Iran and Iranian-backed militias fired missiles at Israel and Arab states, apparently hitting the US embassy compound in Kuwait, while Israel and the US pounded targets in Iran as the war expanded on Monday with statements of defiance and increasing casualties.

In the chaos, the US military said that Kuwait “mistakenly shot down” three American F-15E Strike Eagles during a combat mission.

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. In Israel, 11 people have been killed, with 52 in Lebanon, according to authorities.

Iranian cleric Alireza Arafi, delivering his first public remarks since he was made a member of Iran’s temporary leadership council, said he hoped that a new Supreme Leader would be “quickly” appointed to replace Ali Khamenei.

‘Boots on ground’

President Donald Trump told the New York Post that he isn’t ruling out boots on the ground in Iran. “I don’t have the yips with respect to boots on the ground — like every President says, ‘There will be no boots on the ground.’ I don’t say it,” Trump told the tabloid. He’s been taking calls from many reporters over the last 24 hours, offering at times contradictory rationales and expectations for the conflict.

Later, Trump, in his first public comments since the attack on Iran began, said the US military “continues to carry out large-scale combat options in Iran”.

Speaking at the Medal of Honour ceremony, he said one reason for the attack was that Iran “would have missiles capable of reaching our beautiful America”. American intelligence agencies believe Iran was probably years away from having missiles that can hit the US.

Trump said the US would continue attacking Iran for as long as it takes to leave it incapable of posing a threat, indicating that an expanding war in West Asia could continue for weeks or more.

“Whatever the time is, it’s OK, whatever it takes,” Trump said. “Right from the beginning, we projected four to five weeks, but we have the capability to go far longer than that. We’ll do it.”

Listing his objectives, Trump said: “We’re destroying Iran’s missile capability, and we’re doing that hourly.” He added that the strikes were “annihilating their navy” and ensuring that “this sick and sinister regime” in Tehran “can never obtain a nuclear weapon”, and that the country cannot continue to sponsor militant groups across West Asia.

Internationally, he claimed, “everybody was behind us, they just didn’t have the courage to say so”.

After just a few minutes, Trump moved on from his war in Iran to the curtains he’s picked out for the White House and his new ballroom. “I picked those drapes in my first term,” he says. “I always liked gold.”

He concluded the event without taking questions from reporters.

The Pentagon said more US forces were headed to West Asia.

Qatar fells bombers

In another sign of the widening conflict, Qatar’s ministry of defence said its air force had shot down two Su-24 bombers coming from Iran, the first report that Iran, which has fired missiles and drones at its Gulf neighbours and Israel in retaliation for the Israeli-US assault, had also sent warplanes into their airspace.

Attack on energy

Iran attacked energy installations on Monday in Qatar and Saudi Arabia, both key American allies in the Persian Gulf, ratcheting up its military campaign by targeting critical infrastructure.

As Iran responds to the US-Israeli assault that began on Saturday, Persian Gulf countries that host American military bases have become a prime target of its retaliation. Hundreds of Iranian missiles and drones have been fired at countries in the region, including the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Kuwait, killing at least six people and wounding more than 100, many of them migrant workers.

On Monday, Iranian drones targeted a power plant and an energy facility in Qatar, the Qatari defence ministry said. Soon after, QatarEnergy, one of the world’s largest exporters of liquefied natural gas, said it would halt production, a major shock that sent the price of natural gas soaring.

Earlier on Monday, Saudi Arabia’s energy ministry said that a fire had broken out at the Ras Tanura oil refinery in the kingdom’s eastern province after two Iranian drones were intercepted, causing fragments to fall. Some units of the refinery were shut down as a precautionary measure, it said. Five drones near the Prince Sultan Air Base, a military complex south of the capital of Riyadh, were also intercepted, the defence ministry said.

Oil prices surged 13 per cent to above $82 a barrel, the highest since January 2025, as the conflict ground shipping to a near halt in the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of global oil supply flows.

State oil giant Saudi Aramco’s 550,000 barrels per day (bpd) Ras Tanura refinery, which was shut as a precautionary measure, is part of an energy complex on the kingdom’s Gulf coast, which also serves as a critical export terminal for Saudicrude oil.

Hezbollah hit

The Israeli military said it had completed a “broad wave of strikes” in southern Lebanon, targeting more than 70 Hezbollah weapons storage facilities, launch sites and missile launchers.

The Israeli military announced that it killed a senior intelligence official of Hezbollah named Hussein Makled. Makled, the military said, was responsible for developing intelligence assessments about Israeli soldiers and cooperated with senior Hezbollah commanders who planned attacks against Israel. Hezbollah has not publicly responded to the announcement.

Kuwait jets down

Three American jets were shot down over Kuwait during “an apparent friendly fire incident” while they were taking part in the campaign against Iran, the US military’s Central Command said in a statement on Monday.

“During active combat — that included attacks from Iranian aircraft, ballistic missiles and drones — the US Air Force fighter jets were mistakenly shot down by Kuwaiti air defences,” the statement said.

All six crew members “ejected safely, have been safely recovered and are in stable condition”, Central Command added, extending its gratitude to Kuwait for participating in the operation against Iran.

In a separate statement, Kuwait’s defence ministry said a number of US military aircraft had crashed early Monday and that rescue teams had evacuated the crew members to a hospital. The Kuwaiti authorities said they were coordinating with US forces to investigate the incident.

A drone attack also struck the American embassy compound in Kuwait, according to two US officials. In a video from the scene verified by The New York Times, smoke could be seen billowing from an area surrounding the embassy. The US state department did not respond to a request for comment.

Cyprus drones

Cyprus said two drones moving in the direction of a British air base on the island hadbeen intercepted.

Cyprus government spokesman Constantinos Letymbiotis posted on X that the two drones were heading toward the RAF Aktotiri Air Base.

Sirens sounded at the key base, minutes before two Typhoon fighter jets and a pair of F-35s took off, ostensibly to intercept the drones. The sirens stopped an hour later, with the aircraft landing shortly after.

Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides said earlier that a Shaheed-type drone had caused minor damage when it struck inside the base just after midnight.

Khamenei wife

Iranian media said Mansoureh Khojasteh, wife of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, died on Monday. She had been in a coma since Saturday’s strikes on her husband’s office.

Khojasteh, 78, and Khamenei married in 1964.

Separately, an Iranian human rights activists’ group cited an education ministry spokesperson as saying that 171 students were killed across Iran in the past 48 hours.

According to the Human Rights Activists News Agency, the ministry spokesperson said the deadliest strike hit the Shajareh Tayebeh girls’ elementary school in Minab, where 168 students died and 95 were injured. Additional casualties included two students in Tehran and a nine‑year‑old child in Abyek, Qazvin, while three others were injured in separate incidents in two districts of Tehran.

New York Times News Service, AP and Reuters