Drones hit the US embassy in Riyadh on Tuesday 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 over the diplomatic quarter and checking IDs of everyone who entered. Several roads were blocked, including approaches to the US embassy.
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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 had urged “Americans to DEPART NOW” from all of the countries and territories of 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”.
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 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.
