At least 4 U.S. troops dead as Iran lashes out at America's Gulf allies

Fractures within the Republican Party have become apparent as the GOP grapples with the massive U.S. and Israeli military operation launched on Iran over the weekend.

Lawmakers face votes this week on whether to rein in President Trump’s ability to pursue further military action against Iran without congressional authorization.

The war has prompted strong pushback in pockets of the GOP.

Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky is leading the House war powers effort alongside Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California. Massie has criticized the strikes in strong terms, claiming the approach is not in line with the “America First” agenda, while saying that lawmakers must go on the record on the issue.

GOP Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, a co-sponsor of the war powers resolution in the upper chamber, has also condemned the move to strike Iran without Congress’ approval, citing the legislative branch’s authority to declare war.

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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.

Masoud Pezeshkian, the president of Iran, said on social media Monday that “attacks on hospitals strike at life itself” and “attacks on schools target a nation’s future.”

“Targeting patients and children blatantly violates humanitarian principles,” he said. “The world must condemn it. I stand with my grieving nation. Iran will not remain silent or yield to these crimes.”

Iranian officials and its state-run media claimed Saturday that a U.S. or Israeli strike hit a girls elementary school in the country’s south, killing dozens of students. Neither the U.S. or Israel have confirmed the strike.

The operation against Iran has killed 49 of “the most senior Iranian regime leaders,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday.

Mr. Trump also gave that figure earlier Monday to the New York post, saying, “We’re right on schedule, way ahead of schedule in terms of [Iranian] leadership — 49 killed — and that was, you know, going to take, we figured at least four weeks, and we did it in one day.”

Leavitt outlined objectives of the campaign against Iran, which she said include: destroying Iran’s missiles and Navy; stopping the regime from making and using IEDs and roadside bombs; and guaranteeing that Iran can never obtain a nuclear weapon.

In a post on X, she said the regime “was fully committed to rebuilding their nuclear program, and they REFUSED to make a deal, despite months of extensive talks and good faith efforts by President Trump’s top negotiators.”

American motorists could soon pay more at the pump amid spiking oil prices due to the Iran war.

Gas prices in the U.S. could start moving higher as soon as Monday, according to GasBuddy petroleum analyst Patrick De Haan, who predicted that some gas stations could be charging as much as 30 cents more per gallon by the end of the week.

The projected increase would come after fuel costs had already edged higher this year on concerns about flaring tensions between the U.S. and Iran. Gas prices on Monday averaged about $3 per gallon across the U.S., about 20 cents higher than at the start of January, according to data from AAA.

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Police stations, intelligence centers and bases of Iran’s feared paramilitary Basij forces were bombed heavily across Tehran on Monday.

A major police and intelligence station in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar was among the facilities that were pummeled.

It was the first indication of the joint U.S.-Israeli assault significantly targeting the police and Basij forces that were largely responsible for carrying out the crackdown on anti-government protests in January. President Trump said Iranian authorities killed more than 30,000 people in that crackdown.

The overall death toll in Iran from the war is rumored to be in the thousands, although the Iranian Red Crescent put the figure at about 550 in an initial tally reported Monday.

As their bases came under attack, Basij forces took up positions in tents set up across Tehran.

Two hospitals close to military installations were also hit, and the government called on Iranian media outlets to magnify reporting on those incidents.

President Trump reiterated in remarks at the White House Monday that the U.S. is “substantially ahead” of its time projection for the operation in Iran, but added that the military is prepared for a longer campaign.

“Whatever it takes, we will always — and we have right from the beginning, we projected four to five weeks, but we have the capability to go far longer than that,” he said. “We’ll do it.”

Mr. Trump also rebuffed a claim from an unidentified person. The president said the person alleged he would soon get bored of the military operation.

“I don’t get bored. There’s nothing boring about this,” Mr. Trump said.

U.S. Northern Command has directed additional protective measures for bases in the United States “based on world events,” but it has not increased the threat level.

“U.S. Northern Command has not increased the Force Protection level in the continental United States,” a USNORTHCOM spokesperson said. “However, based on world events, USNORTHCOM has directed eleven additional force protection measures to enhance vigilance and ensure the safety and security of military personnel and installations.”

American citizens in Bahrain’s capital Manama were evacuated over the weekend from their homes in the Juffair district into temporary accommodation as joint U.S.-Israeli strikes drew retaliatory missile and drone fire from Iran targeting countries across the Persian Gulf.

Most U.S. nationals in Manama were moved to the Crowne Plaza hotel and the ERA Tower, and an official in Bahrain told CBS News on Monday that those two properties were the only civilian accommodation hit by Iranian drones in the weekend attacks.

At around 8 p.m. local time on Saturday, the ERA Tower apartment block was hit by a drone. Multiple videos posted online showed the weapons crashing into the upper floors of the tower.

On Sunday at about 3 p.m. local time, the Crown Plaza Hotel in Manama was hit by a drone, “resulting in material damage but no loss of life,” according to the Bahraini Ministry of Interior.

The U.S. Embassy said in an alert that the strike had caused injuries, and it warned U.S. citizens that hotels might be targets for future attacks, and encouraged them to avoid hotels in Manama.

President Trump spoke about the Iran war before awarding the Medal of Honor to three soldiers — two posthumously — at the White House Monday.

“This was our last best chance to strike, what we’re doing right now, and eliminate the intolerable threats posed by this sick and sinister regime,” Mr. Trump said.

The president said Iran’s ballistic weapons program was growing “rapidly and dramatically,” which he said posed a threat to American forces overseas. The Islamic Republic already had missiles capable of hitting Europe and U.S. military bases abroad, and would soon have missiles capable of hitting the U.S., Mr. Trump said.

“An Iranian regime armed with long-range missiles and nuclear weapons would be an intolerable threat to the Middle East, but also to the American people,” he said. “Our country itself would be under threat.”

The president laid out a series of objectives for the war against Iran: destroying its missile capabilities, “annihilating” its Navy, keeping Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and ensuring the regime cannot arm, fund and direct terrorist armies in other countries.

He said the military was continuing to carry out “large-scale combat operations in Iran to eliminate the grave threats posed to America by this terrible terrorist regime.” The U.S. has already “knocked out” 10 Iranian ships, which he said are “at the bottom of the sea.”

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The spiralling war in the Middle East is putting civilians in grave danger, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross warned Monday, saying a broad conflict would outstrip any ability to help.

“Widening hostilities across the Middle East are putting civilian lives in grave danger,” said ICRC president Mirjana Spoljaric.

“The scale of major military operations flaring across the Middle East risks embroiling the region — and beyond — into another large-scale armed conflict that will overwhelm any humanitarian response.”

U.S. forces hit the Shahid Bagheri, an Iranian drone carrier, within hours of beginning Operation Epic Fury, U.S. Central Command said Monday on X.

In a “Fact Check” post on social media, it denied that the Iranian regime had sunk a U.S. aircraft carrier.

President Trump reiterated in his interview with the New York Post that it is crucial to keep Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, which his administration says the regime was trying to do covertly.

Tehran had vehemently denied any work or desire to build a nuclear weapon, and the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency said just a week before the U.S. and Israel launched strikes that he had seen no evidence of efforts by Iran to create one.

Asked about the timeline for the operation in Iran, the president predicted that it was “going to go pretty quickly.”

“We’re right on schedule, way ahead of schedule in terms of [Iranian] leadership — 49 killed — and that was, you know, going to take, we figured at least four weeks, and we did it in one day,” Mr. Trump told the New York Post.

Earlier Monday, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine said U.S. objectives in Iran could “take some time to achieve.”

Mr. Trump said in interviews with the New York Times and the Daily Mail on Sunday that the conflict could last four to five weeks, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Monday that the president had “all the latitude in the world” to discuss a timeline.

“It could move up. It could move back,” he said.

President Trump has told the New York Post that he will not rule out sending U.S. troops into Iran.

“I don’t have the yips with respect to boots on the ground. Like every president says, ‘There will be no boots on the ground.’ I don’t say it,” Trump said, according to the New York Post. “I say, ‘probably don’t need them,’ [or] ‘if they were necessary.'”

The president also rebuffed opinion polls that show many Americans disapprove of his decision to launch U.S. strikes on Iran, arguing: “I have to do the right thing.” CBS News polling completed before U.S. airstrikes showed 51% of Americans would favor military action against Iran to stop them from developing nuclear weapons. When asked about options for engaging with Iranian leadership, 38% favored negotiating with Tehran through diplomacy. Twenty-two percent of Americans said the U.S. should pressure them with sanctions or not get involved.

“I think that the polling is very good, but I don’t care about the polling,” he told the Post.

Israel’s military warned people Monday that Iran had “recently launched” another volley of missiles at the country, urging Israelis and visitors “act according to the instructions” issued by the Home Front Command and take shelter if required.

“Defense systems are working to intercept the threat,” the Israel Defense Forces said in a message shared on social media.

Iran has launched several rounds of missile and drone attacks at Israel since Saturday, and while the Jewish state’s robust air defenses have intercepted the majority of the weapons, some have slipped through the net, killing at least 11 people so far.

The wife of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed himself in the initial U.S.-Israeli strikes on Tehran Saturday, has also died of her injuries, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency said Monday.

Mansoureh Khojasteh Bagherzadeh, 79, died of her wounds on Monday, three days after the strike that killed her husband and several senior Iranian commanders, Tasnim said.

The Gulf Cooperation Council convened via video-link on Sunday night, with the members’ foreign ministers saying afterwards that they would “take all necessary measures to defend their security and stability … including the option of responding to the aggression.”

Jordan, which has also been intercepting missiles and drones over the past two days, said five people have been injured and a number of homes damaged across the kingdom since the start of Iran’s reprisals.

Across the Gulf, civilian infrastructure has been hit: from airports and seaports to residential buildings and hotels.

“The Gulf countries right now are really on the front lines of this brutal war,” security analyst Anna Jacobs told AFP on Monday. “If Iran continues to hit these countries and escalates even more, it will be very difficult for them to just sit and do nothing.”

Early Sunday, drones struck the airport in Bahrain’s capital Manama, causing minor damage, authorities said.

The U.S. Embassy in Manama urged citizens to steer clear of hotels in the city, meanwhile, warning they could become potential targets after the Crowne Plaza was hit.

On Saturday, the Iranian attacks sparked fires at landmarks including The Palm seafront development and Burj Al Arab hotel in the UAE’s Dubai.

CBS/AFP

The government of Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, said Monday that both of its major airports would reopen later in the day for “limited” flights, several days after both facilities were shuttered due to the U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran and Iran’s retaliatory missile and drone fire.

“Dubai Airports announces a limited resumption of flights from Dubai International Airport (DXB) and Dubai World Central – Al Maktoum International Airport (DWC) starting this evening,” the Dubai government said on its official X account.

Dubai International Airport is the world’s busiest commercial aviation hub by passenger volume, with some 95.2 million people transiting through the airport last year, according to Dubai Airports.

“Dubai Airports urged passengers not to go to the airport unless they have been contacted by the relevant airline to confirm their flight departure time,” the administration noted.

Much of the airspace and many airports in the Middle East have remained closed since Saturday, leaving tens of thousands of people stranded in the region and some European nations contemplating evacuation operations.

The Florida-based logistics firm that operates a U.S.-flagged tanker struck early Monday in the Port of Bahrain amid Iran’s missile and drone attacks confirmed that the Stena Imperative had sustained damage and said one local port worker was killed in the strike.

The Imperative “suffered damage due to aerial impacts while berthed” early Monday, the shipping company Crowley said in a statement shared with CBS News.

“One shipyard worker was reported deceased, and authorities report two shipyard workers were injured. We are saddened to learn of this tragic news, and our thoughts are with them and their loved ones,” Crowley said.

“The initial reports are that there were two impacts on the vessel, and a fire was extinguished shortly afterward. The vessel is secure, mariners have reported no injuries, and a damage assessment is being conducted,” the company said, adding that it was “taking every necessary step to support” the well-being of its staff.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his administration was coordinating with its international partners to monitor events in Iran, calling it “important that this chance for change for Iran be used properly.”

“The Iranian people have long effectively been alone against violence — against the Iranian regime. This regime, which has killed tens of thousands of its own citizens just in recent months, which has always fueled and organized wars in the region, which provided Russia with ‘shaheds’ [drones] and the technology for their production — this regime has brought this attitude upon itself,” Zelenskyy said in a social media post.

“It is important that there be a clear position in support of people and human life,” he added, offering his personal thanks to “everyone who is trying to prevent the war from expanding and who is defending against strikes from Iran.”

“I also thank everyone who tells Russia — now, based on the experience of the Iranian regime — that justice does come,” Zelenskyy said.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters Monday that the four American service members who were killed over the weekend died when an incoming munition hit a tactical operations center in Kuwait.

“We have incredible air defenders. Every once in a while you might have one, unfortunately we call it a squirter, that makes its way through,” he said. “And in that particular case, it happened to hit a tactical operations center that was fortified, but these are powerful weapons.”

Iran has targeted U.S. military and commercial interests in at least five Persian Gulf nations and in the surrounding waterways since the U.S.-Israeli assault began on Saturday, lashing out with hundreds of ballistic missiles and drones.

Hegseth said the losses “only stiffen our resolve to ensure that we do this properly.”

U.S. Central Command said Sunday that three service members were killed and then announced Monday that a fourth, who was seriously wounded during Iran’s initial retaliatory attacks, had “succumbed to their injuries.”

The Defense Department has not yet disclosed the identities of those killed, pending notifications of their families.

Asked about U.S. objectives in Iran, Hegseth said Iran had the ability to “project power against us and our allies in ways that we can’t tolerate.”

The defense secretary pointed to Iran’s ballistic missiles and drones, as well as its purported nuclear ambitions.

“We’re very clear-eyed about the nature of this Iranian threat,” Hegseth said.

Hegseth was also asked about Mr. Trump’s estimate that the conflict could last four to five weeks, and he attacked the reporter who posed the question, claiming it’s a “gotcha-type question.”

“President Trump has all the latitude in the world to talk about how long it may or may not take — four weeks, two weeks, six weeks. It could move up. It could move back,” he said. “We’re going to execute at his command the objectives we’ve set out to achieve.”

Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, declined to provide specific figures for how many troops are involved in Operation Epic Fury, but said the military is “just about where we want to be for total combat power.”

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine offered his “deepest and heartfelt condolences” to the families of the four U.S. service members killed during the joint U.S.-Israeli assault on Iran.

“They’re heroes and represent the best our nation has to offer,” Caine said.

Caine said it would “take some time to achieve” the objectives of the U.S. military operation, and he warned it was likely that more American lives would be lost.

He said that Mr. Trump gave the “final go-order” at 3:38 p.m. Friday, directing “Operation Epic Fury is approved. No aborts. Good luck.”

Caine said U.S. Cyber Command and U.S. Space Command acted first, layering what he called “nonkinetic effects” that disrupted, degraded and blinded Iran’s “ability to see, communicate and respond at the H-hour.”

The full operation began at 1:15 a.m. Eastern on Saturday, when the “skies surged to life,” Caine said.

“This was a daylight strike based on a trigger event conducted by the Israeli Defense Forces, enabled by the U.S. intelligence community,” he said, adding that more than 1,000 targets were hit in the first 24 hours alone.

“Operations will remain active across the theater and across the globe,” he said. “Operation Epic Fury stands as a reminder of what the United States military uniquely delivers: the ability to project power on a global scale with speed, surprise, precision and overwhelming force when and where our nation requires it.”

Despite criticism from some of President Trump’s political opponents, an analyst told CBS News on Monday that support for the U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran in Europe was likely to increase as Iran’s retaliation put international forces based across the Middle East in peril.

British Prime Prime Minister Keir Starmer authorized the use of British military bases by the U.S. on Sunday, including to strike ballistic missile sites in Iran.

CBS News was at Royal Air Force Station Fairford, about two hours west of London, on Monday, the only U.S. forward operating location in all of Europe where American B-52, B-2 and B-1 bombers are based.

A source familiar with the situation told CBS News on Sunday that that base, along with the air base on the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia and a British base on Cyprus, could be used for what Starmer called the “defensive purpose” of eliminating Iranian missile installations.

Sanam Vakil, director of the Middle East and North Africa Program at the Chatham House think tank in London, told CBS News on Monday that more U.S. allies were likely to join the efforts.

“I think it was inevitable that the U.K. would enter this war one way or another,” she said, predicting that, “the longer this war continues, I see more American-European cooperation emerge.”

“That also is inevitable to me,” she said, mentioning France and Germany, specifically, as likely to join the U.S.

Both countries, like the U.K, have a significant military presence and a massive expatriate population in the Middle East to protect.

The defense secretary said that Tehran had “every chance” to make a nuclear deal and accused the Iranian regime of “arrogantly” refusing to reach an agreement. Hegseth e said senior administration officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, “bent over backward” to reach a diplomatic solution with Iran, but said the regime was “stalling.”

“Their goal: Hold us hostage, threatening to strike our forces,” he said.

Hegseth also said Operation Epic Fury was “laser-focused: destroy Iranian missile production, destroy their navy and other security infrastructure, and they will never have nuclear weapons.”

He said the military operation was hitting the Iranians “surgically, overwhelmingly and unapologetically.”

The defense secretary also rejected criticism of the operation as the beginning of another “endless war” in the Middle East.

“This is not Iraq. This is not endless,” he said. “Our generation knows better, and so does this president.”

Speaking Monday at the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Iran was building “powerful missiles and drones,” and was “lying their way to a nuclear bomb” as he explained the reasons for the ongoing attack on the Islamic Republic.

Hegseth said the conflict was “not a so-called regime-change war, but the regime sure did change, and the world is better off for it today.”

“We didn’t start this war, but under President Trump, we are finishing it,” he said.

The defense secretary accused Tehran of waging a “savage, one-sided war against America” for decades.

The Iraqi Civil Aviation Authority said Monday that the complete closure of the country’s airspace to civilian traffic would be extended for at least 48 hours due to “ongoing security concerns in region.”

Iran closed its airspace at 10 a.m. local time on Saturday, hours after the U.S. and Israel launched their joint attack on Iran, sparking a war that has snarled air and marine traffic across the Middle East as Iran retaliates with hundreds of missiles and drones targeting Israel and Gulf states it considers supportive of the attack.

U.S. bases in Iraq are among the targets Iran has attacked with missile and drone fire over the last three days.

“Four U.S. service members have been killed in action” since the U.S. and Israel launched their war on Iran, the American Central Command said Monday, raising the death toll reported on Sunday by one.

“The fourth service member, who was seriously wounded during Iran’s initial attacks, eventually succumbed to their injuries,” CENTCOM said, adding that “major combat operations continue and our response effort is ongoing.”

The military said the identities of the American troops killed over the last three days would be withheld for at least a day after their families were notified.

The Israeli military said Monday that it had killed the man in charge of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah group’s intelligence office in Beirut.

The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement that it could confirm “a precise strike in Beirut” on Sunday night killed Hussein Makled, “who served as the head of Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters.”

Israel announced strikes against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon on Sunday after accusing the group of firing rockets at the Jewish state, but amid concern of a new ground war amid ongoing U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran, the IDF said earlier Monday that there were no imminent plans to send troops across the border into Lebanon.

A U.S.-flagged oil tanker, the Stena Imperative, was hit by Iranian drone or missile fire on Monday, according to the Reuters news agency and other outlets that cited the maritime security firm Vanguard Tech.

According to Vanguard, two Iranian projectiles hit the ship in the Port of Bahrain, causing a fire that was extinguished and forcing the evacuation of the crew.

There was no immediate comment from U.S. authorities.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) Center said earlier Monday that a “vessel had been struck by two unknown projectiles causing a fire” in the Port of Bahrain, without identifying the ship.

“The fire has been extinguished and the vessel remains in port,” the UKMTO said, adding that all members of the crew were “safe and have evacuated the vessel.”

The U.S. military’s Central Command confirmed that Iranian forces harassed the same U.S.-flagged and crewed tanker on Feb. 3 as it transited the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping lane off Iran’s coast that has been virtually shut down since the war began on Saturday.

CENTCOM said two Iranian military boats and an Iranian drone “approached M/V Stena Imperative at high speeds and threatened to board and seize the tanker” in the early February incident, but that they were deterred by a U.S. guided-missile destroyer which came to the Imperative’s rescue and escorted it, with support from the U.S. Air Force.

The tanker remained on course after that encounter for its destination in Bahrain, and had been scheduled to arrive on Feb. 5, according to data from the MarineTraffic website.

One person was killed in an attack on an oil tanker off Muscat, Oman, that caused an explosion and a fire, Omani authorities said Monday as Iran continued strikes across the Persian Gulf in retaliation for the U.S.-Israeli assault.

“The oil tanker MKD VYOM, flying the flag of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, was attacked by an unmanned boat 52 nautical miles off the coast of Muscat Governorate. The tanker was carrying approximately 59,463 metric tons of cargo,” the Omani Maritime Security Center said in a statement. “The attack resulted in a fire and explosion in the main engine room, killing one crew member, an Indian national.”

The MKD VYOM was one of three tankers hit Sunday by suspected Iranian drone or missile fire. Omani authorities said Sunday that 20 people were evacuated from the vessel, including four with unspecified injuries.

CBS News Confirmed reports that the MKD VYOM is part of Iran’s so-called “shadow fleet” — vessels with obscured registrations used to carry sanctioned energy supplies — and that the crew included Iranian nationals.

CBS/AFP

Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Defense said the country intercepted and destroyed five “hostile drones” near the country’s Prince Sultan Air Base, a facility used by the U.S. military.

Around 2,700 U.S. troops are stationed in Saudi Arabia, many of them at the Prince Sultan base, south of capital city Riyadh, along with missile defense systems.

The base reportedly came under attack by Iranian missiles over the weekend, too, but there have been no reports of American casualties in Saudi Arabia since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Saturday.

The U.S. military confirmed Monday that three American F-15 fighter jets were shot down over Kuwait in what U.S. Central Command called “an apparent friendly fire incident.”

The F-15 Strike Eagles “flying in support of Operation Epic Fury” crashed in Kuwait amid attacks from Iranian aircraft, ballistic missiles, and drones that the U.S. and its regional allies have been racing to intercept.

“The U.S. Air Force fighter jets were mistakenly shot down by Kuwaiti air defenses,” CENTCOM said in a statement Monday, adding that “all six aircrew ejected safely, have been safely recovered, and are in stable condition.”

CENTCOM said the Kuwaitis had “acknowledged this incident, and we are grateful for the efforts of the Kuwaiti defense forces and their support in this ongoing operation.”

State television in Cyprus, a small island nation in the Eastern Mediterranean, said sirens blared at a British air force base Monday and U.K. fighter jets were scrambled after the base ⁠was targeted by a drone amid Iran’s strikes across the region.

In a live broadcast, Cyprus’ CyBC reported sirens ‌going off at the base and aircraft taking ‌off from the ‌facility near the city of Limassol, according to the Reuters news agency.

Reports on Monday suggested only minor damage from a suspected Iranian drone strike to the runway at the Akrotiri base.

Reuters cited CyBC as saying a passenger terminal at an airport in Paphos, Cyprus, was evacuated Monday, meanwhile, ⁠after a suspicious object was detected on ‌radar.

The British defense chief John Healey said Sunday that Iran had fired two missiles “in the direction of Cyprus,” but that it was unclear whether the Akrotiri base had been deliberately targeted.

An Israeli military spokesperson said Monday that there were no imminent plans to launch a ground invasion of neighboring Lebanon, home of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah terror group, after an overnight attack by the group prompted Israel to retaliate with airstrikes.

“There is nothing on the ground that constitutes going into ground invasion… imminently,” military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani told journalists when asked if Israel would send troops into Lebanon.

“In the short term, immediate time, the answer would be no,” Shoshani said.

Germany will not actively participate in military action against Iran but will consider defending its soldiers stationed on multinational military bases in Jordan and Iraq if they get attacked, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said Monday morning.

“The federal government has no intention of participating” in the conflict, Wadephul told Deutschlandfunk public radio. “We also do not have the necessary military resources.”

Multinational bases where German troops are stationed in Erbil, northern Iraq, and Al-Azraq in Jordan were targeted oiver the weekend, the German military said.

The soldiers on site were not injured and were safe, the German news agency dpa reported.

CBS/AP

Air travel across the Middle East had virtually ground to a halt Monday, with several major regional hubs shuttered due to the threat of missile and drone strikes as Iran lashed out in retaliation against Israel and countries deemed to be supporting the war.

Airline shares plunged, with Reuters reporting Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific and Australia’s Qantas Airways down more than 5% and European airline stocks also indicating lower.

Jordanian authorities announced Monday that the country’s airspace would be closed from later in the evening “until further notice, in order to ensure the safety and security of civil aviation in Jordanian airspace,” according to the country’s official news agency.

Oil prices were also surging, putting added pressure on airlines.

Tens of thousands of passengers worldwide saw their travel plans thrown into chaos on the third day of disruptions caused by the war.

Explosions were reported across the Gulf on Monday as Iran continued lashing out with missiles in response to ongoing U.S. and Israeli strikes. Blasts were heard in Abu Dhabi and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates; Doha, Qatar; Bahrain’s capital Manama; Kuwait City and in Oman’s capital Muscat.

Iran’s army said it had used 15 cruise missiles in its latest attacks on a U.S. air base in Kuwait and on vessels in the Indian Ocean.

The unprecedented attacks across the region saw Iran’s retaliation spill well beyond military targets and U.S. bases, shattering an image Gulf states have carefully cultivated for decades as islands of calm in a volatile region.

Most of the Iranian missiles and drones are being intercepted, but some have slipped through, hitting civilian areas and causing significant damage, including outside U.S. bases in Bahrain and Kuwait.

Several U.S. warplanes crashed in Kuwait Monday, but all crew members survived, that country’s defense ministrysaid on social media.

A ministry spokesperson said authorities launched search and rescue operations and evacuated the crews to hospitals, adding that they were in stable condition.

He said the U.S. and Kuwait are conducting a joint investigation into the cause of the crashes.

Earlier, the spokesperson said Kuwaiti Air Defense Forces had intercepted several “hostile aerial targets.”

Fire and smoke rose from inside the U.S. Embassy compound in Kuwait after an Iranian attack on the small Mideast nation on Monday. Video obtained by The Associated Press showed the smoke with an alarm wailing, and a correspondent for French news agency AFP saw smoke rising from the diplomatic mission.

The U.S. had earlier issued an urgent warning to Americans there to take cover and remain indoors. It said: “Do not come to the Embassy. Take cover in your residence on the lowest available floor and away from windows. Do not go outside.”

“U.S. Embassy personnel are sheltering in place,” it added.

CBS/AP/AFP

Israel has said it’s intensifying strikes against the Iranian-backed group Hezbollah in Lebanon following rocket and drone fire blamed on the group.

In Iraq, Iranian-backed militias have claimed a drone attack targeting U.S. troops at Baghdad’s airport.

Britain said a suspected drone strike targeted its military air base in Cyprus on Sunday, and France said it had reinforced its military posture in the eastern Mediterranean.

Some European nations were vowing to support their own interests and their regional allies in the Persian Gulf as they came under attack by Iran.

Smoke was reportedly seen rising on Sunday from an Iranian strike on the French naval base Camp de la Paix in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

The head of the United Nations’s nuclear watchdog agency, the IAEA, said Monday that his agency had “no indication” that any of Iran’s nuclear installations had been damaged by the ongoing Israeli-U.S. strikes on the country.

IAEA director general Rafael Grossi warned, however, that with missiles still flying a “possible radiological release with serious consequences” could not be ruled out, calling the situation in the Middle East “very concerning” and urging the “utmost restraint” by all parties.

“I reiterate my call on all parties to exercise maximum restraint to avoid further escalation,” Grossi said in his statement, released by the IAEA, as he opened the closed-door session.

“Iran and many other countries in the region that have been subjected to military attacks have operational nuclear power plants and nuclear research reactors, as well as associated fuel storage sites, increasing the threat to nuclear safety,” he said. “Let me underline that the situation today is very concerning. We cannot rule out a possible radiological release with serious consequences, including the necessity to evacuate areas as large or larger than major cities.”

He said the IAEA was trying to contact the Iranian nuclear regulatory authorities, “with no response so far.”

The IAEA reported just days ago that, despite U.S. strikes in June that President Trump said “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear program, the country still has a stockpile of around 972 pounds of uranium enriched to 60% purity — a short technical step away from the level required for nuclear weapons.

Grossi said on Feb. 19 that “most of the material that Iran had accumulated up until June of last year, despite the [U.S.] bombings and the attacks, is still there, in large quantities, where it was at the time of the strikes. … Some of it may be less accessible, but the material is still there.”

He called Monday for diplomatic negotiations to resume “as quickly as possible.”

CBS/AFP

A total of 555 people have been killed across Iran in the U.S. and Israeli strikes that began Saturday, the Iranian Red Crescent said on the third day of the war.

“Following the Zionist-American terrorist attacks carried out in various regions of our country, 131 cities have been affected to date and, regrettably, 555 of our compatriots have been killed,” the humanitarian group said in a post on social media.

The agency did not say how many of the casualties were believed to have been members of Iran’s military or security forces.

Saudi Arabian state oil company Aramco closed its major refinery in Ras Tanura after a suspected Iranian drone strike, the Reuters news agency quoted an industry source as saying Monday, as Tehran launched missiles and drones at countries across the region deemed to be supportive of the U.S.-Israeli war.

Iranian strikes on ports, cities and U.S. interests in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Doha, Manama and Oman have frozen commercial shipping and aviation traffic in vital Mideast waterways and travel hubs, sending Brent crude futures surging roughly 10% on Monday, according to Reuters, which said benchmark Dutch and British wholesale gas prices were also up more than 25% in early morning trading.

U.S. crude prices rose 8.2% to $72.64 per barrel, Reuters said.

Stocks were also hit Monday morning by the war, with markets in Europe and Asia seeing overall share prices slide between 1.5% and just under 2%, including the U.S. S&P 500 futures, which were down 1.5%, according to Reuters.

The Saudi refinery at Ras Tanura is one of the biggest in the Middle East. The source told Reuters that it was shut as a precaution and the situation was under control, but it was not clear how long operations would be halted.

U.K. foreign secretary Yvette Cooper said Monday that Britain was establishing support systems to help citizens flee the Gulf region, home to an estimated 300,000 Britons, amid Iranian missile strikes.

“We are looking at a wide range of options, working, crucially with the travel industry and with government evacuation if necessary,” Cooper told Britain’s Sky News.

Asked by Sky if the U.K. might stage government evacuations from some countries, Cooper said: “We’re working on every possible option.”

“We have to recognize the scale of this as well, and also the fact that there are strikes still under way,” she said.