War widens to include Tehran-backed militias as Israeli and US planes pound Iran

Mon, 02 Mar, 2026 - 12:05

Jon Gambrell, David Rising and Samy Magdy, Associated Press

Iran and Iranian-backed militias fired missiles at Israel and Arab states, apparently hitting the US embassy compound in Kuwait, while Israel and the United States pounded targets in Iran as the war expanded on Monday with statements of defiance and increasing casualties.

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 under way.

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 there.

Lebanon’s government said Hezbollah’s overnight attacks 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 maintain 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.

It was not exactly clear where in Kuwait the US aircraft were shot down but the US Central Command said all six pilots ejected safely and are in stable condition.

Israeli tanks are manoeuvring near the Israel-Lebanon border (AP)

“Kuwait has acknowledged this incident, and we are grateful for the efforts of the Kuwaiti defence forces and their support in this ongoing operation,” it said.

Iranian state television claimed Iran had targeted US aircraft, without elaborating.

Before the embassy compound was hit, the US issued a warning to Americans in Kuwait to take cover and for others to stay away.

On Monday, multiple airstrikes hit Tehran, Iran’s capital, while top Iranian security official Ali Larijani said 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 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.

The UK’s RAF Akrotiri base was hit by a suspected drone strike near Limassol, Cyprus (AP)

Israel and the US bombed Iranian missile sites and targeted its navy, claiming to have destroyed its headquarters and multiple warships.

World markets were rattled by the fighting and oil prices soared.

Saudi Arabia’s Ras Tanura oil refinery came under a drone attack on Monday, with defences 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.

Message from President Donald J. Trump pic.twitter.com/Xhk3ibylSQ
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) March 1, 2026

Ras Tanura, near the city of Dammam in eastern Saudi Arabia, is one of the world’s largest with a capacity more than 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.

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.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed by a US air strike in Tehran (AP)

Iran’s decision to expand its attacks to major regional oil infrastructure adds a new element to the war gripping the Middle East, directly targeting the lifeblood of the area’s economy.

Iran has also threatened 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.

Iran’s ambassador to the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, Reza Najafi, told reporters that the US-Israeli airstrikes had targeted Iran’s Natanz nuclear enrichment site on Sunday.

“Again they attacked Iran’s peaceful safeguarded nuclear facilities yesterday,” he said. “Their justification that Iran wants to develop nuclear weapons is simply a big lie.”

Israel and the US have not acknowledged strikes at the site, which the US bombed in the 12-day war between Iran and Israel in June. The Israeli military also did not immediately comment on Najafi’s allegation.

pic.twitter.com/AeAfBbVaAq
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) March 1, 2026

Israel has not publicised specific targets in Iran but has said that it is targeting “leadership and nuclear infrastructure.”

As the attacks on Iran continued, Hezbollah said it fired missiles from Lebanon into Israel early on Monday in response to the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and “repeated Israeli aggressions”.

There were no reports of injuries or damage, and Israel said that it had intercepted one projectile while several fell in open areas.

Israel retaliated with strikes on Lebanon, killing at least 31 people and wounding 149 others, according to Lebanon’s health ministry. About two thirds of the dead were in the country’s south.

Lebanon’s government said it was holding an emergency meeting after Hezbollah’s attack on Israel triggered the Israeli airstrikes.

U.S. forces are taking bold action to eliminate imminent threats posed by the Iranian regime. Strikes continue. pic.twitter.com/z1x07D7APl
— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) March 2, 2026

Iran has been firing missiles at Israel and Arab states in a counteroffensive since the joint American-Israeli attack on Saturday that killed Khamenei and many top Iranian officials.

Gulf Arab states have warned that they could retaliate against Iran after strikes that hit key sites and killed at least five civilians, and US President Donald Trump promised Washington would “avenge” the deaths of three American troops who were killed in Kuwait, while predicting more casualties.

“Sadly, there will likely be more before it ends,” Mr Trump said. “That’s the way it is.”

Mr Trump has urged Iranians to “take over” their government and, while he has also signalled he would be open to dialogue with new leadership there after the death of Khamenei, suggested on Sunday there was no end in sight to the military operations.

“Combat operations continue at this time in full force, and they will continue until all of our objectives are achieved,” he said in a video message. “We have very strong objectives,” he added.

.@WHO is concerned by the grave risks to people's health from the conflict that is expanding across the Middle East.
The threat of nuclear facilities being impacted is especially worrying. All must be done to reduce any nuclear safety risk, which may affect people in the… pic.twitter.com/97pyFNDQLJ
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) February 28, 2026

The US military said B-2 stealth bombers struck Iran’s ballistic missile facilities with 2,000lb bombs. Mr Trump said on social media that nine Iranian warships had been sunk and that the Iranian navy’s headquarters had been “largely destroyed”.

Others have mostly stayed out of the war and pressed for diplomacy.

But in an indication that the conflict could draw in other nations, Britain, France and Germany said on Sunday they were ready to work with the US to help stop Iran’s attacks.

Early on Monday, Cyprus said an uncrewed drone “caused limited damage” when it hit a British air base on the southern coast.

The weekend attacks were the second time in eight months that the US and Israel had combined against Iran, in a startling show of military might for an American president elected on an “America First” platform who pledged to keep out of “forever wars”.

A missile launched from Iran struck a road in Jerusalem on Sunday (AP)

In the 12-day war last June, Israeli and American strikes greatly weakened Iran’s air defences, military leadership and nuclear programme.

But the killing of Khamenei, who ruled Iran for more than three decades, creates a leadership vacuum, increasing the risk of regional instability.

Hezbollah’s launch of missiles at Israel was the first time in more than a year that the militant group has claimed an attack. Israel said Hezbollah had “joined the campaign” alongside Iran as it retaliated with strikes on Beirut, Lebanon’s capital.

Associated Press journalists in Beirut were jolted awake on Monday by a series of loud explosions that shook buildings and caused windows to shatter. Warplanes could be heard flying low overhead.

“The strikes continue,” said Maj Gen Rafi Milo, head of Israel’s Northern Command. “Their intensity will increase.”

The Iraqi Shiite militia Saraya Awliya al-Dam claimed a drone attack Monday targeting US troops at the airport in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, further widening the retaliation over the killing of Khamenei.

A plume of smoke rises after a strike in Tehran (Vahid Salemi/AP)

It had claimed a drone attack on Sunday against a US air base in Irbil, in Iraq’s north.

The group is one of a number of Shiite militias operating in Iraq. The US and Iraq did not immediately comment on the claims.

In the Persian Gulf, Iran’s retaliatory strikes pushed the conflict into cities that have long marketed themselves as regional safe havens. Three people were reported killed in the United Arab Emirates and one each in Kuwait and Bahrain.

In the United Arab Emirates, authorities said most Iranian missiles and drones were intercepted. But some either got through or fell as debris, causing the deaths and significant damage.

Bahrain and Kuwait said Iranian strikes in both countries hit civilian targets outside the US bases where Iran had pledged to retaliate.

Tehran’s streets have been largely deserted with people sheltering during airstrikes. The paramilitary Basij force, which has played a central role in crushing recent protests, set up checkpoints across the city, according to witnesses.

In the northern Iranian city of Babol, a student, speaking anonymously over concerns of retribution, told the AP that armed riot police were on the streets Saturday night and into the early hours of Sunday after the death of Khamenei.

“We don’t know whether to be happy about the elimination of the criminals who oppress us or to remain silent in the face of the US and Israel’s war against the country and its interests and the terror that is taking place,” he said.

In Israel, rescue services have confirmed several locations have been hit by Iranian missiles, including Jerusalem and a synagogue in Beit Shemesh, where nine people were killed and 28 wounded, bringing the overall death toll in the country to 11.

The World Health Organisation called on Monday for the sparing of civilians and healthcare facilities in the Middle East amid the escalating conflict.