Fresh explosions rock the Middle East as US Embassy hit by drone strike | World | News

The United States and Israel have hit Iran with airstrikes that US President Donald Trump has suggested are just the beginning of a relentless campaign that could last more than a month, as Iran continues to strike targets in the region, striking the US Embassy in the Saudi Arabian capital with a drone early Tuesday.

An attack by two drones on the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh caused a “limited fire” and minor damage, according to the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Defense, and the embassy urged Americans to stay away from the compound. This follows the attack on the US Embassy in Kuwait, and the US State Department on Tuesday ordered the evacuation of non-emergency personnel and families in Bahrain and Jordan as a precautionary measure.

Explosions echoed throughout Iran’s capital throughout the night until the early hours of the morning, and eyewitnesses described hearing the sound of planes overhead. It is not yet known what caused the shooting.

Meanwhile, in Lebanon, Israel launched new attacks against the Iran-backed militia group Hezbollah.

The spread of Iranian retaliation across the Gulf and the severity of Israeli and American attacks, the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and the apparent lack of any exit strategy point to a potentially protracted conflict with far-reaching consequences. The company confirmed Tuesday that several countries previously considered safe havens in the Middle East have been hit by Iran in response to U.S. and Israeli attacks; Recent targets include a drone strike near two Amazon data centers in the United Arab Emirates and another in Bahrain that also caused damage.

Iran has also targeted energy facilities in Qatar and Saudi Arabia and attacked many ships in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow entrance to the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of oil trade passes, causing global oil and natural gas prices to rise.

The U.S. State Department, like many other countries, has urged American citizens to leave more than a dozen Middle Eastern countries due to security concerns; But with much of the airspace closed, many remain stuck.

Trump said the operations would likely last four to five weeks but said he was prepared to “continue much longer than that.”

“The hardest blow has not yet come from the US military,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters before briefing members of Congress on the Iran operation.

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Hundreds of people died in Iran, dozens in Lebanon, and 11 in Israel.

The Iranian Red Crescent reported that at least 555 people lost their lives in the US-Israeli operation. 11 people lost their lives in Israel, where Iranian missiles hit many places.

Israeli retaliatory strikes against Hezbollah killed 52 people in Lebanon.

“Military escalation will force more families from their homes and hit civilians hard,” Amy Pope, director general of the International Organization for Migration, said Tuesday as she called on the international community to de-escalate tensions.

“Millions of people in the region are already displaced,” he said.

The US military confirmed the deaths of six American soldiers. All six were army soldiers and were part of the same logistics unit in Kuwait, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

It was reported that three people were killed in the United Arab Emirates and one each in Kuwait and Bahrain.

Iran’s top diplomat shared a photo on Monday showing the graves of more than 160 girls killed in a US-Israeli attack on a school in Minab.

“Their bodies were torn to pieces,” Abbas Araghchi, the country’s foreign minister, said on channel X.

Three young brothers killed in an Iranian attack in Israel were buried on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem on Monday night.

The chaos of the conflict was revealed when the US military said Kuwait “accidentally shot down” three American warplanes as Iran attacked with planes, ballistic missiles and drones. U.S. Central Command said all six pilots ejected from the plane safely.

Israel and the USA are striking nuclear facilities and missile infrastructure.

Iranian state television reported that the attacks led to two explosions at a broadcasting facility in Tehran early Tuesday, but reported no casualties.

Reza Najafi, Iran’s ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, told reporters that airstrikes hit the Natanz nuclear enrichment facility on Sunday.

Israel and the United States have not confirmed an attack on the region, which the United States bombed during the 12-day conflict between Iran and Israel in June. Israel announced that it was targeting “the leadership and the nuclear infrastructure”.

Trump said the goals of the military action were to destroy Iran’s missile capabilities, destroy its navy, prevent it from obtaining nuclear weapons and ensure it cannot continue supporting allied groups such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which fired missiles at Israel on Monday.

Iran has said it has not enriched uranium since June, but has maintained its right to do so and insists its nuclear program is peaceful.

But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in an interview aired on Fox News Channel’s Hannity late Monday, suggested that Iran was building “new areas, new places” underground to build an atomic bomb.

“We had to act now, and we did,” said Netanyahu, who offered no evidence to support his claim. Satellite images revealed limited activity at two nuclear facilities in Iran before the conflict.

Analysts have suggested that Tehran is likely assessing the damage from 2025 US strikes and potentially salvaging what remains.

Attacks against Iran attracted the attention of proxy forces from the region.

The conflict has spread to Lebanon, where Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah fired missiles at Israel on Monday, but no injuries or damage were reported.

Israel responded with attacks on Lebanon. The country’s Ministry of Health confirmed that at least 52 people were killed and 154 injured in overnight attacks in Beirut suburbs and southern Lebanon.

Israeli military spokesman Brig. General Effie Defrin said Israel was keeping “all options on the table,” including a possible ground attack on Lebanon.

Israel launched additional air strikes on Beirut early Tuesday morning, targeting “Hezbollah command centers and weapons storage facilities,” it said.

Hezbollah also said it launched drones targeting an Israeli air base. The Israeli army announced that it shot down two unmanned aerial vehicles.

An Iran-linked militant in Iraq also claimed that US military facilities were attacked.