Iran war widens, threatening to engulf Lebanon

AMMAN, Jordan – The war over Iran engulfed more of the Middle East and beyond on Monday as Lebanon’s militant group Hezbollah responded to the killing of Iran’s spiritual leader with its first attack on Israel in more than a year.

Kuwait said Monday ‘several’ U.S. fighter aircraft had crashed in its territory. The U.S. Central Command said three U.S. F-15E fighter jets “went down over Kuwait due to an apparent friendly fire incident.”

“During active combat—that included attacks from Iranian aircraft, ballistic missiles, and drones — the U.S. Air Force fighter jets were mistakenly shot down by Kuwaiti air defenses,” it said in a statement posted on X.

The Command said all six members of the crew were “ejected safely, have been safely recovered, and are in stable condition.”

It added that Kuwait acknowledged the incident and said that “the cause of the incident is under investigation.”

Iran claimed responsibility for one downed jet.

Lebanon’s health ministry said Israeli airstrikes in retaliation for the attack by Iran-backed Hezbollah killed at least 31 people and wounded at least 149 – most of them in south Lebanon.

The Lebanese government, facing being drawn into another devastating war, said it planned to arrest those responsible for the rocket attack on Israel.

Powerful Iran-backed militias in Iraq have also entered the fighting. They fired at a U.S. base in Erbil in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and claimed responsibility for a drone attack targeting U.S. forces at Baghdad airport.

Iran increased attacks on Kuwait, a key U.S. military ally. The Mediterranean island nation of Cyprus said a drone targeted a British base.

The Iranian Red Crescent Society, a humanitarian organization, said at least 555 Iranians have been killed since the beginning of the U.S. and Israeli attacks on Saturday. They included Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and members of his family. Iran said more than 165 schoolgirls were killed in a direct hit on a school.

Three U.S. troops were killed in an Iranian attack in Kuwait, according to a Defense department official speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose the location of the deaths.

President Trump pledged that the U.S. would “avenge” the deaths of American troops.

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

The U.S. Embassy in Kuwait warned Americans there to take cover indoors and warned them not to come to the embassy. A photo from the Agence France-Presse and Getty Images showed smoke rising in the distance with the caption describing it as smoke rising from the embassy. An attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission could not be immediately confirmed.

Separately, CNN said it verified video that showed a fighter jet crashing near a U.S. base in Kuwait.

The Kuwaiti ministry of defense said several U.S. military aircraft crashed on its territory Monday morning but that the crews were safe. The U.S. Central Command did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Iran’s military said it shot down a U.S. F-15 fighter jet. It also said it fired 15 cruise missiles at the huge Ali al-Salem U.S. air base in Kuwait and what it called enemy vessels in the Indian Ocean. It did not mention fighter aircraft.

Gulf countries have so far largely left the fighting to U.S. forces stationed on their territory but increasing Iranian attacks are raising the specter of direct involvement by those states.

Saudi Arabia said Monday that it shot down two drones targeting one of its major refineries.

It said the debris started what it called a limited fire at the Ras Tanura refinery but no civilian injuries.

In Lebanon, Hezbollah said the attacks were vengeance over Khamenei’s killing and continued Israeli attacks since a ceasefire was signed between Israel and Lebanon more than a year ago. Israel said it intercepted one of the missiles while others fell into open areas.

In Beirut, residents leaving south Lebanon and Beirut’s southern suburbs streamed into shelters set up in schools, which have been closed by the government.

At the Renee Mouawad public school in central Beirut, many of those arriving had been displaced two years ago during fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. Families arrived in cars piled high with mattresses and other belongings.

Abu Ali, a taxi driver who did not want to give his full name out of fear of being ostracized in his pro-Hezbollah neighborhood, said he left Dahiya, the Beirut suburb that is a Hezbollah stronghold, with his family at three in the morning after hearing air strikes

“I spent the morning looking for a school and then I found this,” he said. He and his family were last displaced during the war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2024.

“Last time I stayed in the streets,” he said. “The schools were all full, and I couldn’t pay rent for a house.”

“The Israeli enemy is an enemy in the end. But enough — we also want to live,” he said.

In Israel, the government urged civilians to evacuate villages in the east and south of the country.

Trump at the start of the U.S. attacks urged Iranians to “take over” their government and has signaled he would be open to dialogue with any new leadership. But he made clear there were more attacks coming.

“Combat operations continue at this time in full force, and they will continue until all of our objectives are achieved,” he said in a video message. “We have very strong objectives,” Trump said, without elaborating. Trump told the New York Times on Sunday that the U.S. military intends to sustain its assault on Iran for “four to five weeks” if necessary.

The U.S. military said it had hit an Iranian warship, which was sinking Sunday in an Iranian port. Trump said on social media that the U.S. had sunk nine Iranian warships and “largely destroyed” Iran’s naval headquarters. The U.S. military’s Central Command said it could not confirm those claims.

The attacks widened beyond the Middle East Monday as a drone strike hit a British air force base on the Mediterranean island nation of Cyprus, according to Britain’s defense ministry. There were no casualties reported.

Israel continued a wave of strikes across the Iranian capital overnight that it said were aimed at security targets.

Oil prices were expected to rise sharply after Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps said it had hit three U.S. and U.K. oil tankers in the Gulf. On Saturday it closed the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway vital to the global oil trade.

After Israel, Gulf countries, long seen as prosperous havens for Western expatriates, have received the brunt of Iranian attacks. After airport attacks and widespread flight cancellations, Britain foreign minister Yvette Cooper told Sky News Monday that her government was considering arranging evacuation if needed for hundreds of thousands of citizens in the region.

Jawad Rizkallah reported from Beirut.