Israeli strikes in Beirut, Tehran; Iranian drones hit US embassy in Riyadh

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Fifty-two people have been killed and 154 other injured since Israel began bombing Lebanon 24 hours ago, Lebanon's social affairs minister has said.

US President Donald Trump spoke on Sunday by telephone to Kurdish leaders in Iraq about the Iran conflict, Axios reported on Monday, citing three sources.

(Reuters)

A fresh series of blasts have been heard at the diplomatic compound in the Saudi capital, according to Reuters.

Two drones hit the US embassy in the Saudi capital earlier tonight, causing what Saudi authorities said was a limited fire and light damage.

(Reuters and TNA staff)

US President Donald Trump told NewsNation that you'll find out soon what the retaliation will be in response to an attack on the US embassy in Riyadh and over the deaths of US military personnel during the Iran conflict, a reporter at the media outlet posted on X on Monday, citing an interview with him.

The US embassy in Riyadh was hit by two drones resulting in a limited fire and some material damage, the kingdom's defense ministry said in a post on X on Tuesday, citing an initial assessment.

(Reuters)

Iran's state broadcaster reported two explosions near its Tehran headquarters on Tuesday, but said it was continuing to broadcast amid the ongoing Israeli-US strike campaign.

"Smoke from two explosions around IRIB's premises / No disruption to IRIB's operations," the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting wrote on Telegram.

The Israeli army claimed overnight Monday to Tuesday that it had "struck and dismantled" the headquarters of the IRIB in the Evin district of northern Tehran, which it described as a "communications centre of the Iranian terrorist regime."

(AFP)

Saudi Arabia has said the US embassy in Riyadh was attacked by two drones, causing a 'limited fire'.

Reuters reported in the last hour that a fire had broken out at the embassy compound after a blast.

The US has advised Americans in Saudi Arabia to shelter in place immediately, shortly after an apparent attack on its embassy in Riyadh.

"The US 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 in the region - we recommend American citizens in the Kingdom to shelter in place immediately," the embassy wrote in a post on X.

A fire broke out at the US embassy in the Saudi capital Riyadh after a blast, two sources told Reuters on Tuesday. 

Qatar's military intercepted two ballistic missiles early Tuesday morning, the country's defence ministry said in a statement, after AFP reporters heard loud explosions across Doha.

Qatar was able to "intercept and neutralise two ballistic missiles that targeted several areas within the country," the ministry said in a statement adding the "threat was dealt with immediately upon detection".

(AFP)

An Israeli strike hit the south Beirut office of Al-Manar TV, which is affiliated with Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah, the broadcaster said on Tuesday.

Israel "targets the Al-Manar Channel building in the Haret Hreik area," Al-Manar wrote on Telegram, referring to a part of south Beirut.

(AFP)

Australia said Tuesday its military headquarters in the Middle East was hit by an Iranian drone attack over the weekend and that all staff were safe.

Speaking on morning TV, Defence Minister Richard Marles said he could confirm reports the Al Minhad Air Base - just 24 kilometres (15 miles) south of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates - had been hit over the weekend.

"There was some drones which did attack that base on the first night," Marles, also deputy prime minister, said.

(AFP)

Israel's military said Tuesday that it had launched strikes on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon's capital Beirut.

"The IDF is currently striking Hezbollah command centres and weapons storage facilities in Beirut," a statement from the military said.

The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah said just after midnight on Tuesday that its rocket and drone attack on Israel was a "defensive act" after more than a year of Israeli strikes despite a ceasefire.

"For fifteen months, Israeli aggression against Lebanon has continued through killing, destruction, bulldozing, and all forms of criminal acts," a statement from the Iran-backed group said, making no mention of the recent killing of Iran's supreme leader, unlike a previous missive.

The group's "response against a military barracks in the usurping entity is a defensive act and a legitimate right", it added.

(AFP)

Israel's military said it "struck and dismantled" the headquarters of Iran's state radio and television broadcaster in Tehran on Monday night.

Iran's UNESCO-listed Golestan Palace in Tehran has been damaged in US and Israeli strikes, local media reported Monday.

"Following the joint US-Israeli attack on Arag square in southern Tehran on Sunday evening, parts of the Golestan Palace... were damaged," the ISNA news agency reported, adding that windows, doors, and mirrors were hit by reverberations from blasts.

Iran's Mehr news agency carried a similar report.

The former royal palace "was reportedly damaged by debris and the shock wave following an air strike to the Arag Square, located in the buffer zone of the site in the Iranian capital", UNESCO said in a statement late on Monday.

(AFP)

The Israeli military said on Monday it planned to bomb the Evin area in Tehran, warning residents to leave the neighbourhood.

"The military will soon strike the Evin area of Tehran, in the Broadcasting Authority compound, as marked on the map," the military said in a Farsi-language post on X.

"In the coming hours, the [Israeli military] will operate in the area, as it has in recent days throughout Tehran, to strike military infrastructure belonging to the Iranian regime," it added, showing an attached map of the targeted area.

(AFP and TNA staff)

The US embassy in Kuwait was struck by drones, three diplomatic sources told AFP after smoke was seen rising from the diplomatic mission earlier on Monday.

One Kuwait-based diplomat and a Western diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the embassy had been damaged by a number of drones while a second Kuwait-based diplomat said the embassy building had been struck directly in the attack.

As an AFP correspondent saw smoke rising from the diplomatic mission on Iran's third day of retaliatory Gulf attacks, the US embassy said that people should not come to the facility, warning of "a continuing threat of missile and UAV (drone) attacks over Kuwait".

(AFP)

The Israeli military on Monday night warned residents of more than two dozen villages in southern Lebanon to leave, saying it would operate against Hezbollah in the area.

A total of six US military personnel have been killed since the start of the Iran war, US Central Command (CENTCOM) said Monday, raising the death toll from four.

"US forces recently recovered the remains of two previously unaccounted for service members from a facility that was struck during Iran's initial attacks in the region," CENTCOM said in a post on X.

(AFP)

The US embassy in the Jordanian capital Amman said it had temporarily evacuated its staff due to an unspecified threat on Monday.

"Out of an abundance of caution, all personnel at the US Embassy have temporarily departed the embassy compound due to a threat," it said in a security alert posted on social media.

Jordan is among countries across the Middle East that have been responding to Iranian counterattacks against a joint US-Israeli campaign that killed its supreme leader.

(AFP)

Dozens of Iraqis clashed on Monday with security forces near the US Embassy in Baghdad for a second day in a row, an AFP journalist said.

Iraqis protesting the US-Israeli attack on Iran hurled stones at security forces, who responded with tear gas.

On Sunday, authorities accused demonstrators of firing live rounds that wounded security personnel after angry protesters tried to storm the fortified Green Zone area, which hosts multiple embassies and key government buildings.

(AFP)

Iran's Revolutionary Guards commander said on Monday that the Strait of Hormuz is closed and Iran is to set any ship trying to pass on fire, Iranian media reported.

The move comes after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in an Israeli strike, which would threaten to choke a fifth of global oil flows and send crude prices sharply higher. 

(Reuters)

Iran's Revolutionary Guards warned on Monday that the United States "will no longer be safe", on the third day of joint US-Israeli attacks against the Islamic republic.

"The enemy should know that their happy days are over and they will no longer be safe anywhere in the world, not even in their own homes," the Guards' Quds force, which oversees its foreign operations, said in a statement carried by state TV.

(AFP)

The US military said on Monday that it had struck over 1,250 targets in Iran since operations started on Saturday.

In a separate statement, the US military's Central Command said it had struck and destroyed 11 Iranian ships. 

(Reuters)

European Council President Antonio Costa said on Monday he welcomed the decision from the Lebanese government to end Hezbollah's military activities and demanding that those responsible for firing at Israel be brought to justice.

"It is now important for Israel and Lebanon to resume security coordination, so the Lebanese Armed Forces can disarm Hezbollah and ensure the security of all Lebanese people," Costa said in a post on X, after he had a conversation with Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun.

(Reuters)

Kuwait's military said a navy sergeant was killed on Monday.

It did not disclose details about the circumstances of the death.

Israel's military spokesman, Brigadier General Effie Defrin, on Monday said "all options are on the table" when asked by a journalist whether Israel was going to expand its strikes on Lebanon into a ground offensive.

"We are operating in Lebanon as well in order to remove a significant threat... Bottom line, all options are on the table. We will act to disarm Hezbollah," Defrin said in response to the question during a televised briefing.

Earlier on Monday, the military's international spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani said there was no reason to launch a ground invasion of Lebanon "imminently" after an overnight attack from Lebanese armed group Hezbollah prompted Israel to retaliate with strikes.

(AFP)

The Israeli military said it struck assets of a financial institution on Monday already sanctioned by Washington for funding Hezbollah activities.

"A short while ago, the [Israeli military] completed a wave of strikes against the Al-Qard Al-Hassan Association, which funds the Hezbollah terrorist organisation throughout Lebanon," the military said, without specifying where the strikes were carried out.

(AFP)

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Monday criticised the US and Israeli war on Iran as a "clear violation" of international law, adding that Turkey shared the pain of the Iranian people amid the widening war.

Turkey, a NATO member and neighbor of Iran, had for weeks urged Washington and Tehran to reach an agreement during their rounds of negotiations, warning that the region could not handle more destabilisation.

In his strongest opposition yet to the attacks, Erdogan said they were a "clear violation of international law".

"As their neighbour and brother, we share the pain of the Iranian people," he said at a Ramadan fast-breaking dinner in Ankara, and added that the US-Iran dispute had grown into war after provocations from Israel.

(Reuters and TNA staff)

Qatar and the United Arab Emirates are lobbying allies to put pressure on the Trump administration to end the war on Iran, as the conflict engulfs the region and risks of a global economic shock grow, according to Bloomberg.

The Gulf countries - whose critical energy infrastructure has come under attack from Iran - are looking to assemble a broad coalition of countries to push the US and Israel to bring the conflict to an end, people familiar with the matter told the financial news outlet.

This comes amid concerns about h0w long the countries can continue to fend off Iranian drone and missile attacks.

At the current trajectory, Qatar will exhaust its stocks of Patriot interceptor missiles in the next four days, according to internal analysis seen by Bloomberg.

President Donald Trump said on Monday that the US-Israeli war on Iran is likely to last 4 to 5 weeks but that he’s prepared "to go far longer than that".

Qatar shot down two Iranian fighter jets on Monday as Iran escalated its attacks on Gulf energy infrastructure.

Qatar's air force downed two Sukhoi SU24 bombers, the defence ministry said - the first such action by a Gulf country after three days of Iranian bombardment.

The wealthy region of staunch US allies has found itself in the firing line of Iran's retaliatory attacks, with airports and hotels hit along with military sites.

Six people have been killed and dozens injured.

"Qatar Emiri Air Force successfully shot down two (SU24) aircraft coming from the Islamic Republic of Iran," the defence ministry said, without mentioning the jets' crew.

(AFP and TNA staff)

A drone struck a fuel tank terminal in the Emirati capital Abu Dhabi Monday, causing a fire though operations were not impacted, authorities said, as Iran struck more oil facilities on its third day of Gulf attacks.

"Abu Dhabi authorities have responded today to a fire resulting from the targeting of a Musaffah fuel tank terminal by a drone. The situation was promptly contained. No injuries were reported and there was no impact on operations," the Abu Dhabi Media Office said in a statement.

(AFP)

President Donald Trump on Monday said he is not ruling out sending US troops into Iran, while threatening a new, "big wave" of attacks.

While so far the assault has focused entirely on aerial attacks by missiles and bombs, Trump refused to rule out sending ground troops -- something far riskier in terms of possible casualties.

"I don't have the yips with respect to boots on the ground," Trump said, using a golf term for anxiety. "Every president says, 'There will be no boots on the ground.' I don't say it."

"I say 'probably don't need them,' (or) 'if they were necessary,'" he told the New York Post in one of numerous brief interviews he has given since launching the Iran operation.

Trump also spoke to CNN on Monday, flagging what he said would be an escalation in the assault on Iran.

"We haven't even started hitting them hard. The big wave hasn't even happened," he told CNN, without elaborating. "The big one is coming soon."

The wife of Iran's slain supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei died Monday after succumbing to wounds sustained during the US-Israeli attack, Iranian media reported.

Mansoureh Khojasteh Bagherzadeh, 79, had been in a coma since strikes on Saturday killed Khamenei, the Tasnim news agency said.

Germany will send planes to Saudi Arabia and Oman to evacuate tourists stranded by the Middle East war, Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said Monday.

"We will send aircraft to Riyadh and Muscat as quickly as possible for particularly vulnerable groups," Wadephul said, adding that he was in talks with national carrier Lufthansa to arrange the flights.

Russian President Vladimir Putin held a phone call with Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani to discuss the crisis in the Middle East, Russian news agency Interfax reported on Monday.

During the conversation, the parties "expressed hope for a swift de-escalation of the conflict and a return to political and diplomatic methods," Interfax reported. 

The Israeli military warned residents in more than a dozen locations in south and east Lebanon to evacuate on Monday, saying buildings were being used by the Hezbollah armed group.

"We have issued 18 urgent evacuation warnings for buildings used by the Hezbollah terrorist organisation in the following villages and towns," said a statement by the military's Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee posted on X, which listed 16 locations as well as the south Beirut suburb of Burj al-Barajneh, which was the subject of an earlier evacuation warning.

Iran's Ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency on Monday alleged that airstrikes by the United States and Israel targeted the Natanz enrichment facility in his country.

That contradicts an assessment by the UN nuclear watchdog chief, Rafael Grossi, who said that "up to now" the agency has "no indication" that nuclear facilities have been hit in Iran.

"Again they attacked Iran's peaceful safeguarded nuclear facilities yesterday. Their justification that Iran wants to develop nuclear weapons is simply a big lie," Reza Najafi told reporters at the IAEA headquarters in Vienna, where a special session of the Board of Governors is being held at the request of Russia.

When asked by a reporter which nuclear facility he was referring to, Najafi replied, "Natanz".

The Natanz site, some 220 kilometres (135 miles) south of the capital, is a mix of above- and below-ground laboratories that carried out the majority of Iran's uranium enrichment.

The only lasting solution for the crisis in Iran is a diplomatic one, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Monday.

"This means a credible transition for Iran, the definite halt to both the nuclear and ballistic programs and an end to destabilising activities in the region," von der Leyen told reporters in Brussels.

"We must work hard to de-escalate and stop the conflict from spreading," she added.

The Kremlin said on Monday that Russia was in constant contact with the Iranian leadership about what it called the "outright aggression" against Tehran and was deeply disappointed by how events had unfolded.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday condemned the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as a "cynical" murder, and the Russian Foreign Ministry has accused the US and Israel of plunging the Middle East "into an abyss of uncontrolled escalation."

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday that Russia was analysing the situation and drawing its own conclusions after Washington opted to launch strikes at Iran despite what Moscow thought had looked like promising talks.

"As for the negotiations mediated by Oman between the United States and Iran, we can certainly express our deep disappointment that, despite reports of significant progress in these negotiations, the situation has nevertheless deteriorated into outright aggression," Peskov told reporters.

He said that Putin was due to make an Iran-related international phone call later on Monday, but did not disclose to whom.

"I can only say that we are in constant contact with the Iranian leadership and are discussing the situation surrounding that country. At the same time, we are continuing our dialogue with the leadership of the countries affected by the conflict, including the Persian Gulf states," said Peskov.

The European Commission sees no immediate impact on the European Union's security of oil supply from the escalating conflict in the Middle East, it said in an email to EU governments, seen by Reuters on Monday.

"At this stage, we do not foresee an immediate oil SOS (security of supply) impact," the Commission email said.

Delegates at the United Nations' nuclear agency began meeting on Monday for an extraordinary session on Iran in the wake of the US-Israeli strikes on the Islamic Republic.

Russia, a key ally of Tehran, requested the meeting on Saturday at the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), following the same request by Iran.

The extraordinary meeting precedes an already scheduled regular session of the IAEA's board of governors, which represents 35 countries.

Following the strikes, the IAEA, which monitors Iran's nuclear programme, said on Saturday that it was "closely monitoring developments in the Middle East, and urges restraint to avoid any nuclear safety risks to people in the region".

Saudi Arabia's military has raised its readiness levels following multiple attacks by Iran targeting its territory, a source close to the army told AFP on Monday.

"The Saudi army has raised its readiness to full alert," the source told AFP.

The Lebanese government decided on the "immediate ban" of Hezbollah's military and security activities and to "oblige" the group to surrender its weapons to the state, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam announced Monday.

After an emergency cabinet meeting, Salam said: "The Lebanese state declares its absolute and unequivocal rejection of any military or security actions launched from Lebanese territory outside the framework of its legitimate institutions."

"This necessitates the immediate prohibition of all of Hezbollah's security and military activities, considering them to be outside the law, and obliging it to hand over its weapons".

On Monday, Salam ordered the military and security agencies to take "immediate measures" to implement the cabinet decision and prevent "any military operation or the launching of missiles or drones from Lebanese territory".

European gas prices soared more than 20 percent Monday on fears that the Iran war will cut supplies in the Gulf region, notably exports from Qatar.

The Dutch TTF natural gas contract, considered the European benchmark, rocketed to 38.885 euros, having earlier gained more than 22 percent.

Despite the surge, the price was below the level it reached in January during the northern hemisphere winter.

Qatar's state-run energy firm said on Monday it had halted liquefied natural gas production following Iranian attacks on facilities at two of its main gas processing bases.

"Due to military attacks on QatarEnergy's operating facilities in Ras Laffan Industrial City and Mesaieed Industrial City in the State of Qatar, QatarEnergy has ceased production of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and associated products," the company said in a statement.

Earlier, Qatar's defence ministry said one Iranian drone "targeted an energy facility in Ras Laffan Industrial City, belonging to QatarEnergy", referring to the firm's onshore gas processing base 80 kilometres (50 miles) north of Doha.

Another "targeted a water tank belonging to a power plant in Mesaieed", the statement said, referring to an area 40 kilometres south of the Qatari capital, which is also a key site for Qatar's natural gas production.

There were no reports of casualties, the defence ministry added.

Israel's military said Monday there was no reason to launch a ground invasion of Lebanon "imminently" after an overnight attack from Lebanese armed group Hezbollah prompted Israel to retaliate with air strikes.

"There is nothing on the ground that constitutes going into ground invasion... imminently," military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani told journalists on whether Israel would send troops into Lebanon.

"In the short term, immediate time, the answer would be no," Shoshani added.

Iran's army said Monday it targeted the US Ali Al Salem air base in Kuwait as well as vessels in the Indian Ocean after the killing of the Islamic Republic's supreme leader in US and Israeli strikes.

"Missile units of the army's ground and naval forces operating from various locations targeted the US Ali Al Salem air base in Kuwait as well as enemy vessels in the northern Indian Ocean over the past hours," the army said in a statement.

It added that "15 cruise missiles" were used in the attacks.

China's Foreign Ministry on Monday urged all parties involved in the Iran conflict to cease military actions and prevent an escalation of the war.

The United States and Israel's strikes against Iran violated international law, and China is deeply concerned about spillover effects on neighbouring countries, Mao Ning, a spokesperson for the ministry, told a regular press briefing.

China believes that the sovereignty, security and territorial integrity of the Gulf states should be fully respected and supports countries to strengthen communication, Mao said.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz warned Monday that Israel would send Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem to "the bottom of hell" like Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, after an attack by the Lebanese armed group.

"We will strike Hezbollah hard, and Naim Qassem, chairman of the Hezbollah terrorist organisation, will discover that whoever follows Khamenei's path ends up like Khamenei -- at the bottom of hell," Katz said during a visit to the Israeli air force operations centre.

Khamenei was killed in an attack on his compound in Tehran as part of US-Israeli strikes on Saturday.

The US-Israel strikes in Iran killed one Chinese citizen in Tehran, the capital, while more than 3,000 were evacuated, China's foreign ministry said on Monday, as its embassies and consulates in nearby countries swung into action to help the affected.

Work groups set up by Chinese embassies and consulates in neighbouring countries will receive and assist those evacuated, ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told a regular press briefing, but did not say how the evacuated would return home.

China was not informed in advance about the U.S. military actions against Iran, Mao added.

She denied a report that Iran and China were close to reaching a deal to buy supersonic anti-ship missiles, saying China was a responsible major power that "always fulfilled its international obligations".

Mao reiterated condemnation of the attacks and the killing of Khameini, urging all parties involved to immediately cease military action to prevent escalation.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has no indication that Israeli and US attacks on Iran have hit any nuclear facilities, but it has not been able to reach Iran's nuclear authorities, its chief, Rafael Grossi, told the agency's Board of Governors on Monday.

"We have no indication that any of the nuclear installations...have been damaged or hit," he said in a statement to the 35-nation board, adding: "Efforts to contact the Iranian nuclear regulatory authorities ... continue, with no response so far."

Iran's president appointed on Monday Revolutionary Guards general Majid Ebnelreza as acting defence minister after his predecessor was killed in Israeli-US strikes.

"By order of President Masoud Pezeshkian, Revolutionary Guards general Majid Ebnelreza has been appointed as acting defence minister," said deputy for presidential communications Mehdi Tabatabaei in a post on X.

Two Iranian drones targeted a power plant in Qatar and a separate energy facility on Monday, the Qatari defence ministry said, on the third day of Iranian retaliatory strikes against countries in the region.

One drone targeted a water tank belonging to a power plant in Mesaieed south of Doha and another targeted an energy facility in Ras Laffan on the north coast, Qatar's main site for production of liquefied natural gas, the ministry said.

There were no reports of casualties, it added.

France's Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on Monday that Israeli and US "unilateral" attacks in Iran should have been debated in the collective bodies set up for this exact purpose, such as the United Nations.

"Everyone could have taken their responsibilities, because it is only by going before the (United Nations) Security Council that the use of force can acquire the necessary legitimacy," Barrot told reporters after holding a meeting at the ministry in Paris.

Barrot added that no French victims had been reported at this stage.

UN nuclear watchdog head Rafael Grossi on Monday said the situation in the Middle East was "very concerning", urging "utmost restraint" after Israeli-US strikes on Iran and its retaliatory missile attacks.

"I reiterate my call on all parties to exercise maximum restraint to avoid further escalation," Grossi said as he opened a special session on Iran of the board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Iranian missiles targeting an air base near the Saudi capital of Riyadh were intercepted on Monday, a Gulf source briefed on the matter told AFP, as Iran fired wide-ranging barrages across the region.

"Iranian missiles targeting Prince Sultan Air Base were intercepted again on Monday morning," said the source.

Two witnesses also told AFP they heard explosions in the city of Kharj, southeast of Riyadh, on Monday.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on Monday their missile attacks have targeted the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the headquarters of the Israeli air force commander.

"The office of the criminal prime minister of the Zionist regime and the headquarters of the regime's air force commander were targeted," the Guards said in a statement carried by Fars news agency.

It said Kheibar missiles were used in the attack.

An Iranian drone hit the runway of a UK air force base in Cyprus on Monday, hours after Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Britain would not join the US-Israeli conflict with Iran.

He said that the mistakes of the Iraq war had been "learned".

Starmer announced late on Sunday that he had agreed to the United States' request to use British bases for "specific and limited defensive purposes".

Middle East Minister Hamish Falconer insisted on Monday that "the UK is not at war".

"Let me be really clear: the UK took a deliberate decision not to be part of the first wave of strikes conducted by the United States and Israeli governments.

"But in the face of reckless attacks from Iran on a whole range of allies in the region... we took the decision, as the Prime Minister announced last night, to support the US's request to use our bases in order to conduct defensive actions," he added.

Cyprus's President Nikos Christodoulides said an Iranian drone had crashed into a British base on the Mediterranean island on Monday, as the Israeli-US war on Iran spreads across the region.

Minutes after midnight (2200 GMT), "a Shahed unmanned aerial vehicle crashed into the military facilities of the British Bases in Akrotiri, causing minor material damage", he said.

"We are in a region of particular geopolitical instability with many challenges and problems, which is going through an unprecedented crisis. Our homeland does not participate in any way and does not intend to be part of any military operation."

The statement came after the British defence ministry said British forces were responding to a suspected drone strike at its military base in Cyprus.

"Our force protection in the region is at the highest level and the base has responded to defend our people," a Ministry of Defence spokesperson said in a statement.

An Iranian official said Monday that the country's central Yazd province had been hit by Israeli and US strikes on the third day of the conflict.

Several locations "in the cities of Ardakan and Yazd, and one location on the Yazd-Mehriz road, were attacked in American and Israeli strikes," said the province's deputy governor Esmail Dehestani, according to the official IRNA news agency.

Iran's UNESCO-listed Golestan Palace in Tehran has been damaged in US and Israeli strikes, local media reported Monday.

"Following the joint US-Israeli attack on Arag square in southern Tehran on Sunday evening, parts of the Golestan Palace... were damaged," the ISNA news agency reported, adding that windows, doors, and mirrors were hit by reverberations from blasts.

Iran's Mehr news agency carried a similar report.

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.

Majed Al Ansari also said that Qatar was not engaging with Iran at the moment.

US and Israeli strikes on Iran have killed three Revolutionary Guard members and five army personnel, according to separate official statements on Monday.

"Three members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps were killed" in an attack on a detachment in the western Lorestan province, an official IRGC statement said, according to the ISNA news agency.

In a separate attack on the western city of Khorramabad, "five members of the Iranian army were killed", Tasnim news agency said, quoting an army statement.

France is "ready" to defend Gulf countries and Jordan against Iran if necessary, Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said Monday.

Iran has launched a series of missile and drone strikes on several Gulf countries, saying it is targeting US bases, after being hit by US-Israeli missiles from Saturday that had killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

"To allied countries that have been deliberately targeted by the missiles and drones of the (Iranian) Revolutionary Guards and dragged into a war they did not choose -- Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Iraq, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, and Jordan -- France expresses its full support and complete solidarity," he said.

"It stands ready, in accordance with the agreements that bind it to its partners and with the principle of collective self-defence provided under international law, to take part in their defence," he said.

Barrot said an estimated 400,000 French citizens were residents or currently visiting countries in and around the Gulf.

British foreign minister Yvette Cooper said on Monday that her team was looking at all options, including evacuation, to help hundreds of thousands of UK citizens leave Gulf countries, which are now being targeted by Iran.

There are an estimated 300,000 British citizens, residents, and families on holiday in Gulf countries, and 102,000 people in the region have registered their presence with the UK government since the attacks began on Saturday.

When asked whether she was planning an evacuation from those countries, Cooper said officials were setting up "support systems".

"We're working on every possible option," she told Sky News. "We have to recognise the scale of this as well, and also the fact that there are strikes still underway."

An Iranian official said Monday that US and Israeli strikes over two days have left at least 27 people dead in Iran's northwest.

"The number of martyrs who have fallen over the past two days in the province as a result of Israeli and American attacks reached 27," said Majid Farshi, director general of the East Azerbaijan province crisis management department, as quoted by the official IRNA news agency.

Amazon Cloud Unit's data centres in Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates were facing connectivity issues on Monday, the company said, amid retaliatory Iranian strikes in the region in response to US and Israeli strikes on the Islamic Republic.

Iranian strikes have hit airports, ports, and residential areas across the wider Gulf.

One of the cloud unit AWS' zones in the UAE was still without power on Monday, after the company said that "objects" struck the data centre and created sparks and fire.

Amazon reported some recovery in the UAE but recommended that customers use alternate regions as it investigates "additional connectivity issues and error rates."

The company did not confirm or deny, when asked earlier, whether the UAE data centre incident was connected to the Iranian strikes.

Amazon did not provide a reason for the connectivity issues at its Bahrain data centre. It also did not respond to a Reuters request for comment. 

At least three people were killed on Monday in Iran's west, Iranian state media reported, as conflict with the United States and Israel continues for the third day.

Residential buildings in the western city of Sanandaj were hit by air strikes, according to governor Gharib Sajjadi as quoted by the official IRNA news agency.

He said "three people were killed and several others injured in the attacks", adding that the death toll is expected to rise.

Turkey's trade minister said on Monday that day-trip passenger crossings at three Turkish customs gates at the Iranian border have been mutually suspended, but Turkey is allowing its own citizens and third-country nationals to enter from Iran.

Minister Omer Bolat said in a statement on X that Iran was permitting its own citizens to enter Iran via Turkey, adding that commercial cargo transits at all three gates continued under controlled conditions.

"All our units continue to perform their duties on high alert to ensure the uninterrupted continuation of Turkey's border crossing services and trade flows," Bolat said.

Son dönemde bölgemizde yaşanan ve küresel ölçekte etkileri hissedilen gelişmeler çerçevesinde, Türkiye’nin İran ile olan gümrük kapılarındaki mevcut durum kapsamlı bir şekilde değerlendirilmekte; gelişmeler gümrük teşkilatımız tarafından anbean takip edilmektedir.

Bu kapsamda… pic.twitter.com/pOHPceorDX

— Prof. Dr. Ömer Bolat (@omerbolatTR) March 2, 2026

US leader Donald Trump's "delusional fantasies" have plunged the Middle East into chaos, the powerful head of Tehran's Supreme National Security Council said on Monday.

"Trump plunged the region into chaos with his 'delusional fantasies' and now fears more American troop casualties," Ali Larijani wrote on X, following a wave of US-Israeli strikes on Iran.

ترامپ با "آرزوهای واهی" منطقه را به آشوب کشاند و حالا نگران تلفات بیشتر نیروهای امریکایی است.
وی با عملکرد متوهمانه، شعار خودساخته "اول امریکا" را به "اول اسرائیل" تبدیل کرد و سربازان امریکایی را فدای قدرت طلبی اسرائیل نمود... ۱/۲

— Ali Larijani | علی لاریجانی (@alilarijani_ir) March 2, 2026

New strikes hit an Iraqi military base housing Kataeb Hezbollah, a source from the pro-Iran armed group said on Monday.

"Three strikes hit Jurf al-Nasr," a Kataeb Hezbollah source told AFP, referring to a military base that serves as one of the main bastions of the powerful armed group that has been repeatedly targeted since the start of the Israel-US campaign on Iran.

Israel's military said Monday it was carrying out simultaneous strikes in Iran and Lebanon, warning Hezbollah it would "pay a heavy price" for opening fire on Israel.

"Even at this moment, hundreds of Air Force aircraft are striking simultaneously in Lebanon and Iran," military spokesman Brigadier General Effie Defrin said during a televised briefing.

"Hezbollah opened fire last night. It knew exactly what it was doing. We had warned it - and it will pay a heavy price."

Israel has bolstered its military presence on its side of the border with Lebanon but there are no immediate plans for a ground invasion of its neighbour, Israeli military spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani said on Monday.

"We haven't expanded our presence on the ground inside Lebanon," he told an online news briefing.

Earlier, Brigadier General Effie Defrin, another Israeli military spokesperson, told reporters that all options remained on the table when asked about the prospects of a ground invasion of Lebanon after Hezbollah launched rockets at Israel.

Kuwait intercepted hostile drones on Monday, the third consecutive day of Iranian retaliatory strikes on neighbouring Gulf states in response to US and Israeli attacks on the Islamic Republic.

A series of loud blasts was heard on Monday morning in Dubai and the Qatari capital of Doha, according to Reuters witnesses. Loud bangs and sirens were heard earlier in Kuwait, according to Reuters witnesses.

No injuries were reported after Kuwait air defenses intercepted the majority of the drones near Rumaithiya and Salwa neighbourhoods, the state news agency cited the director-general of the civil defense as saying.

Tehran said it would target US bases in the region after the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran on Saturday.

It has also hit a range of civilian and commercial areas across Gulf cities, widening the conflict's impact on key regional aviation and trade hubs.

Trump administration officials acknowledged in closed-door briefings with congressional staff on Sunday that there was no intelligence suggesting Iran planned to attack US forces first, two people familiar with the matter said.

Sunday's remarks to Congress appeared to undercut one of the key arguments for the war made by senior administration officials.

They told reporters the day before that President Donald Trump decided to launch the attacks in part because of indicators that Iranians might strike US forces in the Middle East "perhaps preemptively".

Trump, one of the officials said, was not going to "sit back and allow American forces in the region to absorb attacks".

Iran's security chief Ali Larijani, who was also an adviser to the country's former Supreme Leader, said in a post on X on Monday that Tehran will not negotiate with the US, in response to a report that Iran is trying to revive negotiations with Washington. 

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Monday that Hezbollah chief Naim Kassem was now a "target for elimination", after the Iran-aligned militant group fired at Israel in retaliation for the killing of Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said Monday they had launched missile strikes on an Israeli government complex in Tel Aviv as well as security and military centres in Haifa and an attack on east Jerusalem.

"Among the targets of this tenth wave were a targeted strike on the Zionist regime's government complex in Tel Aviv, attacks on military and security centres in Haifa, and a strike on east Jerusalem," said a Guards statement carried by state TV.

It said Kheibar ballistic missiles were used in the attack.

Israel and the United States launched attacks of unprecedented scale against Iran on Saturday, and the Islamic Republic has responded with missile strikes regionwide.

The Iranian Red Crescent Society says the US-Israeli airstrike campaign has killed 555 people so far in Iran.