RIYADH – Drones hit the US embassy in Riyadh yesterday as Iran hit back at industrial and diplomatic targets across the Middle East and Washington warned its citizens to evacuate the entire region.
Four days after US and Israeli strikes killed Iran’s supreme leader and triggered a regional war, AFP reporters in the Saudi capital saw smoke damage on the walls and roof of the embassy.
Saudi police were swarming the diplomatic quarter and checking IDs of everyone entering. Several roads were blocked, including approaches to the US embassy.
Powerful explosions also shook Tehran through the night, as fighter jets flew over the Iranian capital and US president Donald Trump threatened to escalate the conflict.
On Monday, the US State Department urged “Americans to DEPART NOW” from all countries and territories in the Middle East “due to serious safety risks.”
Israel, meanwhile, said it was seizing new forward positions inside southern Lebanon, after Hezbollah fired missiles in support of its backer Iran and provoked a furious Israeli bombardment. Defence Minister Israel Katz said Israeli forces had been authorised “to advance and take control of additional strategic positions in Lebanon in order to prevent attacks on Israeli border communities.”
Burn any ship
Following Israel’s “escalation”, according to a Lebanese military source, the Lebanese army redeployed troops in the south.
Hezbollah claimed it had launched strikes targeting three Israeli bases. In Gulf cities and the Omani port of Duqm, Iranian strikes continued to hit oil and gas infrastructure, and as European markets opened, the benchmark Brent crude price jumped again.
“We will burn any ship that tries to pass through the Strait of Hormuz,” Revolutionary Guards General Sardar Jabbari declared, underlining the threat the war poses to the global economy. In Washington, Trump warned that the strikes could continue for weeks or months.
“From the beginning, we projected four to five weeks, but we have the capability to go far longer than that,” Trump said at the White House.
In an earlier interview with the New York Post, Trump, who campaigned on promises to end US involvement in wars, refused to rule out deploying US ground troops to Iran “if they were necessary.”
And, speaking to NewsNation, Trump warned Iran would “find out soon” how he planned to retaliate for the Riyadh embassy attack.
The US president laid out for the first time the operation’s objectives, destroying Iran’s missiles, navy and nuclear programme and stopping its support for armed groups across the region. Trump’s goals notably did not include toppling the Islamic Republic, even though he and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have urged the people of Iran to rise up.
Saudi Arabia, home to one of the region’s largest oil refineries, some of which have already been closed following attacks, said it intercepted eight more drones in two cities, including the capital, on Tuesday. Two, however, got through air defences and struck the US embassy, causing a fire. In Fujairah, United Arab Emirates, debris from downed drones sparked a fire at an oil facility, the state’s media office said.
The blaze was brought under control, and operations resumed.
Imminent threat
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio presented a strikingly new narrative of how the conflict started.
Washington’s top diplomat said the United States, which had built up its forces in the Gulf to levels not seen since its 2003 Iraq invasion, attacked only after learning that ally Israel was to strike Iran.
Iran had been ready to strike US forces in the region in response to Israel, so Trump decided to intervene “pre-emptively” alongside Israel, Rubio said.
“The imminent threat was that we knew that if Iran was attacked and we believed they would be attacked, that they would immediately come after us,” Rubio told reporters before briefing lawmakers.
Rival Democrats voiced disbelief, with Senator Mark Warner saying it was “uncharted territory” for the United States to be triggered into action by Israel’s perception of a threat
Death toll rises
Throughout the region, the death toll has steadily increased, with six US military personnel killed so far in the war, according to US Central Command. Iranian media have reported hundreds of Iranian casualties, including scores at a girl’s school, although AFP reporters have not been able to verify tolls independently. – Nampa/AFP