Middle East on edge as U.S. and Zionist forces hit Iran, prompting Iranian retaliation across region
The U.S. and Zionist forces pounded targets in Iran for the third consecutive day as the war expanded on Monday, while Iran fired missiles at the Zionist entity and Gulf Arab states.
This comes as the Iranian Red Crescent Society announced that at least 555 people have been killed in Iran so far by the U.S.-“Israeli” strikes, and more than 130 cities across the country having come under attack.
The U.S. military said B-2 stealth bombers struck Iran’s ballistic missile facilities with 2,000-pound bombs. U.S. President Donald Trump said on social media that nine Iranian warships had been sunk and that the Iranian navy’s headquarters had been “largely destroyed.”
In parallel, a senior White House official told the Reuters news agency that while Trump would at some point talk with new potential leadership in Iran, the military campaign would go on.
“President Trump said new potential leadership in Iran has indicated they want to talk and eventually he will talk. For now, Operation Epic Fury continues unabated,” the official said.
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian, on the other hand, said a leadership council composed of himself, the judiciary head and a member of the powerful Guardian Council had temporarily assumed the duties of Supreme Leader.
In an X post on Monday, Ali Larijani, who was adviser to Iran’s Ali Khamenei, said his country would not negotiate with Trump. He said the U.S. president had “delusional ambitions” and was now worried about U.S. casualties.
Middle East on Fire
In Kuwait City, as fire and smoke rose from inside the U.S. Embassy compound, the country’s defense ministry said “several” American warplanes had also crashed in the country. The ministry did not elaborate on what caused the crashes or how many aircraft were involved, but said the pilots were taken to a hospital and were in stable condition.
The embassy compound was hit not long after U.S. issued a warning to Americans there to take cover and for others to stay away. There were no immediate reports on damage or casualties.
Qatar has intercepted Iranian attacks that targeted civilian infrastructure, including the international airport, the Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson told CNN on Monday, adding that such attacks could not remain unanswered.
In Iraq, a drone attack targeted U.S. troops at the Baghdad airport, a day after a U.S. base in the city of Irbil in the north was attacked.
Another drone strike hit a British air base in Cyprus overnight, causing limited damage and no casualties, Cypriot and British officials said on Monday, in a marked escalation that involves an EU member state.
In Lebanon, at least 31 people were killed and 149 others injured on Monday morning by Zionist strikes targeting the country’s south and Beirut’s southern suburbs, the Lebanese Health Ministry said, after Hezbollah said it fired missiles from Lebanon into the Zionist entity in response to the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and “repeated Israeli aggressions.”
In a major escalation affecting regional oil infrastructure, Saudi Arabia’s Ras Tanura oil refinery came under attack from drones, with defenses downing the incoming aircraft, a military spokesman made the announcement on 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.
In it noteworthy that Ras Tanura, near Dammam, has a capacity over half a million barrels of crude oil a day.
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.
Already, Iran has been threatening 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.
