Motorists drive along a road in Kuwait City as smoke rises from a reported Iranian strike near the US embassy in Kuwait City on Monday.
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AMMAN, Jordan — The war on Iran spilled over into the Middle East and beyond on Monday as strikes intensified, Iran-backed groups stepped up attacks and a fourth U.S. service member was killed in action.
US Central Command (CENTCOM) said on Monday that a fourth US service member had died after being wounded during an initial strike by Iran in response to US and Israeli strikes across Iran. A U.S. official, who was not authorized to speak publicly, told NPR that the soldiers killed were ground-based forces stationed in Kuwait.
“We expect to take additional losses, and as always we will work to minimize losses,” Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Dan Kane said Monday.
President Trump on Sunday vowed that America would “revenge” the deaths of American soldiers.
In a separate incident, CENTCOM said three US F-15E fighter jets went down in Kuwait on Sunday night “due to an apparent friendly fire incident”.
“During active hostilities – which included attacks by Iranian aircraft, ballistic missiles and drones – US Air Force fighter jets were mistakenly shot down by Kuwaiti air defenses,” it said in a statement. CENTCOM said all six members of the crew were “safely ejected, safely recovered and in stable condition.”
Kuwait acknowledged the incident and said it was “investigating the cause of the incident”.
Meanwhile, the Iranian Red Crescent Society, a humanitarian organization, said at least 555 Iranians had been killed since the start of the US and Israeli strikes on Saturday.
They include Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and members of his family. Iranian officials said more than 168 schoolgirls were killed in the direct hit on the school.
Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah enters the fray and Israel retaliates
Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed militant group in Lebanon, has launched attacks in Israel in retaliation for the assassination of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and in response to continued Israeli attacks in Lebanon since a ceasefire a year ago.
Israel intercepted one of the missiles and others landed in open areas and responded to the attacks with airstrikes.
Lebanon’s health ministry said Israeli airstrikes killed at least 31 people and wounded at least 149 — most of them in southern Lebanon.
The Lebanese government, dragged into another devastating war, says it plans to arrest those responsible for rocket attacks on Israel.
In the capital Beirut, residents fleeing southern Lebanon and Beirut’s southern suburbs streamed into shelters set up in schools, which the government closed.
At Renee Mouwad Public School in central Beirut, many of those who arrived were displaced during fighting between Israel and Hezbollah two years ago. Families piled into cars with mattresses and other belongings.
Abu Ali, a taxi driver who did not want to give his full name for fear of being ostracized in a pro-Hezbollah neighborhood, said he left the Beirut suburb of Dahiya, a Hezbollah stronghold, with his family at three in the morning after hearing of the airstrikes.
“I was looking for a school in the morning and then I found this,” he said. He and his family were last displaced in 2024 during the war between Israel and Hezbollah.
“Last time I was on the street,” he said. “The schools were full, and I couldn’t pay the rent for the house.”
“The Israeli enemy is the enemy in the end. But enough – we also want to survive,” he said.
Israel continued a wave of attacks across the Iranian capital overnight, saying it targeted security targets.
Casualties are mounting in Israel
Since Israel launched a surprise attack on Iran this weekend, Iran has been firing missiles at Israeli cities — killing at least 10 people.
Nine of the dead were in a public shelter hit by a missile in a city outside Jerusalem on Sunday.
Another missile attack in Tel Aviv killed a caregiver from the Philippines.
Israel’s Shay Shor in Tel Aviv says Iranians want independence but is concerned that killing Khamenei, Israel’s supreme leader, may not achieve that.
“We killed their leader, but the leadership in Iran is not completely destroyed and they will be back in a few months,” Shore says. “Same thing next year, same story, same kind of battle.”
Other updates
Iran-backed militias have also entered the fray in Iraq. They fired on a US base in Irbil in Iraq’s Kurdistan region and claimed responsibility for a drone attack targeting US forces at Baghdad airport.
A drone strike hit a British air force base in the Mediterranean island nation of Cyprus, according to Britain’s Ministry of Defence. No casualties were reported.
Iran’s military says it shot down a US F-15 fighter jet. It said it fired 15 cruise missiles at the massive Ali al-Salem US airbase in Kuwait and enemy ships in the Indian Ocean. It does not mention fighter jets.
Gulf states have so far largely left the war to US forces stationed on their territory, but increasing Iranian attacks are raising fears of direct involvement by those states.
Saudi Arabia said on Monday it shot down two drones targeting one of its key refineries. It said the debris at the Ras Tanura refinery caused what it called a limited fire but there were no civilian injuries.
The US military said it hit an Iranian warship that was sinking in an Iranian port on Sunday. Trump said in a video on social media that the US had sunk nine Iranian warships and “mostly destroyed” Iran’s naval headquarters. The US military’s Central Command said it could not confirm those claims.
Global crude oil prices rose and stocks fell as the war with Iran entered its third day. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps says it has shot down three US and UK oil tankers in the Gulf. Iran said on Saturday it would close the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway vital to global oil trade.
After Israel, the Gulf countries, long considered prosperous havens for Western migrants, have borne the brunt of Iran’s attacks.
After the airport attacks and widespread flight cancellations, British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper told Sky News on Monday that the government was considering making evacuation arrangements for millions of civilians in the region if necessary.
Jawad Rizkalla reports from Beirut.
