Dubai: Iran hit the US Embassy in Saudi Arabia’s capital with a drone strike early Tuesday as it kept striking targets around the region, while the United States and Israel pounded Iran with airstrikes in what US President Donald Trump suggested was just the start of a relentless campaign that could last more than a month.
The attack from two drones on the US Embassy in Riyadh caused a limited fire and minor damage, according to Saudi Arabia’s Defence Ministry, which did not release further details. It follows an attack the day before on the US Embassy in Kuwait.
The expansion of Iranian retaliation across the Gulf and the intensity of the Israeli and American attacks, the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the lack of any apparent exit plan portend a possible prolonged conflict with far-reaching consequences.
Many countries deemed safe havens in the Mideast have been hit by Iran in retaliation for the US and Israeli strikes, with recent targets including two Amazon data centres in the United Arab Emirates and a drone impact near another in Bahrain that caused damage, the company said Tuesday.
Iran has also hit energy facilities in Qatar and Saudi Arabia, and attacked several ships in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all oil traded passes, sending global oil and natural gas prices soaring.
The US State Department urged US citizens to leave more than a dozen Middle Eastern countries due to safety risks, as have many other countries, though with much of the airspace closed, many remain stranded.
Trump said operations are likely to last four to five weeks, but that he was prepared to go far longer than that.
The hardest hits are yet to come from the U.S. military, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters before briefing members of Congress about the Iran operation.
Hundreds dead in Iran and dozens in Lebanon, along with 11 in Israel
The Iranian Red Crescent Society said the U.S.-Israeli operation has killed at least 555 people. In Israel, where several locations were hit by Iranian missiles, 11 people were killed. Israel’s retaliatory strikes against Hezbollah killed dozens of people in Lebanon.
Military escalation would force more families from their homes and hit civilians hard, said Amy Pope, director general of the International Organisation on Migration, as she called Tuesday for the international community to press for de-escalation.
Millions are already displaced in the region, she said.
The U.S. military has confirmed six deaths of American service members. All six were Army soldiers and part of the same logistics unit in Kuwait, according to a U.S. official who was not authorised 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 shared a photo showing graves he said were for more than 160 girls killed during a US-Israeli strike on a school in Minab. Their bodies were torn to shreds, Abbas Araghchi, the country’s foreign minister, said on X.
In Israel, three young siblings killed by an Iranian strike were being laid to rest at the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem on Monday night.
The chaos of the conflict became apparent when the US military said Kuwait had mistakenly shot down three American fighter jets while Iran was attacking it with aircraft, ballistic missiles and drones. US Central Command said all six pilots ejected safely.
Israel and US target nuclear facilities and missile infrastructure
Iranian state TV said strikes caused two explosions early Tuesday at a broadcasting facility in Tehran, but said no one was injured.
Reza Najafi, Iran’s ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, told reporters that airstrikes targeted the Natanz nuclear enrichment site Sunday.
Their justification that Iran wants to develop nuclear weapons is simply a big lie, he said.
Israel and the US have not acknowledged strikes at the site, which the U.S. bombed in the 12-day war between Iran and Israel in June. Israel has said it is targeting the leadership and nuclear infrastructure.
Trump said the military campaign’s objectives are to destroy Iran’s missile capabilities, wipe out its navy, prevent it from obtaining a nuclear weapon and ensure that it cannot continue to support allied groups like Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which fired missiles at Israel Monday.
Iran has said it has not enriched uranium since June, though it has maintained its right to do so and says its nuclear program is peaceful.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu maintained, however, that Iran was rebuilding new sites, new places underground for making atomic bombs in an interview broadcast late Monday on Fox News Channel’s Hannity.
We had to take the action now and we did, said Netanyahu, who offered no evidence to support his claim.
Satellite photos analysed by The Associated Press showed limited activity at two nuclear sites in Iran before the war. Analysts said Tehran was likely assessing damage from the 2025 US strikes and possibly salvaging what remained.
Attacks on Iran have drawn in proxy forces from around the region
The conflict has also spread to Lebanon, where the Iranian-supported militant group Hezbollah fired missiles at Israel Monday, though there were no reports of injuries or damage.
Israel retaliated with strikes on Lebanon. The country’s Health Ministry reported at least 52 people were killed and 154 wounded in overnight strikes in the Beirut suburbs and southern Lebanon.
An Israeli military spokesman, Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said Israel is keeping all options on the table, including a potential ground invasion of Lebanon.
Israel hit Beirut with more airstrikes early Tuesday morning, saying it was targeting Hezbollah command centres and weapons storage facilities.
Hezbollah also said it launched drones targeting an Israeli air base. The Israeli military said it downed two drones.
An Iranian-linked militant in Iraq has also claimed strikes on US military facilities.
