Israel stepped up airstrikes against Iranian missile launchers and factories on Tuesday, and Iran retaliated across the Gulf region, disrupting energy supplies and travel.
The war, triggered by Israeli and US attacks that killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, has intensified with both sides trading air strikes, fuelling concerns over regional stability and global oil markets.
Trump says 'everything's been knocked out' in Iran: The US President on Tuesday boasted of wide damage on Iran inflicted by the US-Israel attack, while denying that Israel had forced his hand into launching the war. Trump also said that it would be preferable for a leader from within Iran to take power after the end of the US-Israel conflict with Tehran, rather than Reza Pahlavi.
Israel stirkes Iran Council Session selecting new Supreme Leader:
Israel has carried out a strike targeting a meeting of Iran’s top leadership body as officials gathered to select a new Supreme Leader. The strike hit while members of the Supreme Council of Iran were in session and “counting the votes for the appointment of the supreme leader.”
Israel launches ground invasion of Lebanon: Israeli troops advanced into a border area in southern Lebanon after Israel's Defence Minister ordered forces to “take control of additional strategic positions in Lebanon”. Military spokesperson Effie Defrin said the aim was to create a buffer zone “between our residents and any threat.”
Iran targets Gulf cities, energy sites: Explosions were reported in several Gulf cities as Iran struck industrial and diplomatic targets across the region. Tehran also targeted US bases in Bahrain and Qatar, prompting evacuation efforts by several governments. Saudi Arabia’s defence ministry said two drones struck the US embassy in Riyadh, causing a fire and minor damage. The embassy said it was suspending consular services in the kingdom.
Iran shuts Strait of Hormuz: The IRGC said it was closing the Strait of Hormuz and warned it would “burn” any vessel attempting to pass through the waterway, which carries about 20% of global oil and gas supplies.
US strikes IRGC assets: The US military said it destroyed IRGC command posts as well as Iranian air defence and missile launch sites.
Death toll rises in Iran: Iranian state media, citing the Iranian Red Crescent, said the death toll from Israeli and US attacks had risen to more than 787. Tehran said the dealth toll from an Israeli strike on a girls’ school in Minab has risen to 165. The UN human rights chief called for a “prompt, impartial and thorough investigation” into the attack.
The Iranian government has formally complained to UNESCO about the impact of US and Israeli bombing on some of the country’s heritage sites, including the Golestan Palace and Tehran’s famed Grand Bazaar.
Dating back to the 16th century, the Golestan Palace was also the former court and residence of the Qajar dynasty.
1/4#Iran has formally notified UNESCO Director-General of serious damage to the UNESCO-listed Golestan Palace and parts of Tehran’s Grand Bazaar following unlawful military attacks by the United States and the Israeli regime. pic.twitter.com/I6cmPqtGZD
— Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran (@Iran_GOV) March 3, 2026
Israeli Transportation Minister Miri Regev has said that Ben-Gurion Airport will reopen on Thursday for limited incoming flights aimed at bringing home citizens stuck abroad.
An air strike hit a military base in southern Iraq housing the Iran-backed Kataeb Hezbollah group on Tuesday, a source from the armed faction said.
The Jurf al-Nasr base, which serves as one of the main bastions of the powerful Tehran-backed group, has been struck several times since the start of the war in the Middle East.
Social media platform X announced Tuesday it would suspend creators from its revenue sharing program for 90 days if they post AI-generated videos of armed conflicts without disclosing they were artificially made, the company said.
"During times of war, it is critical that people have access to authentic information on the ground," X's head of product Nikita Bier said, adding that current AI technologies make it "trivial to create content that can mislead people."
X said Monday it would "continue to refine" its policies and product to ensure the platform "can be trusted during these critical moments."
Israel's military chief on Tuesday said his forces would keep attacking Hezbollah until the Iran-backed Lebanese group was disarmed, as the war in the Middle East raged for a fourth day.
"We are determined to eliminate the threat Hezbollah poses and will not stop until this organisation is disarmed," Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir was quoted as saying in a military statement.
The latest round of fighting between Hezbollah and Israel started early Monday when Hezbollah launched rockets towards Israel in retaliation for the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei in US-Israeli attacks on Saturday.
The State Department said Tuesday it is “actively securing” military and charter aircraft to fly Americans stranded in the Middle East to safety following the onset of U.S-Israel military operations against Iran that has disrupted commercial air travel.
“The State Department is actively securing military aircraft and charter flights for American citizens who wish to leave the Middle East,” said Dylan Johnson, the assistant secretary of state for public affairs.
In a post on X, Johnson said the department has been in contact with nearly 3,000 Americans seeking to leave to region or seeking information about how to leave.
In Israel specifically, a second official said nearly 500 Americans had been in touch with department about leaving and that it had assisted more than 130 in departing so far. Another 100 Americans are expected to leave Israel on Tuesday, the official said.
Russian top diplomat Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday urged ally Iran to ensure safety of civilians across the Middle East during a call with Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi, Moscow's Foreign Ministry said.
During the phone call with Araghchi, Lavrov stressed the need to "ensure the safety of the civilian population and civil infrastructure in all countries of the region", according to the Russian readout.
The minister also "confirmed a fundamental position in favour of de-escalating the situation and rejecting the use of force".
The president revived his complaints about the U.K.’s deal to hand sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, despite his administration previously supporting the move. The remote Indian Ocean archipelago is home to a strategically important American naval and bomber base.
“The U.K. has been very, very uncooperative with that stupid island that they have,” he said.
He also criticized the British for their windmills and immigration policies and said they need to open up drilling in the North Sea.
US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that two waves of US-Israeli attacks on Iran had killed figures he had eyed as potential new leaders.
"Most of the people we had in mind are dead," Trump said as he met German Chancellor Friedrich Merz at the White House.
"Now we have another group. They may be dead also, based on reports"
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz voiced support Tuesday for the US-Israeli war on Iran but hoped it would end soon, saying it was hurting the global economy.
"This is, of course, damaging our economies. This is true for the oil prices, and this is true for the gas prices as well. So that's the reason why we all hope that this war will come to an end as soon as possible," Merz told reporters as he met US President Donald Trump at the White House.
International Monetary Fund has warned that the economic impact of the ongoing war will largely depend on its duration and the extent of damage to infrastructure and key industries in the region.
A major concern is whether any spike in energy prices proves temporary or becomes more prolonged, potentially adding pressure to the global economy, the IMF said.
Speaking at the Milken Institute Future of Finance conference in Washington, IMF First Deputy Managing Director Dan Katz said the conflict “certainly has the potential to be very impactful on the global economy across a range of metrics, whether it’s inflation, growth and so on.”
The Fund said it will closely monitor the scale of physical damage to infrastructure, as well as the effects on tourism, air travel and energy production facilities, as it assesses the broader economic fallout.
Trump on Tuesday said that it would be preferable for a leader from within Iran to take power after the end of the US-Israel conflict with Tehran, rather than Reza Pahlavi.
Speaking at the White House during a meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Trump described Pahlavi as “a very nice person” but suggested that an internal figure may be better suited to lead the country in a post-war scenario.
Trump also warned of a potential downside to military action against Iran, saying the worst outcome would be the emergence of another hardline leader similar to the late Ali Khamenei.
“The worst case would be that we do this and then somebody takes over who’s as bad as the previous person,” Trump said. “That could happen. We don’t want that to happen.”
Reporter: Reza Pahlavi, is he an option at all in your mind?
— Acyn (@Acyn) March 3, 2026
Trump: It would seem to me that somebody from within maybe would be more appropriate. I've said that he looks like a very nice person, but it would seem to me that somebody that's there, that's currently popular if… pic.twitter.com/vRYgQXuDU7
US President Donald Trump on Tuesday threatened to cut off trade with Spain, whose left-wing government refused to let US planes use its bases to attack Iran and objected to raising defense funding as part of NATO.
"Spain has been terrible," Trump told reporters as he met German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
"We're going to cut off all trade with Spain. We don't want anything to do with Spain."
The US President said that oil and gas prices were going to rise as the US remains engaged in the ongoing Middle East conflict, yet argued that prices would drop once the war ends.
“We have a little high oil prices for a little while, but as soon as this ends, those prices are going to drop, i believe, lower than even before,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
The average price for a gallon of gasoline jumped 11 cents overnight Tuesday to about $3.11 in the United States, according to the American Automobile Association.
The Ministry of Civil Aviation on Tuesday night announced that 58 flights will be deployed by Indian carriers to bring back the stranded passengers from West Asia.
It also specified that 1,609 flights have been cancelled by Indian as well as foreign carriers due to the ongoing crisis in the region.
Donald Trump said that his predecessor, former President Joe Biden, “gave away a lot,” but said “we have plenty.”
He added that the U.S. had an “unlimited” supply of “middle and upper ammunition, which is really what we’re using in this war.”
“We are, on the same page in terms of getting this terrible regime in Tehran away,” Merz said
during a visit at the White House on Tuesday.
The German chancellor said he also wants to talk with Trump about “our trade agreement, which I would like to be in place as soon as possible,” and the Ukraine war.
“There are too many bad guys in this world, actually,” Merz added.
Trump on Tuesday said that America’s decision to launch strikes against Iran was not forced by Israel’s actions.
Trump told reporters that while negotiations with Tehran had been underway, he believed Iran was poised to attack first and that US action was necessary to pre-empt that threat.
He said, “No, I wasn’t forced by anyone, I might have forced their hand,” and framed the decision as his judgment to prevent an Iranian strike rather than a response to Israeli pressure.
Trump also derided Iranian negotiators as “lunatics” and stressed that, in his view, decisive force was the only viable option.
Reporter: Did Israel force your hand to launch these strikes against Iran?
— Acyn (@Acyn) March 3, 2026
Trump: No. I might have forced their hand. We were having negotiations with these lunatics. It was my opinion that they were going to attack first. pic.twitter.com/hBCHotUZvx
Donald Trump has claimed that US forces have “knocked out” significant elements of Iran’s military infrastructure amid escalating tensions.
Speaking to reporters in the White House on Tuesday, Trump said Iran’s navy and air force had been effectively destroyed. “They have no navy. It’s been knocked out. They have no air force. It’s been knocked out,” he said.
He further asserted that Tehran’s air detection systems and radar capabilities had also been eliminated, adding that “just about everything has been knocked out.”
The Oval Office sitdown Tuesday between the U.S. president and the German chancellor has started. The meeting has been on the books since before Trump’s decision to strike Iran, but the growing conflict in the Middle East is now expected to be the main topic of discussion.
Majed al-Ansari, the spokesperson of Qatar’s Foreign Ministry, has stressed in a social media post that the country “has not been part of the campaign” against Iran.
“We are exercising our right in self defense and deterring Iranian attacks against our country. We urge media outlets to use credible Qataris sources when reporting on Qatar,” he said.
Qatar has not been part of the campaign targeting Iran. We are exercising our right in self defense and deterring Iranian attacks against our country.
— د. ماجد محمد الأنصاري Dr. Majed Al Ansari (@majedalansari) March 3, 2026
We urge media outlets to use credible Qataris sources when reporting on Qatar.
The US military has carried out strikes against more than 1,700 targets in Iran, according to US Central Command. In a fact sheet, US Central Command said the strikes, which started on Saturday, had targeted Iranian Navy ships, submarines, and anti-ship missile sites along with command and control centres
Satellite images of Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility taken on Monday show several damaged buildings, compared with imagery from the previous day, along with additional damage across the facility’s complex.
Vantor, an imaging company based in Colorado formerly known as Maxar Technologies, released the images showing the damage that it said affected buildings that house the personnel and vehicle entrances to the underground fuel enrichment complex.
Earlier Tuesday, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog said that Iran’s Natanz nuclear enrichment site sustained “some recent damage” amid a U.S.-Israeli airstrike campaign.
It said “no radiological consequence expected,” from it.
The nuclear facility at Natanz is located nearly 220 kilometers (135 miles) southeast of Tehran, and is Iran’s main enrichment site. It had been targeted by airstrikes in the 12-day war between Iran and Israel in June.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Tuesday that Britain is sending a warship and helicopters to Cyprus after a drone hit a U.K. base on the eastern Mediterranean island.
Starmer said he told the president of Cyprus that the U.K. is deploying helicopters with counter-drone capabilities and the air-defense destroyer HMS Dragon to the region.
It comes after an Iran-made drone hit RAF Akrotiri base over the weekend, causing minor damage and no injuries.
Trump has lambasted the British prime minister over his reluctance to join the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.
The UK is fully committed to the security of Cyprus and British military personnel based there.
— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) March 3, 2026
We’re continuing our defensive operations and I've just spoken with the President of Cyprus to let him know that we are sending helicopters with counter drone capabilities and HMS… pic.twitter.com/0tsZb4dG2i
Donald Trump hosted German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Tuesday for the US president's first meeting with a foreign leader since joining Israel in strikes on Iran that have dragged the Middle East into war .
The long-scheduled White House meeting was supposed to focus on the war in Ukraine and rocky EU-US trade relations, part of a wider effort to salvage frayed transatlantic ties.
The US embassy in Beirut has announced that it will close “until further notice” due to ongoing regional tensions. “All other regular and emergency consular appointments have been cancelled. We will communicate when the Embassy returns to normal operations,” it added in a statement.
Update: Due to ongoing regional tensions, U.S. Embassy Beirut will be closed until further notice. All other regular and emergency consular appointments have been cancelled. We will communicate when the Embassy returns to normal operations.
— U.S. Embassy Beirut (@usembassybeirut) March 3, 2026
For U.S. Citizen Assistance, contact:… pic.twitter.com/0eS32fqnpn
Iraq reduced production at a major oil field on Tuesday after the Strait of Hormuz was effectively closed, according to an official document and oil ministry sources.
The document, which was confirmed by two ministry sources, indicated that the operation manager at Iraq's Rumaila oil field ordered a reduction of "production and pumping... by 100 percent from" the south part of the field starting early Tuesday afternoon.
According to an internal State Department memo, the strike on the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh caused part of its roof to collapse, although there were no reported deaths or injuries to staff.
In Kuwait City, there were also no deaths or injuries after the vicinity of the embassy was hit by two drone strikes that caused no damage to the facility, it said.
An Islamic Revolutionary Guard general warned Tuesday that continued US-Israeli attacks would see Iran conduct reprisals against "all economic centres" in the Middle East.
"We are saying to the enemy that if it decides to hit our main centres, we will hit all economic centres in the region," said Ebrahim Jabbari.
"We have closed the Strait of Hormuz. Currently, the price of oil is above $80 and will soon reach $200," he was quoted as saying by Iranian news agency ISNA, as Brent crude climbed above $85 for the first time since July 2024.
Israel struck a headquarters belonging to the Islamist group Jamaa Islamiya, an ally of Hamas and Hezbollah, in the southern Lebanese city of Sidon on Tuesday, state media reported.
"The Israeli enemy carried out an air raid a short while ago, targeting a headquarters of the Jamaa Islamiya" in the coastal city, state media said.
The group had previously been the target of Israeli strikes in Lebanon after claiming responsibility for rocket launches towards Israel during the war between Israel and Hezbollah that began in October 2023.
Ben Gurion Airport in Israel says Israeli airspace is set to gradually reopen overnight Wednesday into Thursday with only one passenger flight per hour in the first phase.
The airport will eventually open to two passenger flights per hour in a second phase, Ben Gurion Airport said in a statement, without giving a timeline.
Israel’s airspace closed on Saturday at the start of US-Israeli air strikes on Iran.
Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei's death is "historically significant" but will not "automatically" lead to the fall of the Iranian system, the widow of the country's last shah told AFP in an interview Tuesday.
"The passing of a man -- however central he may be to the architecture of power -- does not automatically mean the end of a system," said Farah Pahlavi, who has lived in exile in Paris since being driven out of Iran in the 1979 revolution.
"What will be decisive," she said, was "the ability of the Iranian people to unite around a peaceful, orderly and sovereign transition to a state governed by the rule of law", which she added her son Reza Pahlavi "is in the process of preparing".
An Israeli airstrike targeted the city of Sidon in southern Lebanon.
The Israeli army announced that it attacked a missile launch site in Lebanon that was used to fire a barrage of rockets toward the Golan Heights.
With elections approaching in Israel, the war with Iran has handed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu an opportunity to restore an image deeply scarred by Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack, experts say.
But any political dividend would depend on how the conflict unfolds and how long it lasts, they say.
A day after Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in a wave of US-Israeli strikes, Netanyahu said that his close ties with Washington had enabled Israel to "do what I have long aspired to do for 40 years: to strike the terrorist regime decisively".
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that Israel was continuing to pound Iran and vowed to hit Hezbollah with increasing force as the war in the Middle East raged for a fourth day.
"We continue to strike Iran with force. Our pilots are over the skies of Iran and Tehran, and also over the skies of Lebanon. Hezbollah made a very big mistake when it attacked us. We have already responded forcefully, and we will respond with even greater force," Netanyahu said at an air force base in central Israel, according to a statement from his office.
Alarm sirens in Bahrain have been activated, the country’s Interior Minister said in a statement.
“Citizens and residents are requested to proceed to the nearest safe place,” it added.
Israel's military said Tuesday its air force had struck industrial sites "throughout Iran" that were used to produce weapons including ballistic missiles, on the fourth day of a joint US-Israel attack on the Islamic republic.
"During strikes conducted throughout Iran, the IDF (military) targeted industrial sites used by the Iranian regime to produce weapons, particularly ballistic missiles," the military said in a statement.
Ukraine is ready to give its domestically produced interceptor drones to Middle East countries in return for American-made air defense missiles it desperately needs, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday.
Ukraine needs U.S. PAC-3 missiles to counter cruise and ballistic missile attacks by Russia’s invading forces in their more than four-year war. Kyiv has also developed cheap and efficient interceptors to combat Russia’s Iranian-designed Shahed drones.
Countries in the Middle East are using the same surface-to-air U.S. missiles to defend against Iranian attacks.
“If they give them (air defense missiles) to us, we will give them our interceptor. This is an equivalent exchange,” Zelenskyy said at a briefing.
Israel has carried out a strike targeting a meeting of Iran’s top leadership body as officials gathered to select a new Supreme Leader, according to a senior Israeli official who spoke to Fox News.
The official said the strike hit while members of the Supreme Council of Iran were in session and “counting the votes for the appointment of the supreme leader.”
There was no immediate confirmation or comment from Iranian authorities, and details about casualties or the extent of the damage were not immediately available.
The Israelis just struck the meeting of the Iranian Supreme Council where officials were gathering to choose a new Supreme Leader, a senior Israeli official told Fox News.
— Trey Yingst (@TreyYingst) March 3, 2026
"Israel struck while they were counting the votes for the appointment of the supreme leader."
Iraq may be compelled to slash its oil production by more than 3 million barrels per day within days if tanker traffic does not resume normal movement through the Strait of Hormuz, according to two Iraqi oil officials quoted by Reuters.
The officials said mounting export bottlenecks in the vital shipping lane have prevented crude cargoes from reaching Iraq’s southern loading terminals, driving storage capacity close to its limit.
As an immediate measure, Iraq has already curtailed output at key southern fields. Production at the Rumaila oil field has been reduced by 700,000 barrels per day, while the West Qurna 2 oil field has seen a cut of 460,000 barrels per day, the officials said.
If the disruption persists and tankers remain unable to pass freely through the Strait, further and significantly deeper production cuts are expected as storage facilities at southern export hubs approach critical levels.
Hezbollah says its fighters struck an Israeli Merkava tank in the occupied Kfarshouba hills, escalating clashes along the Lebanon-Israel border.
In a statement, the group said it targeted the tank at the Samaqa site using what it described as appropriate weapons and claimed a direct hit.
One of Iran's two airports, Mehrabad, which mainly handles domestic flights, was targeted on Tuesday by strikes as the United States and Israel kept up their bombardment of the Islamic republic for a fourth day.
The Mehr news agency published photos showing a cloud of grey smoke rising into the sky behind what appeared to be a runway. "The American-Zionist terrorists attacked the area around the Mehrabad airport" in the capital's west, it said.
Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva said Tuesday that Tehran currently sees no benefit in negotiating with the United States, dismissing the possibility of talks for the time being.
Ali Bahreini, Iran’s envoy to the UN in Geneva, told reporters that Iran has not reached out to Washington, either directly or through intermediaries, to discuss de-escalating tensions or reviving negotiations over its nuclear programme.
Speaking about the likelihood of future discussions, Bahreini expressed skepticism about their value under current circumstances. “For the time being, we are very doubtful about the usefulness of negotiation,” he said, adding that Iran believes the appropriate approach in dealing with the United States is one of defense rather than dialogue.
He further emphasized that, in Tehran’s view, now is not the right moment to pursue any form of negotiation.
South Korean officials say they evacuated 62 nationals from Israel to Egypt by bus, following the earlier evacuation of 23 Koreans from Iran.
The South Korean Foreign Ministry said Tuesday it also evacuated four Americans of Korean descent from Israel.
International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi said inspectors have found no evidence of a coordinated Iranian nuclear weapons program, despite claims by Israel and the United States.
However, he confirmed that Iran has enriched uranium to 60% purity, far beyond civilian needs, raising serious concerns.
Grossi said the stockpile could theoretically produce more than 10 nuclear warheads, but there is no proof Iran has built any.
As many as 37 Indian-flagged ships with over 1,000 seafarers are stuck in the Persian Gulf, the Gulf of Oman and the adjoining sea areas as the key shipping route through the Strait of Hormuz is closed due to the ongoing military actions involving the United States, Israel and Iran.
Loud explosions rocked the Iranian capital on Tuesday.
Soon afterwards, the Israeli military said it had hit a high-ranking Iranian commander in the capital. It later said the air force had launched a new "large scale" wave of strikes on the capital "targeting the Iranian terror regime's infrastructure in Tehran".
Iranian media said "US and Israeli fighters" struck central Tehran and that a building of the body to elect Iran's new supreme leader, south of Tehran, had been hit.
A sell-off for stocks is slamming Wall Street after careening from Europe and Asia, and oil prices are leaping even higher as rise that the war with Iran is widening and may do more sustained damage to the economy than feared.
The S&P 500 dropped 1.6% in early trading on Tuesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average sank 880 points, or 1.8%, and the Nasdaq composite lost 1.8%.
Crude oil prices jumped more than 8% as Iran struck the U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia, part of a widening of targets that’s also including areas critical to the world’s oil and natural gas production. Treasury yields rose.
China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his Israeli counterpart that Beijing was opposed to military strikes on Iran in a phone call on Tuesday, state media reported.
Beijing, a close partner of Tehran, has called for a ceasefire and condemned Khamenei's killing as a "serious violation".
Iran’s ambassador to the UN, said Iran will continue its campaign of defence against Israel and the US “until the point this aggression is stopped”.
“If any base in a neighbouring country is used to attack and invade other countries, that would be a legitimate target.”
The Israeli army has issued an evacuation threat to people in an industrial area in Tehran and an international airport in the city of Karaj, warning it will carry out attacks in the areas “in the coming hours”.
In a post on its Farsi-language X account, the Israeli army issued the threat for the Hakimiyeh industrial area in Tehran, and Payam airport in Karaj.
Marathi actor Vishakha Subhedar on Tuesday said her son was stranded in Kuwait for the last four days due to the Iran-US-Israel conflict, and appealed for help.
Responding to her social media post, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde said he will be brought back to India safely.
The Iran war could wipe out up to a quarter of international tourism to the Middle East this year, according to new projections.
The data released by Tourism Economics suggests international arrivals to the region could fall by between 11 and 27 percent in 2026 if the conflict continues. That marks a dramatic reversal from the firm’s December forecast, when it predicted a 13 percent rise in visitor numbers this year.
If the higher-end estimate materialises, the region could lose between 23 million and 38 million international visitors compared with earlier expectations. The financial impact would also be severe, with losses in visitor spending projected at between $34bn and $56bn.
Lebanon's Hezbollah said on Tuesday that it had downed an Israeli drone over the southern Lebanese town of Nabatieh, without specifying whether the target was a surveillance or attack drone. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
The U.S. president is hosting German Chancellor Friedrich Merz at the White House.
The topics of discussion is sure to include Iran, although Merz’s visit was confirmed by the German government before Trump made the decision to strike.
The two leaders will meet in the Oval Office in front of a pool of journalists, and then have lunch. It’s Merz’s third trip to Washington since he took office 10 months ago.
At least 40 people have been killed and 246 wounded in Israeli attacks on Lebanon on Monday and Tuesday, a spokesperson for Lebanon’s Health Ministry said.
The spokesperson said a death toll of 52 given by the ministry on Monday had been a technical error.
The Israeli air force launched a new wave of strikes in Tehran on Tuesday, the military said, marking the fourth day of its campaign against Iran.
"The military has launched a ninth wave of strikes in Tehran. The Air Force has now begun a large scale wave of strikes targeting the Iranian terror regime's infrastructure in Tehran," the military said in a statement.
New explosions were heard in the east and southeast of Tehran on Tuesday, according to AFP journalists who saw a plume of grey smoke rise in the sky on the fourth day of US-Israeli strikes. The Mehr and Tasnim agencies both reported explosions, without providing details.
Israeli and US strikes on Tuesday hit the Tehran building of a body tasked with electing Iran's new supreme leader, local media reported.
"The American-Zionist criminals attacked the Assembly of Experts building in Qom," south of Tehran, according to the Tasnim news agency.
Local media showed footage of the building severely damaged in the strikes. Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in US and Israeli strikes on Saturday.
US President Donald Trump said Tuesday that it was too late for talks with Iran even though Tehran wants them.
"Their air defense, Air Force, Navy, and Leadership is gone. They want to talk. I said 'Too Late!'" Trump wrote in a Truth Social post, two days after saying he had agreed to talks, amid the joint Israeli-US bombardment of Iran.
The US embassy in Riyadh on Tuesday warned of an imminent attack in the eastern Saudi city of Dhahran, home to much of the kingdom's energy installations along the Gulf coast.
"There is a threat of imminent missile and UAV attacks over Dhahran," the embassy wrote on its official X account.
Hezbollah announced it targeted a military facility in Israel in its fourth attack on Tuesday, as Israel continued to strike Lebanon including the capital Beirut.
The group said in a statement it had targeted the Maayan Baruch site in northern Israel with rockets, "in response to the criminal Israeli aggression that struck dozens of Lebanese cities and towns, including Beirut's southern suburbs".
The latest round of fighting between Hezbollah and Israel started early Monday when Hezbollah launched rockets towards Israel in retaliation for the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei in US-Israeli attacks on Saturday.
The Israeli military said it hit a high-ranking Iranian commander in Tehran on Tuesday, in the fourth day of the war which started with US and Israeli strikes. "A short while ago, the (Israeli military) struck a senior Iranian terror regime commander in Tehran," an army statement said, without providing further details.
Nearly 1,900 out of 5,450 flights scheduled to the Middle East were canceled on Tuesday, aviation analytics company Cirium said.
Iranian forces launched 186 ballistic missiles towards the United Arab Emirates, of which 172 were intercepted and 13 fell into the sea, Al Jazeera reported, citing the UAE’s Defence Ministry.
One missile landed on UAE territory, the ministry said.
In a separate statement, the ministry said it had monitored 812 drones launched from Iran, adding that 755 had been intercepted by its air-defence systems. It did not provide details on casualties or damage from the latest barrage.
Ministry spokesperson Abdel Nassir al-Hameedi said injuries that resulted from the Iranian attacks and what he called “minor damages” were the result of shrapnel from interception efforts, not a result of successful attacks against the country.
The war in the Middle East has so far been defined by two images: Iranian drones and missiles plunging to the ground and exploding, and interceptors streaking into the skies to stop them.
In the first two days of the conflict, Iran launched nearly 400 missiles and around 1,000 drones towards the UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and Jordan, said Mintel World, which specialises in open-source intelligence.
That figure does not include Iran's main target, Israel.
"It's really who has a deeper magazine," said Scott Benedict, a former marine and expert at the US-based Middle East Institute.
"It's like two archers launching arrows at each other and somebody is going to run out of arrows before the other person runs out of arrows."
Iran's Revolutionary Guards warned on Tuesday they would unleash more intense attacks on the United States and Israel as the war raged for the fourth day.
"The enemy must await continuous punitive attacks; the gates of hell will open more and more, moment by moment, upon the United States and Israel," the Guards spokesman Ali Mohammad Naini told state TV.
The UN human rights chief is calling for a “prompt, impartial and thorough investigation” into an alleged Israeli airstrike that hit a girls’ school in Iran's southern city of Minab, leaving 165 people dead.
Volker Türk is “deeply shocked” by the fallout of the hostilities on civilians and civilian infrastructure in the conflict that began with US and Israeli strikes on Iran, followed by counterattacks by Tehran and its allies.
Alluding to the reported strike on the girls school, rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said “the onus is on the forces that carried out the attack to investigate it.” She called for those forces to make the findings public and ensure accountability and redress for victims.
The rights office said it was making no assessment who might be responsible.
US Central Command spokesperson Capt. Tim Hawkins has said he was “aware of reports” that a girls’ school was struck and that officials were looking into them. An Israeli military spokesperson said Sunday he is not aware of any Israeli or American strikes in the area.
The US State Department said on Tuesday that it had ordered non-emergency staff to leave six Middle Eastern countries, as Iran retaliated against US-Israeli strikes.
The war in the Middle East began on Saturday when joint US-Israeli strikes killed Iran's supreme leader, causing Tehran to launch retaliatory salvos across the region.
The department said it had updated travel advisories for Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar and the UAE "to reflect the ordered departure of non-emergency US government personnel." The advisories for five of the countries cited an "ongoing threat of drone and missile attacks from Iran", while the notice for Iraq cited "security concerns."
The State Department earlier urged Americans to leave all of the Middle East from Egypt eastward due to safety concerns.
A Qatari official says Iranian attacks in the gas-rich country “will not go unanswered” as the Iran war expands in the Middle East.
Majed Al Ansari, a spokesman of the Qatari foreign ministry, said the Iranian attacks not only targeted military facilities but struck across all of Qatar’s territory. “Such attacks will not go unanswered,” he said in a briefing.
He said there were attempted attacks on the Hamad International airport, adding that more than 8,000 people have been stranded as the country’s airspace remains closed.
A senior Hezbollah official says that after more than a year of abiding by the ceasefire as Israel’s strikes continued on Lebanon, the group’s patience has ended, leaving it with no option “but to return to resistance” and fight an open war with Israel.
Mohamoud Komati said on Tuesday that Hezbollah exercised patience since a ceasefire ended the Israel-Hezbollah war in November 2024, hoping the government’s diplomatic efforts would yield positive results in ending Israeli strikes.
In the comments released by Hezbollah’s media office, Komati blasted the Lebanese government for calling Hezbollah’s actions illegal and demanded it hand over its weapons, saying it did not act to stop Israel’s airstrikes that continued on almost daily basis for nearly 15 months.
“The Zionist enemy wanted an open war, which it has not stopped since the ceasefire agreement,” Komati said. “So let it be an open war.”
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has responded sharply after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended American strikes on the Islamic Republic.
"Mr Rubio admitted what we all knew: US has entered a war of choice on behalf of Israel. There was never any so-called Iranian 'threat'. Shedding of both American and Iranian blood is thus on Israel Firsters. American people deserve better and should take back their country," Araghchi wrote on X.
Earlier, Rubio said the US had been aware of Israel’s plans to attack Iran and described the threat from Tehran as “imminent”. He said Washington believed Tehran would retaliate against the US if it came under attack, including in the event of an Israeli strike.
The Israeli military on Tuesday said it was creating a buffer zone in Lebanon, shortly after the defence minister ordered troops to seize more positions across the border.
"In practice, Northern Command has moved forward, taken control of the dominating terrain, and is creating a buffer, as we promised, between our residents and any threat," military spokesman Effie Defrin said in a televised statement.
Israeli forces advanced into a border area in Lebanese territory on Tuesday, a Lebanese army source told AFP, shortly after the Israeli defence minister instructed his troops to "take control of additional strategic positions in Lebanon."
"Israeli ground forces advanced from Kfar Kila and the Khiam plains," along the Lebanon-Israel border, the source said, requesting anonymity and expressing concern over "Israel's attempt to establish a broad security belt in south Lebanon."
Saudi Arabia condemned on Tuesday an overnight Iranian attack on the US embassy in Riyadh, as Tehran keeps up its retaliation campaign in the Gulf over US and Israeli strikes.
The Saudi foreign ministry in a statement expressed "its strongest condemnation and rejection of the heinous attack that targeted the US Embassy building in Riyadh", describing it as "cowardly and unjustified."
The UN nuclear watchdog said Tuesday that a key Iranian nuclear site suffered "recent damage", a day after Iran said the underground uranium enrichment plant was attacked.
"Based on the latest available satellite imagery, IAEA can now confirm some recent damage to entrance buildings of Iran's underground Natanz Fuel Enrichment Plant. No radiological consequence expected," the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in a post on X.
The UN agency said on Monday there was "no indication" any nuclear installations had been hit. Iran's ambassador to the IAEA said on Monday that Tehran had informed the agency that Natanz was attacked.
At least 30,000 people have been displaced in Lebanon amid Israeli strikes targeting pro-Iran group Hezbollah. Israeli defence minister on Tuesday said he has told the troops to launch a ground incursion to "take control of additional strategic positions in Lebanon."
"As of yesterday, the conservative estimates suggest that nearly 30,000 people were hosted and registered at collective shelters. Many more slept in their cars on the side of roads," Babar Baloch, spokesman for the UN refugee agency, told a press conference in Geneva.
UN human rights chief Volker Turk said Tuesday he was "deeply shocked" by how the war in the Middle East is affecting civilians, with fear, panic and anxiety palpable across the region.
Turk "is deeply shocked by the impacts of the widespread hostilities on civilians and civilian infrastructure since the conflict erupted on Saturday with Israel and the United States of America's attacks on Iran, Iran's response against states across the region, as well as Hezbollah's subsequent entry into the conflict," his spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told a press conference in Geneva.
Iran's army said on Tuesday its forces launched attacks on Israel and a US military base in Qatar, as the war raged for a fourth day.
"The destructive combat drones of the army's ground, air, and naval forces... targeted the military areas of the Zionist regime in the occupied territories and the bases of American forces in Al-Udeid, Qatar," said the army in a statement carried by Shargh daily.
The Israeli military on Tuesday said it had carried out air strikes on Iran's presidential office and the National Security Council building in Tehran.
"The Israeli Air Force... struck and dismantled facilities within the leadership compound of the Iranian terrorist regime in the heart of Tehran" overnight, the military said.
"During the strike on the compound, numerous munitions were dropped on the presidential office and the building of the Supreme National Security Council," it added.
Iran warned European countries on Tuesday against joining its conflict with Israel and the United States , after Germany, Britain and France said they could take "defensive action" to destroy Iran's missile-launching capabilities.
"It would be an act of war. Any such act against Iran would be regarded as complicity with the aggressors. It would be regarded as an act of war against Iran," foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said at a press briefing when asked about the statement.
A series of overhead explosions were heard from Jerusalem on Tuesday, AFP journalists reported, after the Israeli military said it had detected fresh missiles launched from Iran.
"The IDF has detected that a short time ago missiles were launched from Iran toward the territory of the State of Israel. Defence systems are operating to intercept the threat," the military said.
The Lebanese army has redeployed soldiers from several recently established border positions on Tuesday following the Israeli army's "escalation", a military source told AFP.
The troops "numbering in total eight to nine soldiers at each point, were redeployed to their bases because of the danger to their safety," the Lebanese military said.
The move comes after Israeli defence minister Israel Katz said Tuesday he had authorised his military to "take control of additional strategic positions in Lebanon."
The death toll from the ongoing US-Israeli strikes on Iran has crossed 787, state media reported on Tuesday, citing Iranian Red Crescent.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Tuesday shared pictures of what he described as mass graves being dug for over 160 children killed in Israel's attack on a girl's elementary school in Iran's Minab on Saturday.
"These are graves being dug for more than 160 innocent young girls who were killed in the US-Israeli bombing of a primary school. Their bodies were torn to shreds," he said in a post on X.
"This is how "rescue" promised by Mr. Trump looks in reality. From Gaza to Minab, innocents murdered in cold blood," the minister said.
These are graves being dug for more than 160 innocent young girls who were killed in the US-Israeli bombing of a primary school. Their bodies were torn to shreds.
— Seyed Abbas Araghchi (@araghchi) March 2, 2026
This is how "rescue" promised by Mr. Trump looks in reality.
From Gaza to Minab, innocents murdered in cold blood. pic.twitter.com/cRdJ3BELOn
Brent crude was up more than 4 percent to over $81 per barrel in afternoon trade in Asia on Tuesday on the back of the turmoil in the Middle East.
Around 0800 GMT, Brent was trading up 4.41 percent at $81.17 per barrel, while West Texas Intermediate was up 3.99 percent at $74.07 per barrel.
European stock markets slid further at the start of trading on Tuesday and the region's natural gas prices soared once more as the Iran war shook financial markets.
Frankfurt's DAX index of top German companies shed 2.0 percent, the Paris CAC 40 lost 1.8 percent and London's FTSE 100 retreated by 1.4 per cent in value.
The Dutch TTF natural gas contract, considered the European benchmark, shot up more than 33 per cent having rocketed almost 40 per cent on Monday after Qatar halted liquefied natural gas production following Iranian attacks on state processing facilities.
Debris from a drone interception caused a fire that was contained at an oil industry zone in the UAE's Fujairah Tuesday, authorities said, as Iran continued retaliatory strikes on US bases in the Gulf.
"Relevant authorities in the Emirate of Fujairah responded to a fire that broke out this morning in the Fujairah Oil Industry Zone (FOIZ), resulting from falling debris following the successful interception of a drone by air defence systems," the Fujairah Media Office said.
"No injuries were reported, the fire was brought under control, and normal operations in the area have resumed."
Israel's Defence Minister Israel Katz said Tuesday he told the military to take control of more positions in Lebanon after an attack from Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah.
"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and I have authorized the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to advance and take control of additional strategic positions in Lebanon in order to prevent attacks on Israeli border communities," Katz said in a statement.
Hezbollah joined Iran with an attack on Israel after Israel and the United States went to war against the Islamic republic.
China called on all sides involved in the Middle East war to maintain safety in the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping route for oil and gas.
"China urges all parties to immediately cease military operations, avoid further escalation of tensions, maintain the safety of shipping lanes in the Strait of Hormuz, and prevent a greater impact on the global economy," Beijing's foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told a news conference.
Lebanese militant group Hezbollah on Tuesday said it targeted three Israeli military bases in response to the strikes on the group's strongholds in Lebanon, including the south Beirut suburbs.
"In response to the criminal Israeli aggression on dozens of Lebanese cities and towns", Hezbollah fighters targeted with drones the Ramat David air base and the Meron base in northern Israel with drone strikes, the Iran-backed group said in multiple statements.
They added that they also targeted a base in the occupied Golan Heights with a rocket barrage.
A magnitude 4.3 earthquake has struck the Gerash region in Iran, the US Geological Survey said, reported Al Jazeera.
The quake was at a depth of 10km (6.21 miles), USGS said.
A fuel tank at Oman's Duqm commercial port has been hit in a drone attack on Tuesday, the state news agency reported.
"A security source reported that fuel tanks at the commercial port of Duqm were targeted by a number of drones, one of which hit a fuel tank. The resulting damage was contained without any human casualties," the Oman News Agency said in statement.
The US embassy in Kuwait has suspended operations until further notice, citing the "ongoing regional tensions."
"We will communicate when the embassy returns to normal operations, as well as information on how U.S. Citizens may request emergency passports for travel, if needed," the embassy said.
"The U.S. Embassy in Kuwait has instructed staff to continue to shelter-in-place. We recommend all Americans in Kuwait do the same until further notice," it added.
The Canadian embassy in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia announced that it is suspending all operations due to the "current security situation."
"Please note that all in-person appointments are canceled through Friday, March 6," the embassy said in a post on X.
Due to the current security situation, the Embassy of Canada in Riyadh is closed today. Please note that all in-person appointments are canceled through Friday, March 6. pic.twitter.com/IenFNXwDAk
— Canada in KSA (@CanEmbSA) March 3, 2026
The US State Department said Tuesday it has ordered non-emergency personnel to leave Bahrain, Jordan and Iraq, as Iran retaliates against US-Israeli strikes.
The department, in posts on X, said it had updated travel advisories for Bahrain and Jordan "to reflect the ordered departure of non-emergency US government personnel and family members of government personnel."
In a separate post, the department said its Iraq travel advisory was updated to reflect that it had on Monday "ordered non-emergency US government employees to leave Iraq due to security concerns." It did not mention their relatives.
The US Embassy in Riyadh has announced the cancellation of all its services across several missions in Saudi Arabia, after Iranian drone attacks were reported on Tuesday.
"All routine and emergency American Citizen Services appointments are cancelled. The shelter in place notification for Jeddah, Riyadh, and Dhahran remains in place and we recommend American citizens in the Kingdom also continue to shelter in place," the embassy said in a post on X.
"Avoid the Embassy until further notice due to an attack on the facility. We continue to limit non-essential travel to any military installations in the region," the embassy said.
President Donald Trump said the United States was "not where we want to be" in terms of its stockpiles of the highest end weapons, as American forces deploy large quantities of munitions against Iran.
"At the highest end, we have a good supply, but are not where we want to be," he wrote on Truth Social, adding the US has sufficient "medium and upper medium grade" weapons.
"Wars can be fought 'forever,' and very successfully, using just these supplies (which are better than other countries finest arms!)," he added, referring to the "medium and upper medium grade" weapons.
US military officials said Monday they destroyed command posts of Iran's Revolutionary Guards as well as Iranian air defense and missile launch sites, in the Middle Eastern war that broke out over the weekend.
"U.S. forces have destroyed Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps command and control facilities, Iranian air defense capabilities, missile and drone launch sites, and military airfields during sustained operations," US Central Command wrote in an X post.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards targeted a United States air base in Bahrain, the Islamic republic's elite force said in a statement carried on Tuesday by the official IRNA news agency.
"The IRGC announced that... its naval forces carried out a large-scale drone and missile attack at dawn on the US air base in the Sheikh Isa area of Bahrain," IRNA posted on Telegram, using the acronym for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The Israeli military issued new evacuation orders for dozens of locations in Lebanon on Tuesday, including a warning for residents in two southern Beirut neighbourhoods to stay away from several buildings ahead of imminent military action.
"Urgent warning to the residents of Lebanon, specifically in the villages which names are shown. For your safety you must evacuate your homes immediately," said a statement by the military's Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee on Telegram, which listed 50 locations.
Oil prices extended gains and equities fell Tuesday as investors kept tabs on the Middle East as the United States and Israel continued to bombard Iran, while Tehran launched further strikes on neighbours.
The attack on the Islamic state has upended regional energy flows, with the crucial Strait of Hormuz -- through which about a fifth of global oil transits -- effectively closed off, fuelled fears of a fresh energy crisis that could ramp up inflation.
Market moves have been comparatively mild in light of the conflict amid hopes that the crisis will be short-lived and not cause a major problem for the global economy.
Saudi Arabia's defence ministry said Tuesday that it had intercepted more than half a dozen drones near capital Riyadh and the city of Al-Kharj.
"Eight drones were intercepted and destroyed near the cities of Riyadh and Al-Kharj," said defence ministry spokesman Major General Turki al-Malki on X.
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview Monday that the Middle East conflict triggered by US and Israeli strikes on Iran won't be "an endless war" but could "take some time."
He told Fox News the campaign would be "a quick and decisive action," later adding: "It may take some time, but it's not going to take years."
President Donald Trump suggested Monday that the United States would retaliate "soon" after its embassy in the Saudi capital Riyadh was struck by two suspected Iranian drones.
Speaking to the NewsNation network, Trump said "you'll find out soon" how the United States would respond, without providing further detail, after the US embassy confirmed a drone attack that caused "a limited fire and minor material damage."
After the attack, the embassy issued a shelter in place notification for US citizens in Jeddah, Riyadh and Dhahran.
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that Iran had been building new nuclear weapon sites that would have been impossible to attack within months, creating urgency for strikes on the country.
"They started building new sites, new places, underground bunkers, that would make their ballistic missile programs and their atomic bomb programs immune within months," Netanyahu told Fox News.
"If no action was taken now, no action could be taken in the future."
The US Embassy in Riyadh has urged American citizens to “shelter in place immediately,” according to its post on X. The US Mission to Saudi Arabia said the advisory applies to Riyadh, Jeddah and Dhahran, and that non-essential travel to military sites is restricted.
A Saudi defense spokesperson confirmed two drones caused a fire at the compound. Fox News reported the embassy was empty at the time, with no injuries.
Update | Security Alert: Shelter in Place - U.S. Mission to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, (Mar.3, 2026)
— U.S. Embassy Riyadh (@USAinKSA) March 3, 2026
The U.S. Mission to Saudi Arabia has issued a shelter in place notification for Jeddah, Riyadh and Dhahran and are limiting non-essential travel to any military installations…
Two drones attacked the US Embassy in Riyadh early Tuesday, causing a small fire and minor damage, according to Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Defense.
The incident comes as regional tensions intensify, with Iran continuing retaliatory strikes across the Gulf following recent US and Israeli military actions. No major structural damage or casualties were immediately reported.
A classified briefing at the Capitol left lawmakers with little clarity about the purpose, cost and next steps in the U.S. operation against Iran.
Republican Speaker Mike Johnson described the U.S. attack as a “defensive operation” because he said Israel was determined to act on their own against Iran, “with or without American support.”
Johnson said Trump had a “very difficult decision” to make, and determined that Iran would immediately retaliate against U.S. personnel and assets.
But Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, said “there was no imminent threat to the United States of America by the Iranians. There was a threat to Israel.”
Rubio, Hegseth and others briefed the lawmakers, but Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said he found their answers “completely and totally insufficient.”
The Trump administration will likely seek supplemental funds from Congress to pay for the operation, they said.
The ongoing conflict in West Asia, triggered by Israel and United States attacks on Iran, killing its Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, intensified on Tuesday as Tehran continued retaliatory strikes on US bases in the Gulf region and Israel launched a ground incursion into Lebanon. Key developments:
Israel launches ground incursion into Lebanon: Lebanese army on Tuesday said Israeli troops have advanced into a border area in southern Lebanon shortly after Israel's Defence Minister instructed his troops to "take control of additional strategic positions in Lebanon."
Strait of Hormuz closed, Iran vows attacks on ships: The IRGC has announced that it is closing the Strait of Hormuz and vowed to attack any ship that attempts to pass through.
Iran continues strikes on US bases: Iran's Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) said it targeted a United States air base in Bahrain, according to the IRNA news agency. Israel and US bases in Qatar were also targeted.
US embassy attacked: Saudi defence ministry said the US embassy in Riyadh was hit by two drones, sparking a fire and causing minor damage. The US embassy has announced that it is suspending all consular services in Saudi, in the wake of the attack.
US says it destroyed IRGC assets in Iran: of The US military said it has destroyed command posts of Iran's Revolutionary Guards as well as Iranian air defense and missile launch sites.
Death toll rises: The death toll in Israeli and US attacks on Iran has rised to over 787, reported state media, citing Iranian Red Crescent. Iran's foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said over 160 students were killed in Israel's attack on an elementary girl's school in Minab on Saturday. Ten Israelis and six US military personnel have been killed so far in retaliatory strikes by Iran.
Trump says war likely to go on for weeks: US President Donald Trump said Monday that military operations against Iran are likely to last four to five weeks but warned that he was prepared "to go far longer than that."
