DUBAI, March 2: Iran and allied armed groups fired missiles at Israel, Arab states and US military targets around the region on Monday, while Israel and the United States pounded Iran as the war expanded to several fronts. Kuwait mistakenly shot down three American warplanes over its skies.
The intensity of the attacks on both sides, the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and the lack of any apparent exit plan indicated the conflict would not end any time soon. It already has far-reaching consequences across the region and beyond: Previously 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 US allies pledged to help stop Iranian missiles and drones.
If attacked, Iran has long threatened to drag the region into total war, including targeting Israel, the Gulf Arab states and the flow of crude oil crucial for global energy markets. All these things came under attack on Monday.
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QatarEnergy, in fact, said it would stop its production of liquefied natural gas because of the conflict, taking one of the world’s top suppliers off the market. It offered no timeline for restoring its production.
The chaos of the conflict became apparent when the US military said Kuwait had “mistakenly shot down” three American F-15E Strike Eagles during a combat mission while attacks from Iranian aircraft, ballistic missiles, and drones were underway. US Central Command said all six pilots ejected safely and are in stable condition.
At least 555 people have been killed in Iran so far by the US-Israeli campaign, the Iranian Red Crescent Society said, and more than 130 cities across the country have come under attack. Eleven people have been killed in Israel and 31 in Lebanon, according to authorities there.
Lebanon’s government said Hezbollah’s overnight attack against Israel was “illegal” and demanded the group hand over its weapons. Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said only the state can decide whether to go to war or peace, and called on the Lebanese military to prevent the firing of projectiles and detain anyone involved.
In Kuwait, fire and smoke rose from inside the US Embassy compound.
On Monday afternoon, multiple airstrikes hit Tehran, Iran’s capital, while top Iranian security official Ali Larijani vowed on X that “we will not negotiate with the United States.”
In Iraq, a pro-Iranian militia claimed responsibility for a drone attack targeting US troops at the Baghdad airport, the day after it said it fired at a US base in the city of Irbil in the north, and Cyprus said a drone attack targeted a British base on the Mediterranean island nation.
Israel and the US bombed Iranian missile sites and targeted its navy, claiming to have destroyed its headquarters and multiple warships.
Iran expands attacks to regional oil infrastructure
World markets were rattled by the fighting, and oil prices soared.
Saudi Arabia’s Ras Tanura oil refinery came under a drone attack on Monday, with defences downing the incoming aircraft, a military spokesman told the state-run Saudi Press Agency.
Online videos from the site appeared to show thick black smoke rising after the attack. Even successfully intercepted drones cause debris that can spark fires and injure those on the ground.
Ras Tanura, near the city of Dammam in eastern Saudi Arabia, is one of the world’s largest oil refineries with a capacity of over half a million barrels of crude oil a day. It was temporarily shut down as a precaution after the attack, Saudi state television reported.
Oman said a bomb-carrying drone boat exploded against a Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman on Monday, off the coast of the sultanate’s capital of Muscat, killing one mariner. The state-run Oman News Agency said the dead crew member was from India.
Earlier in the day, debris fell on Kuwait’s Ahmadi oil refinery, injuring two workers, after drones were shot down, the state-run KUNA news agency reported.
Iran’s decision to expand its attacks to major regional oil infrastructure adds a new element to the war gripping the Middle East, directly targeting the lifeblood of the area’s economy.
“The attack on Saudi Arabia’s Ras Tanura refinery marks a significant escalation, with Gulf energy infrastructure now squarely in Iran’s sights,” said Torbjorn Soltvedt, an analyst at the risk intelligence company Verisk Maplecroft.
“An extended period of uncertainty lies ahead as Iran seeks to impose a heavy economic cost by putting tankers, regional energy infrastructure, trade routes and US security partners in the crosshairs,” he added.
Iran has also threatened ships in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all oil traded passes. Several ships have been attacked as well.
An Iranian claim
Iran’s Ambassador to the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, Reza Najafi, told reporters that the US-Israeli airstrikes had targeted Iran’s Natanz nuclear enrichment site on Sunday.
“Again, they attacked Iran’s peaceful safeguarded nuclear facilities yesterday,” he said. “Their justification that Iran wants to develop nuclear weapons is simply a big lie.”
Israel and the US have not acknowledged strikes at the site, which the US bombed back in the 12-day war between Iran and Israel in June. The Israeli military also did not immediately comment on Najafi’s allegation.
Israel has not publicised specific targets in Iran but has said that it is targeting “leadership and nuclear infrastructure.”
Hezbollah fires on Israel, prompting a massive response
As the attacks on Iran continued, Hezbollah said it fired missiles from Lebanon into Israel early Monday in response to the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and “repeated Israeli aggressions.” There were no reports of injuries or damage, and Israel said that it had intercepted one projectile while several fell in open areas.
Israel retaliated with strikes on Lebanon, killing at least 31 people and wounding 149 others, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry. About two-thirds of the dead were in the country’s south.
Lebanon’s government said it was holding an emergency meeting after Hezbollah’s attack on Israel triggered the Israeli airstrikes.
Iran has been firing missiles at Israel and Arab states in a counteroffensive since the joint American-Israeli attack Saturday that killed Khamenei and many top Iranian officials. (AP)
