were attacked in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all oil trade passes and where Iran has threatened attacks.
Reza Najafi, Iran’s ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, told reporters that the air strikes targeted the nuclear enrichment site in Natanz on Sunday.
“Their justification that Iran wants to develop nuclear weapons is just a big lie,” he said.
Neither Israel nor the United States have acknowledged launching strikes on the site, which the United States bombed in the 12-day war between Iran and Israel in June. Israel said it was targeting “nuclear leadership and infrastructure.”
Iran has said it has not enriched uranium since June, although it has reserved the right to do so while saying its nuclear program is peaceful.
The Iranian Red Crescent Society said that the US-Israeli operation resulted in the deaths of at least 555 people. In Israel, where several sites were hit by Iranian missiles, 11 people were killed. Israeli retaliatory strikes against Hezbollah led to the deaths of dozens of people in Lebanon.
The US military announced that two previously unidentified US service members have been confirmed dead, bringing the total to six. All six were Army soldiers and part of the same logistics unit in Kuwait, according to a US official who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Three people were reported killed in the United Arab Emirates, and one each in Kuwait and Bahrain.
Iran’s top diplomat on Monday released an aerial photo showing rows of graves that he said were those of more than 160 girls killed during a US-Israeli raid on a primary school in Minab. “Their bodies were torn into pieces,” Abbas Araghchi, the country’s foreign minister, told Channel X.
In Israel, three young brothers killed in an Iranian raid were buried on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem on Monday evening.
Hezbollah said it fired rockets at Israel early Monday in response to Khamenei’s killing and “repeated Israeli attacks.” This is the first time in more than a year that the armed group has claimed responsibility for an attack.
There were no reports of injuries or damage.
Israel responded with strikes on Lebanon. The country’s health ministry reported that at least 52 people were killed and 154 others wounded in overnight raids on the outskirts of Beirut and southern Lebanon.
The Israeli military spokesman, Brig. General Yves Devrin said Israel keeps “all options on the table,” including a possible ground invasion of Lebanon.
The Israeli military said it had completed a wave of strikes targeting branches of the Qard al-Hassan Society, a charity that operates outside the Lebanese financial system and which Israel says is used to finance Hezbollah’s military wing.
The channel said that Israel also bombed a building housing Al-Manar TV studios in the southern suburb of Beirut after an evacuation warning. No immediate details were available about the victims.
The US military, which used B-2 stealth bombers to hit Iran’s ballistic missile facilities with 2,000-pound bombs, said Monday it had destroyed 11 Iranian warships. Trump said Iran’s naval headquarters was “largely destroyed.”
While Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, said the conflict would continue “as long as it takes,” Defense Minister Pete Hegseth told reporters on Monday that the United States was not engaged in nation-building efforts, saying: “This is not Iraq. This is not endless.”
Trump sought to define the administration’s goals more clearly on Monday after an earlier statement — while the attack was unfolding on Saturday — in which he listed various grievances dating back to Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution and urged Iranians to “take over” their government.
There have been no signs so far of any such uprising.
Trump also indicated his openness to dialogue with the new Iranian leadership, which could be chosen soon.
The streets of Tehran were largely deserted as people took shelter during air strikes. Witnesses said the Basij paramilitary force, which played a key role in crushing recent nationwide protests, set up checkpoints across the city.
In the northern Iranian city of Babol, a student, speaking anonymously due to fears of retaliation, told the Associated Press that armed riot police were in the streets Saturday night and into the early hours of Sunday after Khamenei’s death.
He said: “We do not know whether to rejoice in the elimination of the criminals who oppress us, or to remain silent in the face of the war that the United States and Israel are waging against the country and its interests and the terrorism that is taking place.”
___
Liedman reported from Tel Aviv, Israel, and Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Basem Marwa and Sally Abouljoud in Beirut, Susan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, Farnoush Amiri in New York, Giovanna Dell’Orto in Miami, and Konstantin Torobin, Lisa Mascaro, Mary Clare Jalonick and Matt Lee in Washington contributed to this report.