Today’s live updates have ended. Follow more news on the war with Iran.
Israel and the United States pounded Iran on Monday in a campaign that U.S. President Donald Trump said would likely take several weeks. Tehran and its allies hit back against Israel, Gulf states and targets critical to the world’s energy production.
The intensity of the attacks, the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the lack of any apparent exit plan set the stage for a prolonged conflict with far-reaching consequences. Safe havens in the Mideast like Dubai have seen incoming fire; hundreds of thousands of airline passengers are stranded around the globe; oil prices shot up; and U.S. allies pledged to help stop Iranian missiles and drones.
Trump said operations are likely to last four to five weeks but that he was prepared “to go far longer than that.”
- US death toll rises to 6 troops: The U.S. military announced on Monday that two previously unaccounted for service members have been confirmed dead, bringing the total American casualties during the operations against Iran up to six. The post did not state where the two service members were killed.
- Hegseth defends Iran operation: In his first public briefing since the attacks, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth defended America’s decision to strike Iran, despite spending years blasting U.S. intervention in the Middle East. He said that Iranian officials spent weeks stalling during the recent rounds of U.S. negotiations as part of their plans to attack. He added that the strikes are designed to reduce Iran’s navy and end its nuclear and missile ambitions.
- Civilians in Lebanon flee their homes: The Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group, based in Lebanon, fired missiles into Israel for the first time in more than a year. Israel responded by striking Beirut’s southern suburbs, killing more than two dozen people, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry. The Lebanese government called Hezbollah’s actions illegal and demanded it hand over its weapons. Follow more news on the war with Iran.
Israeli strike hits Hezbollah-aligned media building in Beirut’s southern suburbs
Israeli military struck a building housing Al-Manar channel studios in Beirut’s southern suburbs following an evacuation warning, the channel said. Israeli military said it targeted “Hezbollah command centers and weapons storage facilities in Beirut.”
Plumes of smoke were seen billowing over the skyline. No immediate details on casualties were available.
The strike followed Hezbollah missile and drone attacks on northern Israel shortly after midnight Sunday, prompting waves of Israeli airstrikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs and southern Lebanon, which killed at least 52 people and wounded 154, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.
In a statement early Tuesday, Hezbollah said “confrontation is a legitimate right,” describing its firing of rockets toward Israel as “a reaction to the aggression, and adding that it had repeatedly warned that Israeli attacks “could not continue without a response.”
US House Speaker says Israel’s determination to act left Trump with a ‘very difficult’ decision
A classified briefing at the Capitol left lawmakers with little clarity about the purpose, cost and next steps in the U.S. operation against Iran.
Republican Speaker Mike Johnson described the U.S. attack as a “defensive operation” because he said Israel was determined to act on their own against Iran, “with or without American support.”
Johnson said Trump had a “very difficult decision” to make, and determined that Iran would immediately retaliate against U.S. personnel and assets.
But Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, said “there was no imminent threat to the United States of America by the Iranians. There was a threat to Israel.”
Rubio, Hegseth and others briefed the lawmakers, but Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said he found their answers “completely and totally insufficient.”
The Trump administration will likely seek supplemental funds from Congress to pay for the operation, they said.
Number of wounded troops in Iran grows
The conflict has left 18 American service members seriously wounded, Capt. Tim Hawkins, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command said Monday.
The number has grown from the five troops initially reported as seriously wounded on Sunday morning.
Six service members also have been killed in Kuwait. All six were Army soldiers and part of the same logistics unit, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
When asked about the deaths Monday, Hegseth said an Iranian weapon made it past allied air defenses “and, in that particular case, happened to hit a tactical operations center that was fortified.”
Bahrain ambassador criticizes Iran for targeting his country, Gulf nations at UN meeting chaired by US first lady
Bahrain’s U.N. Ambassador Jamal Alrowaiei told the U.N. Security Council “the Iranian aggression is resulting in significant material and psychological damages that threaten the safety and security of residents and citizens.”
Alrowaiei, the Arab representative on the 15-member council, said the ongoing Iranian attacks on civilian facilities and residential areas in Bahrain, which hosts a major U.S. naval base, have forced schools to close temporarily to protect students and children.
In the broader region, he told the council Monday that according to the U.N. children’s agency, UNICEF, 30 million children in the Middle East and north Africa are out of school or not receiving formal education — “equivalent to one in every three children being deprived of education.”
State Department urges Americans to leave more than a dozen Middle Eastern countries
The State Department urged Monday that all U.S. citizens leave more than a dozen Middle Eastern countries due to safety risks with the ongoing escalations that have slipped the region into significant chaos.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Mora Namdar posted on the social media site X that Americans in countries, including Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Israel, should “DEPART NOW” using any available commercial transportation.
The guidance comes as some major airlines have canceled flights to and from the region as the war that began when U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Saturday. It has since grown into a wider regional conflict, touching nearly every country nearby.
JUST IN: State Department urges US citizens to leave more than a dozen Middle Eastern countries due to safety risks
Voters in Texas wonder why US attacked Iran
Several voters from Houston casting ballots in a Texas primary election said they’re worried about what will come next in Iran.
“I think that this could go on for years to come if they don’t have a clear exit strategy,” said Charles Padmore, a 45-year-old independent contractor. “I don’t even think they have a strategy. I think they just went in blind.”
He posits that Trump acted “by the whims of Israel.”
Nineteen-year-old college student Sophia Morales and her mother, Dina Morales, don’t feel like they’re getting a clear explanation from Trump about why he attacked Iran.
“I feel like Iran was in a war with Israel, but then all of a sudden, we’re in war too,” said Sophia Morales. She especially wants an explanation following reports that a girls school was bombed.Added her mother: “I don’t think I’ve heard of any clearer plans of what’s next after the bombing, just like what’s next in Venezuela.”
If Iran was a legitimate threat to the United States, Trump should have “gone the right way” and convinced Congress to authorize military action, said Alex Diaz, 31, a high school teacher.
“I’m just like, ‘Are you trying to kill us? Are you trying to cause a World War III?’” Diaz said.
