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What to know about US-Israeli attacks on Iran
The war in the Middle East intensified Monday, with attacks from Iran and Iranian-backed militias hitting Israel and Arab states. A senior Iranian official signaled that there would be no negotiations with the United States.
Strikes by Israel and the United States were ongoing in Iran, and by Israeli forces in southern Lebanon where at least 31 were killed, in a war that began with the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. A strike in Iran on Monday apparently took Iranian state television off air.
Fallout from the fighting has been felt around the globe. There have been canceled flights, deadly protests and suspended shipping and stock markets. Reaction has ranged from jubilation to condemnation. The joint U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran, which started Saturday, stoked fears of a wider war and damage to the world economy.
As Israeli strikes targeted Tehran, Iran fired drones and missiles at Israel and sites around the Gulf. T hree close U.S. allies — Britain, France and Germany— said they were ready to defend their interests in the region.
Trump said in a video posted Sunday that the operation in Iran — “one of the most complex, most overwhelming military offensives the world has ever seen” — will continue until “all of our objectives” are achieved.
Iran’s provisional governing council is expected to name a new supreme leader. Iran’s theocracy has struggled with growing dissent following nationwide protests over the economy that morphed into anti-government ones.


Khamenei killed in one of first strikes

An explosion is seen in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, March 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Israel said it had worked with the United States for months to plan the attacks. The U.S. military said targets in Iran included Revolutionary Guard command facilities, air defense capabilities, missile and drone launch sites and military airfields.
One of the first strikes hit near the offices of the 86-year-old Khamenei, who had ruled since 1989 and held ultimate power. Iranian state media reported Khamenei’s death, without details. Israel said that it also killed dozens of other top Iranian military officials.
Iranian state media said more than 200 people have been killed. In southern Iran, at least 165 people were killed when a girls’ school was struck, the state-run IRNA news agency reported. The Israeli military said it was not aware of strikes in the area. The U.S. military said it was looking into the reports.
The Trump administration has asserted that Iran had been rebuilding its nuclear program, which Tehran has insisted is for peaceful purposes.

A motorcycle drives past a picture of the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei along an empty street in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, March 1, 2026, following the confirmed death of Khamenei in U.S. and Israeli strikes. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Witnesses said an attack Monday in northern Tehran’s Niavaran neighborhood struck one of the transmitters used for Iranian state TV. Since then, its satellite signals have dropped. Iran has not offered any details on its materiel losses.
Iran strikes at Israel and US bases in retaliation
A top Iranian security official, Ali Larijani, said Monday on social media: “We will not negotiate with the United States.”
Iran launched retaliatory missiles and drones targeting Israel and nearby Arab Gulf countries hosting U.S. forces. Three U.S. service members have been killed, according to U.S. Central Command.
The island kingdom of Bahrain said Monday that one person was killed by shrapnel from an intercepted missile.
Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, says it has intercepted 61 missiles and 34 attack drones launched against it. Some fire has gotten through, striking buildings and the naval base.
Eleven people have been killed in Israel as loud explosions caused by missile impacts or interceptions could be heard in Tel Aviv. Israel’s rescue services said that nine people were killed and more wounded in a strike that hit a synagogue in the central town of Beit Shemesh.
Iran’s foreign minister has suggested his country’s military units are acting independently from any central government control after being pressed about attacks on Gulf Arab nations that have served as intermediaries for Tehran in the past.
An Iraqi Shiite militia claimed a drone attack Monday targeting U.S. troops at the airport in Iraq’s capital, Baghdad.
Fire and smoke poured out of the U.S. Embassy compound in Kuwait after an Iranian attack on the small Mideast nation Monday. Video obtained by The Associated Press showed the smoke with an alarm wailing.
Israel hits Lebanon, orders people to leave villages
Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon after Hezbollah attacked it have killed at least 31 people, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said Monday. The Health Ministry said that the strikes also wounded 149 people. It said about two thirds of the dead were in southern Lebanon.
Roads in southern Lebanon and leading out of Beirut’s southern suburbs were gridlocked early Monday with people fleeing after Israel launched a barrage of strikes.
US says military force will continue and allies weigh in
Trump listed grievances stretching back to the beginning of the Islamic Republic following a revolution in 1979 that turned Iran from one of America’s closest allies in the Middle East into a foe. Iran’s ballistic missile program and support for armed proxies in the region were other issues he cited.
Tensions had escalated in recent weeks as the Trump administration built up the largest force of American warships and aircraft in the Middle East in decades.
Trump told Iranians to take cover, but urged them to later rise up and topple the Islamic leadership.
The war reverberates around the world
At least 22 people were killed in clashes with police in northern Pakistan and in the southern port city of Karachi after hundreds of protesters stormed the U.S. Consulate there, authorities said.
Shipping companies suspended their vessels’ traffic through the Suez Canal. The strikes could rattle global markets, particularly if Iran makes the Strait of Hormuz unsafe for commercial traffic. A fifth of worldwide traded oil passes through the strait.
There were global repercussions from disrupted air travel in the region, with hundreds of thousands of travelers stranded or diverted to other airports after Israel, Qatar, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait and Bahrain closed their airspace.
The United Arab Emirates said it is shutting the country’s main stock exchanges for the start of the trading week.
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Klug reported from Tokyo, Charlton from Paris. Brian Melley in London; Sarah El Deeb in Beirut, Amir Radjy in Cairo, Matthew Lee in Washington and AP journalists around the world contributed to this report.