\n\t\t\t\t\t\tIran and allied armed groups fired missiles at Israel, Arab states and U.S. military targets around the region on Monday, while Israel and the United States pounded Iran as the war expanded to several fronts. Kuwait mistakenly shot down three American warplanes over its skies.The intensity of the attacks on both sides, the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and the lack of any apparent exit plan indicated the conflict would not end any time soon. It was already have far-reaching consequences across the region and beyond: Previously safe havens in the Mideast like Dubai have seen incoming fire; hundreds of thousands of airline passengers are stranded around the globe; oil prices shot up; and U.S. allies pledged to help stop Iranian missiles and drones.If attacked, Iran has long threatened to drag the region into total war, including targeting Israel the Gulf Arab states and the flow of crude oil crucial for global energy markets. All these things came under attack on Monday.QatarEnergy, in fact, said it would stop its production of liquefied natural gas because of the conflict, taking one of the world\u2019s top suppliers off the market. It offered no timeline for restoring its production.The chaos of the conflict became apparent when the U.S. military said Kuwait had \u201cmistakenly shot down\u201d three American F-15E Strike Eagles during a combat mission while attacks from Iranian aircraft, ballistic missiles, and drones were underway. U.S. Central Command said all six pilots ejected safely and are in stable condition.At least 555 people have been killed in Iran so far by the U.S.-Israeli campaign, the Iranian Red Crescent Society said, and more than 130 cities across the country having come under attack. Eleven people have been killed in Israel and 31 in Lebanon, according to authorities there.Lebanon’s government said Hezbollah\u2019s overnight attack against Israel were \u201cillegal\u201d and demanded the group handle over its weapons. Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said only the state can decide whether to go to war or peace, and called on the Lebanese military to prevent the firing of projectiles and detain anyone involved.In Kuwait, fire and smoke rose from inside the U.S. Embassy compound.On Monday afternoon, multiple airstrikes hit Tehran, Iran\u2019s capital, while top Iranian security official Ali Larijani vowed on X that \u201cwe will not negotiate with the United States.\u201dIn Iraq, a pro-Iranian militia claimed responsibility for a drone attack targeting U.S. troops at the Baghdad airport, the day after it said it fired at a U.S. base in the city of Irbil in the north, and Cyprus said a drone attack targeted a British base on the Mediterranean island nation.Israel and the U.S. bombed Iranian missile sites and targeted its navy, claiming to have destroyed its headquarters and multiple warships. Video above: President Donald Trump makes new comments on strikes in Iran and American casualtiesIran expands attacks to regional oil infrastructureWorld markets were rattled by the fighting and oil prices soared. Saudi Arabia\u2019s Ras Tanura oil refinery came under a drone attack on Monday, with defenses downing the incoming aircraft, a military spokesman told the state-run Saudi Press Agency.Online videos from the site appeared to show thick black smoke rising after the attack. Even successfully intercepted drones cause debris that can spark fires and injure those on the ground.Ras Tanura, near the city of Dammam in eastern Saudi Arabia, is one of the world’s largest with a capacity over half a million barrels of crude oil a day. It was temporarily shut down as a precaution after the attack, Saudi state television reported.Oman said a bomb-carrying drone boat exploded against Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman on Monday, off the coast of the sultanate’s capital of Muskat, killing one mariner. The state-run Oman News Agency said the dead crew member was from India.Earlier in the day, debris fell on Kuwait’s Ahmadi oil refinery, injuring two workers, after drones were shot down, the state-run KUNA news agency reported.Iran\u2019s decision to expands its attacks to major regional oil infrastructure adds a new element to the war gripping the Middle East, directly targeting the lifeblood of the area’s economy.\u201cThe attack on Saudi Arabia\u2019s Ras Tanura refinery marks a significant escalation, with Gulf energy infrastructure now squarely in Iran\u2019s sights,\u201d said Torbjorn Soltvedt, an analyst at the risk intelligence company Verisk Maplecroft.\u201cAn extended period of uncertainty lies ahead as Iran seeks to impose a heavy economic cost by putting tankers, regional energy infrastructure, trade routes and U.S. security partners in the crosshairs,\u201d he added.Iran has also threatened ships in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all oil traded passes. Several ships have been attacked as well there.Sascha Bruchmann, a defense analyst with the International Institute for Strategic Studies in Bahrain, told The Associated Press that Iran’s goal in hitting energy infrastructure is to \u201ccause global backlash.\u201d So far, however, \u201cthis is not the wholesome destruction of critical infrastructure the Iranian regime seeks,\u201d Bruchmann said.Iran\u2019s Ambassador to the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, Reza Najafi, told reporters that the U.S.-Israeli airstrikes had targeted Iran’s Natanz nuclear enrichment site on Sunday.\u201cAgain they attacked Iran\u2019s peaceful safeguarded nuclear facilities yesterday,\u201d he said. \u201cTheir justification that Iran wants to develop nuclear weapons is simply a big lie.\u201dIsrael and the U.S. have not acknowledged strikes at the site, which the U.S. bombed back in the 12-day war between Iran and Israel in June. The Israeli military also did not immediately comment on Najafi’s allegation.Israel has not publicized specific targets in Iran but has said that it is targeting \u201cleadership and nuclear infrastructure.\u201dVideo above: Breaking down the strikes on Iran and retaliatory strikesHezbollah fires on Israel, prompting massive responseAs the attacks on Iran continued, Hezbollah said it fired missiles from Lebanon into Israel early Monday in response to the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and \u201crepeated Israeli aggressions.\u201d There were no reports of injuries or damage, and Israel said that it had intercepted one projectile while several fell in open areas.Israel retaliated with strikes on Lebanon, killing at least 31 people and wounding 149 others, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry. About two thirds of the dead were in the country’s south.Lebanon\u2019s government said it was holding an emergency meeting after Hezbollah\u2019s attack on Israel triggered the Israeli airstrikes.Iran has been firing missiles at Israel and Arab states in a counteroffensive since the joint American-Israeli attack Saturday that killed Khamenei and many top Iranian officials.Casualties rise as attacks spread across the regionGulf Arab states have warned that they could retaliate against Iran after strikes that hit key sites and killed at least five civilians, and President Donald Trump promised Washington would \u201cavenge\u201d the deaths of four American troops who were killed in Kuwait, while predicting more casualties.\u201cSadly, there will likely be more before it ends,\u201d Trump said. \u201cThat\u2019s the way it is.\u201dTrump has urged Iranians to \u201ctake over\u201d their government and, while he has also signaled he would be open to dialogue with new leadership there following the death of Khamenei, suggested Sunday there was no end in sight to the military operations.\u201cCombat operations continue at this time in full-force, and they will continue until all of our objectives are achieved,\u201d he said in a video message. \u201cWe have very strong objectives,\u201d he added, without elaborating. The U.S. military said B-2 stealth bombers struck Iran\u2019s ballistic missile facilities with 2,000-pound bombs. Trump said on social media that nine Iranian warships had been sunk and that the Iranian navy\u2019s headquarters had been \u201clargely destroyed.\u201dOthers have mostly stayed out of the war and pressed for diplomacy. But in an indication that the conflict could draw in other nations, Britain, France and Germany said Sunday they were ready to work with the U.S. to help stop Iran\u2019s attacks.Early Monday, Cyprus said an uncrewed drone \u201ccaused limited damage\u201d when it hit a British air base on the southern coast. Further details were not immediately available, but it came after British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the U.K. would help the U.S. in the war against Iran.The weekend attacks were the second time in eight months that the U.S. and Israel had combined against Iran, in a startling show of military might for an American president elected on an \u201cAmerica First\u201d platform and pledged to keep out of \u201cforever wars.\u201dIn the 12-day war last June, Israeli and American strikes greatly weakened Iran\u2019s air defenses, military leadership and nuclear program. But the killing of Khamenei, who ruled Iran for more than three decades, creates a leadership vacuum, increasing the risk of regional instability.Iranian proxies join the frayHezbollah\u2019s launch of missiles at Israel was the first time in more than a year that the militant group has claimed an attack.Iran\u2019s proxies were a chief concern for American and Israeli officials before they suspended negotiations with Iran last week and moved ahead with strikes on Iran.Israel said the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group had \u201cjoined the campaign\u201d alongside Iran as it retaliated with strikes on Beirut, Lebanon’s capital.Associated Press journalists in Beirut were jolted awake by a series of loud explosions that shook buildings and caused windows to shatter. Warplanes could be heard flying low overhead.\u201cThe strikes continue,\u201d said Maj. Gen. Rafi Milo, head of Israel\u2019s Northern Command. \u201cTheir intensity will increase.\u201dThe Iraqi Shiite militia Saraya Awliya al-Dam claimed a drone attack Monday targeting U.S. troops at the airport in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, further widening the retaliation over the killing of Khamenei. It had claimed a drone attack on Sunday against a U.S. air base in Irbil, in Iraq\u2019s north.The group is one of a number of Shiite militias operating in Iraq. The U.S. and Iraq did not immediately comment on the claims.In the Persian Gulf, Iran\u2019s retaliatory strikes pushed the conflict into cities that have long marketed themselves as regional safe havens. Three people were reported killed in the United Arab Emirates and one each in Kuwait and Bahrain.In the United Arab Emirates, authorities said most Iranian missiles and drones were intercepted. But some either got through or fell as debris, causing the deaths and significant damage. Bahrain and Kuwait said Iranian strikes in both countries hit civilian targets outside the U.S. bases where Iran had pledged to retaliate.Video above: Why did the U.S. and Israel strike Iran now?WHO calls for protection of civiliansTehran\u2019s streets have been largely deserted with people sheltering during airstrikes. The paramilitary Basij force, which has played a central role in crushing recent protests, set up checkpoints across the city, according to witnesses.In the northern Iranian city of Babol, a student, speaking anonymously over concerns of retribution, told the AP that armed riot police were on the streets Saturday night and into the early hours of Sunday after the death of Khamenei.\u201cWe don\u2019t know whether to be happy about the elimination of the criminals who oppress us or to remain silent in the face of the U.S. and Israel\u2019s war against the country and its interests and the terror that is taking place,\u201d he said.In Israel, rescue services have confirmed several locations have been hit by Iranian missiles, including Jerusalem and a synagogue in Beit Shemesh, where nine people were killed and 28 wounded, bringing the overall death toll in the country to 11.The World Health Organization called Monday for sparing civilians and healthcare facilities in the Middle East amid the escalating conflict.\u201cThe protection of civilians and health care must be absolute,\u201d Hanan Balkhy, regional dietitian at WHO, wrote on social media. \u201cAll parties must \u2026 ensure medical facilities remain protected.\u201d___Rising reported from Bangkok and Magdy from Cairo. Associated Press writers Bassem Mroue and Sally Abou AlJoud in Beirut contributed to this report.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tDUBAI, United Arab Emirates \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Iran and allied armed groups fired missiles at Israel, Arab states and U.S. military targets around the region on Monday, while Israel and the United States pounded Iran as the war expanded to several fronts. Kuwait mistakenly shot down three American warplanes over its skies.<\/p>\n
The intensity of the attacks on both sides, the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and the lack of any apparent exit plan indicated the conflict would not end any time soon. It was already have far-reaching consequences across the region and beyond: Previously safe havens in the Mideast like Dubai have seen incoming fire; hundreds of thousands of airline passengers are stranded around the globe; oil prices shot up; and U.S. allies pledged to help stop Iranian missiles and drones.<\/p>\n
If attacked, Iran has long threatened to drag the region into total war, including targeting Israel the Gulf Arab states and the flow of crude oil crucial for global energy markets. All these things came under attack on Monday.<\/p>\n
QatarEnergy, in fact, said it would stop its production of liquefied natural gas because of the conflict, taking one of the world\u2019s top suppliers off the market. It offered no timeline for restoring its production.<\/p>\n
The chaos of the conflict became apparent when the U.S. military said Kuwait had \u201cmistakenly shot down\u201d three American F-15E Strike Eagles during a combat mission while attacks from Iranian aircraft, ballistic missiles, and drones were underway. U.S. Central Command said all six pilots ejected safely and are in stable condition.<\/p>\n
At least 555 people have been killed in Iran so far by the U.S.-Israeli campaign, the Iranian Red Crescent Society said, and more than 130 cities across the country having come under attack. Eleven people have been killed in Israel and 31 in Lebanon, according to authorities there.<\/p>\n
Lebanon’s government said Hezbollah\u2019s overnight attack against Israel were \u201cillegal\u201d and demanded the group handle over its weapons. Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said only the state can decide whether to go to war or peace, and called on the Lebanese military to prevent the firing of projectiles and detain anyone involved.<\/p>\n
In Kuwait, fire and smoke rose from inside the U.S. Embassy compound.<\/p>\n
On Monday afternoon, multiple airstrikes hit Tehran, Iran\u2019s capital, while top Iranian security official Ali Larijani vowed on X that \u201cwe will not negotiate with the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Iraq, a pro-Iranian militia claimed responsibility for a drone attack targeting U.S. troops at the Baghdad airport, the day after it said it fired at a U.S. base in the city of Irbil in the north, and Cyprus said a drone attack targeted a British base on the Mediterranean island nation.<\/p>\n
Israel and the U.S. bombed Iranian missile sites and targeted its navy, claiming to have destroyed its headquarters and multiple warships. <\/p>\n
Video above: President Donald Trump makes new comments on strikes in Iran and American casualties<\/p>\n
Iran expands attacks to regional oil infrastructure<\/p>\n
World markets were rattled by the fighting and oil prices soared. Saudi Arabia\u2019s Ras Tanura oil refinery came under a drone attack on Monday, with defenses downing the incoming aircraft, a military spokesman told the state-run Saudi Press Agency.<\/p>\n
Online videos from the site appeared to show thick black smoke rising after the attack. Even successfully intercepted drones cause debris that can spark fires and injure those on the ground.<\/p>\n
Ras Tanura, near the city of Dammam in eastern Saudi Arabia, is one of the world’s largest with a capacity over half a million barrels of crude oil a day. It was temporarily shut down as a precaution after the attack, Saudi state television reported.<\/p>\n
Oman said a bomb-carrying drone boat exploded against Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman on Monday, off the coast of the sultanate’s capital of Muskat, killing one mariner. The state-run Oman News Agency said the dead crew member was from India.<\/p>\n
Earlier in the day, debris fell on Kuwait’s Ahmadi oil refinery, injuring two workers, after drones were shot down, the state-run KUNA news agency reported.<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s decision to expands its attacks to major regional oil infrastructure adds a new element to the war gripping the Middle East, directly targeting the lifeblood of the area’s economy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe attack on Saudi Arabia\u2019s Ras Tanura refinery marks a significant escalation, with Gulf energy infrastructure now squarely in Iran\u2019s sights,\u201d said Torbjorn Soltvedt, an analyst at the risk intelligence company Verisk Maplecroft.<\/p>\n
\u201cAn extended period of uncertainty lies ahead as Iran seeks to impose a heavy economic cost by putting tankers, regional energy infrastructure, trade routes and U.S. security partners in the crosshairs,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Iran has also threatened ships in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all oil traded passes. Several ships have been attacked as well there.<\/p>\n
Sascha Bruchmann, a defense analyst with the International Institute for Strategic Studies in Bahrain, told The Associated Press that Iran’s goal in hitting energy infrastructure is to \u201ccause global backlash.\u201d So far, however, \u201cthis is not the wholesome destruction of critical infrastructure the Iranian regime seeks,\u201d Bruchmann said.<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s Ambassador to the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, Reza Najafi, told reporters that the U.S.-Israeli airstrikes had targeted Iran’s Natanz nuclear enrichment site on Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cAgain they attacked Iran\u2019s peaceful safeguarded nuclear facilities yesterday,\u201d he said. \u201cTheir justification that Iran wants to develop nuclear weapons is simply a big lie.\u201d<\/p>\n
Israel and the U.S. have not acknowledged strikes at the site, which the U.S. bombed back in the 12-day war between Iran and Israel in June. The Israeli military also did not immediately comment on Najafi’s allegation.<\/p>\n
Israel has not publicized specific targets in Iran but has said that it is targeting \u201cleadership and nuclear infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n
Video above: Breaking down the strikes on Iran and retaliatory strikes<\/p>\n
Hezbollah fires on Israel, prompting massive response<\/p>\n
As the attacks on Iran continued, Hezbollah said it fired missiles from Lebanon into Israel early Monday in response to the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and \u201crepeated Israeli aggressions.\u201d There were no reports of injuries or damage, and Israel said that it had intercepted one projectile while several fell in open areas.<\/p>\n
Israel retaliated with strikes on Lebanon, killing at least 31 people and wounding 149 others, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry. About two thirds of the dead were in the country’s south.<\/p>\n
Lebanon\u2019s government said it was holding an emergency meeting after Hezbollah\u2019s attack on Israel triggered the Israeli airstrikes.<\/p>\n
Iran has been firing missiles at Israel and Arab states in a counteroffensive since the joint American-Israeli attack Saturday that killed Khamenei and many top Iranian officials.<\/p>\n
Casualties rise as attacks spread across the region<\/p>\n
Gulf Arab states have warned that they could retaliate against Iran after strikes that hit key sites and killed at least five civilians, and President Donald Trump promised Washington would \u201cavenge\u201d the deaths of four American troops who were killed in Kuwait, while predicting more casualties.<\/p>\n
\u201cSadly, there will likely be more before it ends,\u201d Trump said. \u201cThat\u2019s the way it is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump has urged Iranians to \u201ctake over\u201d their government and, while he has also signaled he would be open to dialogue with new leadership there following the death of Khamenei, suggested Sunday there was no end in sight to the military operations.<\/p>\n
\u201cCombat operations continue at this time in full-force, and they will continue until all of our objectives are achieved,\u201d he said in a video message. \u201cWe have very strong objectives,\u201d he added, without elaborating.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The U.S. military said B-2 stealth bombers struck Iran\u2019s ballistic missile facilities with 2,000-pound bombs. Trump said on social media that nine Iranian warships had been sunk and that the Iranian navy\u2019s headquarters had been \u201clargely destroyed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Others have mostly stayed out of the war and pressed for diplomacy. But in an indication that the conflict could draw in other nations, Britain, France and Germany said Sunday they were ready to work with the U.S. to help stop Iran\u2019s attacks.<\/p>\n
Early Monday, Cyprus said an uncrewed drone \u201ccaused limited damage\u201d when it hit a British air base on the southern coast. Further details were not immediately available, but it came after British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the U.K. would help the U.S. in the war against Iran.<\/p>\n
The weekend attacks were the second time in eight months that the U.S. and Israel had combined against Iran, in a startling show of military might for an American president elected on an \u201cAmerica First\u201d platform and pledged to keep out<\/a> of \u201cforever wars.\u201d<\/p>\n