In Brief
- Trump says Iran strikes were ordered after he had a "feeling" Iran would attack.
- Israel and Hezbollah launch strikes as conflict spreads.
Israeli and US forces pounded targets across Iran on Tuesday, prompting Iranian retaliatory strikes around the Gulf as the conflict spread to Lebanon, rattling global markets and sending oil prices soaring.
Four days into the war, US President Donald Trump told reporters that the US military had struck numerous Iranian naval and air targets, saying that "just about everything has been knocked out".
In his most extensive public comments yet, he also sought to justify the assault on Iran, saying he had ordered his forces into action because he had "a feeling" Iran would attack after negotiations over its nuclear program stalled.
In response to the fierce assault, Iranian drones struck the US embassy in Saudi Arabia after previously hitting the mission in Kuwait.
Washington shut both embassies, as well as its one in Lebanon, and ordered non-emergency government personnel and their families to leave much of the Middle East.
A source familiar with Israel's war plan said the campaign had been planned to last two weeks and was going through its target list faster than expected, with early success in killing its leaders — including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in strikes on Saturday.
When asked who he would like in charge in Iran following the death of Khamenei, Trump gave a blunt assessment: "Most of the people we had in mind are dead."
Lebanon pulled into war
Lebanon has been pulled deeper into the war in the Middle East as the Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah launched missiles at Israel for a second consecutive day and Israel sent troops into the south and carried out waves of air strikes.
With dozens of people killed in retaliatory Israeli strikes, Hezbollah's move to enter the conflict has sharpened long-standing divisions in Lebanon over its status as an armed group — the only Lebanese faction to keep its weapons after the 1975-1990 civil war.
The government on Monday took the unprecedented step of outlawing Hezbollah's military activities.
Israeli strikes sent thick plumes of smoke billowing over Beirut's Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs and across hilltops in southern Lebanon on Tuesday.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said in a statement he had authorised the military to advance and take control of additional positions in Lebanon, where Israeli troops have held several hilltops since a war with Hezbollah in 2024.
Many thousands of Lebanese have fled homes in areas that bore the brunt of that war.
The Israeli military has ordered residents of dozens of south Lebanon villages to evacuate.
"This displacement is harder than the last one," said Nuzha Salame, a woman sheltering in the city of Sidon after fleeing her village.
"Now we're in hardship and deprivation, and we're still out in the streets."
The United Nations said that, by Monday, at least 30,000 people, including 9,000 children, had sought protection in shelters, while many more were expected to join them.
The Lebanese health ministry said Israeli strikes had killed at least 40 people and wounded 246 since the start of the escalation.
There have been no reported deaths in Israel as a result of Hezbollah's attacks.
Israel had been carrying out near-daily strikes targeting Hezbollah since the ceasefire in 2024.
Hezbollah's attack on Monday was its first since that conflict.
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