War widens as Israeli, US planes pound Iran

Dubai/Washington/Tehran: Iran and allied armed groups fired missiles at Israel, Arab states and US 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 already has far-reaching consequences across the region and beyond: Previously safe havens in the Middle East like Dubai have seen incoming fire; hundreds of thousands of airline passengers are stranded around the globe; oil prices shot up; and US 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 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’s top suppliers off the market. It offered no timeline for restoring its production.

The chaos of the conflict became apparent when the US military said Kuwait had “mistakenly shot down” three American F-15E Strike Eagles during a combat mission while attacks from Iranian aircraft, ballistic missiles, and drones were underway.

At least 555 people have been killed in Iran so far by the US-Israeli campaign, the Iranian Red Crescent Society said, and more than 130 cities across the country have come under attack. Eleven people have been killed in Israel and 31 in Lebanon, according to authorities.

Lebanon's government said Hezbollah’s overnight attack against Israel were “illegal” 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 US Embassy compound.

On Monday afternoon, multiple airstrikes hit Tehran, Iran’s capital, while top Iranian security official Ali Larijani vowed on X that “we will not negotiate with the United States.”

In Iraq, a pro-Iranian militia claimed responsibility for a drone attack targeting US troops at the Baghdad airport, the day after it said it fired at a US 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 US bombed Iranian missile sites and targeted its navy, claiming to have destroyed its headquarters and multiple warships.

Iraqi Shiites hold pictures of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed by a US airstrike in Tehran, during a symbolic funeral, in Najaf, Iraq, on Sunday.

Saudi Arabia’s 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.