What we know about the widening US war with Iran, as conflict enters third day

By Issy Ronald, CNN

(CNN) — Days after the US and Israel first launched strikes against Iran, the conflict is widening by the hour, drawing in other countries across the region, sparking fears for the global economy and leaving thousands of travelers stranded.

By Monday, retaliatory strikes launched from Iran shattered any sense of security its Gulf neighbors have enjoyed for decades, killing at least 18 people, including four US service members, across the region and in Israel.

Three US military aircraft crashed in Kuwait on Monday, “due to an apparent friendly fire incident,” the US military said, adding that all six aircrew ejected and are “in stable condition.” US President Donald Trump said Sunday that his conflict with Iran could last “four weeks or so,” offering the clearest indication yet of how long the administration anticipates the military campaign could continue.

Meanwhile, Israel launched a wave of strikes against Lebanon, responding to a Hezbollah provocation early Monday. The strikes killed at least 31 people, Lebanese authorities said, and opened up another front in the conflict.

Joint US-Israeli strikes have killed at least 555 people in Iran, according to the Iranian Red Crescent, including at least 165 people at a girls’ elementary school, the country’s state media reported.

Those strikes also killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, marking a turning point in the nation’s history and leaving Iranians confronting a surreal mixture of relief, disbelief and anxiety.

Here’s what we know so far.

What’s happening now?

As the war expands, still unbounded by the vague objectives the Trump administration has laid out, new fronts are opening up.

Hezbollah fired six projectiles at an Israeli army base south of Haifa “in revenge” for Khamenei’s death in the early hours of Monday morning, prompting a furious wave of strikes from Israel in Beirut and southern Lebanon.

That marked one of the most significant engagements between the two groups since a fragile ceasefire went into effect in November 2024, and Israel has not ruled out further action. An Israeli military spokesman said “all operations remain on the table” when asked about the potential for a ground operation.

In Kuwait, meanwhile, three US jets were mistakenly shot down by the Gulf country’s air defenses, US Central Command (CENTCOM) said, adding the cause of the incident is under investigation. Videos geolocated by CNN showed a fighter jet crashing and a pilot parachuting to the ground.

Three US service members had been killed in action as of Sunday morning, CENTCOM said, with a fourth dying Monday of injuries suffered “during Iran’s initial attacks.”

CNN teams in the major Gulf cities of Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha heard explosions Monday morning and saw what appeared to be missiles being intercepted in the skies above them.

Iran fired a new barrage of missiles toward Israel on Monday, Israel’s military said.

In Iran, multiple rounds of explosions were reported in Tehran, while patients were evacuated from a hospital in the north of the city on Sunday after it was badly damaged, according to Iranian state media.

Why did the US and Israel attack?

Both Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said their main objectives were to defend their respective countries from imminent threats posed by Iran, most notably, to prevent the Islamic regime from acquiring a nuclear weapon, without providing any evidence that it was any closer to obtaining one.

That claim was undercut by Pentagon briefers who acknowledged to congressional staff Sunday that Tehran was not planning to attack US forces or bases in the region unless Israel attacked first.

Such uncertainty over precisely what these strikes aim to accomplish continued even after Trump gave interviews to several media outlets Sunday night.

He outlined various possible scenarios to the New York Times, suggesting a repeat of events in Venezuela – where US forces seized the country’s president Nicolás Maduro and accepted his deputy Delcy Rodríguez as a substitute leader – would be a “perfect scenario,” at the same time as saying he hoped the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps “would really surrender to the people.”

Since the turn of the year, Iran has also been battling an economic crisis that sparked nationwide protests. As a crackdown left thousands of protesters dead, Trump promised to come to their aid, saying the US was “locked and loaded.”

For weeks, there had been a strange split-screen: while US envoys held regular talks with Iran over a new nuclear deal, the Trump administration was amassing military materiel in the Middle East. Although the last round of talks ended Thursday with Iran agreeing to “never” stockpile enriched uranium, that was not enough to avert US military action.

Israeli and American intelligence agencies — including the CIA — had been tracking Khamenei’s movements for months, waiting for the right moment to strike.

Who is leading Iran now?

Inside Iran, the regime is battered, bereft of its supreme leader Khamenei, but still remains able to launch attacks across the region.

A three-person leadership council now holds power until the new supreme leader is named. It includes the country’s moderate president, Masoud Pezeshkian, the hardline head of the judiciary, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, and a senior cleric, Alireza Arafi.

It remains unclear how long the process of choosing Khamenei’s successor will take, a matter further complicated by the deaths of several senior military officials in Saturday’s strikes.

What has been struck elsewhere in the region?

Iranian missiles and drones have targeted Israel and several countries across the region which host US military bases – including Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

Although most of these missiles and drones have been shot down by air defense systems, some have reached their target. At least 10 people have been killed and more than 200 injured in Israel, according to Magen David Adom – the country’s emergency service. Nine of those fatalities occurred when an Iranian missile struck a bomb shelter in the city of Beit Shemesh near Jerusalem.

For US-allied Gulf countries like the UAE, Bahrain and Kuwait, the spreading conflict has punctured the sense of security which had long attracted Western expats and tourists. Dramatic footage from Dubai on Saturday showed a luxury hotel ablaze and people fleeing a smoke-filled passageway at its airport, where four staff were injured.

And in Bahrain, a fire broke out on the upper floors of a high-rise residential building about a mile from a US Navy base after it was struck by an Iranian drone.

How will this impact oil prices?

Iran’s vast oil reserves and its geostrategic position controlling the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow stretch of water through which much global trade flows, means that the conflict has profound ramifications for the global economy.

Oil and natural gas prices surged Monday – futures contracts for Brent crude, the global benchmark, spiked almost 9% to trade at around $79 a barrel while WTI, the US benchmark, climbed 8% to $73 a barrel.

The price of Dutch natural gas, the European benchmark, surged even further, by 23%, driven by mounting concerns over potential disruption to supply.

Although Iran has not officially closed the strait, through which one-fifth of the world’s global trade in liquified natural gas and daily oil production passes, vessels are avoiding the waterway, particularly after oil tankers in the region were attacked over the weekend.

Oil refineries remain a major retaliatory target too, as shown when Saudi Arabia intercepted two drones on Monday morning at Ras Tanura, one of the country’s largest oil refineries, which has the capacity to produce 550,000 barrels a day.

How is it affecting travel?

With much of the region’s airspace closed and airlines forced to cancel flights through multiple cities, thousands of travelers have been left stranded.

Major airports like Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha have positioned themselves as key connecting nodes for global airline routes, with millions of passengers transiting through them every year.

Several major airlines located there, including Emirates and Etihad in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, and Qatar Airways in Doha, have suspended flights to and from their bases at least until Monday afternoon local time.

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CNN’s Christian Edwards, Hanna Ziady, Eugenia Yosef, Helen Regan, Catherine Nicholls, Tim Lister, Eyad Kourdi, Sarah El Sigarny, Lauren Izso, Natasha Bertrand, Zachary Cohen, Jennifer Hansler and Karla Cripps contributed reporting.