US-Israel war on Iran dramatically expands across Middle East
By Flamenco Atlee | Reuters4 min read
The war in the Middle East triggered by the joint US and Israeli attack on Iran expanded dramatically on Monday, with casualties and destruction reported across at least nine countries, including major strikes on Tehran.
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 an intense wave of attacks into Lebanon after Hezbollah struck at northern Israel in retaliation for the Israeli strike on Saturday that killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
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 an intense wave of attacks into Lebanon after Hezbollah struck at northern Israel in retaliation for the Israeli strike on Saturday that killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Iranian attacks
Iranian attacks were reported on oil infrastructure and other targets across a 1,200-mile 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 had 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.
The US president, Donald Trump, repeated his calls for 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.
In the first public remarks by an administration official since the war began on Saturday, the US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, said the US goals were to destroy Iran’s navy, its ballistic missiles production, and its potential to produce a nuclear weapon. He repeatedly said 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 10 Iranian warships had been sunk and that the Iranian navy’s headquarters had been “largely destroyed”.
Within Iran, where residents have jammed highways to flee cities as bombs fell, there was 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, and 52 in Lebanon, according to authorities.
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.
The US military said Kuwait’s air defences had 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.
The US president, Donald Trump, repeated his calls for 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.
In the first public remarks by an administration official since the war began on Saturday, the US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, said the US goals were to destroy Iran’s navy, its ballistic missiles production, and its potential to produce a nuclear weapon. He repeatedly said 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 10 Iranian warships had been sunk and that the Iranian navy’s headquarters had been “largely destroyed”.
Within Iran, where residents have jammed highways to flee cities as bombs fell, there was 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, and 52 in Lebanon, according to authorities.
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.
