U.S. President Donald Trump speaks, as a patch of blemished skin is visible above his shirt collar, during a Medal of Honor ceremony at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 2, 2026.
| Photo Credit:
REUTERS/Ken Cedeno
The US and Israel have continued to pound Iran since killing its Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday, while Tehran and its allies have hit back against Israel, neighbouring Gulf states, and targets critical to the world’s production of oil and natural gas.
The intensity of the attacks and the lack of any apparent exit plan set the stage for a prolonged conflict with far-reaching consequences. Israel and the US have given conflicting answers about what exactly the war’s objectives are or what the endgame might be.
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 31 in Lebanon, according to authorities.
The US military announced Monday that two previously unaccounted for service members were confirmed dead, bringing the total American casualties during the operations against Iran up to six.
Number of wounded troops in Iran grows
The conflict has left 18 American service members seriously wounded, Capt. Tim Hawkins, a spokesman for US Central Command said Monday.
The number has grown from the five troops initially reported as seriously wounded on Sunday morning.
Six service members also have been killed in Kuwait. All six were Army soldiers and part of the same logistics unit, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
When asked about the deaths Monday, Hegseth said an Iranian weapon made it past allied air defenses “and, in that particular case, happened to hit a tactical operations centre that was fortified.”
Bahrain ambassador criticises Iran for targeting his country, Gulf nations at UN meeting chaired by US first lady
Bahrain’s UN Ambassador Jamal Alrowaiei told the UN Security Council “the Iranian aggression is resulting in significant material and psychological damages that threaten the safety and security of residents and citizens.” Alrowaiei, the Arab representative on the 15-member council, said the ongoing Iranian attacks on civilian facilities and residential areas in Bahrain, which hosts a major US naval base, have forced schools to close temporarily to protect students and children.
In the broader region, he told the council Monday that according to the U.N. children’s agency, UNICEF, 30 million children in the Middle East and north Africa are out of school or not receiving formal education — “equivalent to one in every three children being deprived of education.”
State Department urges Americans to leave more than a dozen Middle Eastern countries
The State Department urged Monday that all US citizens leave more than a dozen Middle Eastern countries due to safety risks with the ongoing escalations that have slipped the region into significant chaos.
US Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Mora Namdar posted on the social media site X that Americans in countries, including Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Israel, should “DEPART NOW” using any available commercial transportation.
The guidance comes as some major airlines have canceled flights to and from the region as the war that began when U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Saturday. It has since grown into a wider regional conflict, touching nearly every country nearby.
Israel says it will reopen a Gaza border crossing closed since Iran war began
COGAT, the Israeli military body overseeing civilian affairs in Gaza, announced one crossing into the territory would reopen on Tuesday “for the gradual entry of humanitarian aid.” At the start of the war with Iran, Israel had said it couldn’t safely operate the Gaza crossings under fire. However, the UN’s humanitarian office monitoring Gaza warned Monday that a total closure would stretch stocks of food, water and fuel, as well as further inflate the price of basic goods in the devastated Palestinian territory.
In its announcement late Monday, COGAT said it would work in coordination with the American Civil Military Coordination Center and under some security restrictions to reopen the Kerem Shalom Crossing.
US Embassy in Jordan temporarily evacuates staff
Diplomatic staff at the US Embassy in Jordan have left the embassy compound in Amman “due to a threat.” The US diplomatic mission did not disclose additional details, but the announcement comes not long after Iran-backed Iraqi militia Kataib Hezbollah threatened to attack American military bases in Jordan.
The announcement that embassy personnel had left the compound in Amman appeared to be a prelude to a potentially larger departure of diplomatic staff from Jordan.
Jordanian police meanwhile urged residents living near the embassy to stay indoors, close windows and take other “precautionary measures.”
Rubio warns hardest hits’ are still to come on Iran
Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks to reporters before his scheduled House and Senate Intelligence Committees briefing about Iran on Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, March 2, 2026.
Pressed on how long the US military would remain focused on Iran, Rubio said as long as it takes.
“The hardest hits are yet to come from the US military. The next phase will be even more punishing on Iran than it is right now,” he told reporters at the US Capitol.
“How long will it take? I don’t know how long it will take,” he said. “We have objectives. We will do this as long as it takes to achieve those objectives.”
Rubio says regime change is not the objective in Iran
“We would love for there to be an Iran that’s not governed by radical Shia clerics,” he said heading into a classified briefing on Capitol Hill. “That’s not the objective.” The initial joint US-Israeli strikes on Iran killed the country’s Supreme Leader Ali Ayatollah Khamenei, along with many other top leaders.
“The objectives of this operation are to destroy their ballistic missile capability and make sure they can’t rebuild it, and make sure that they can’t hide behind that to have a nuclear program,” he said. “That’s the objective of the mission.” Rubio, Hegseth and others are briefing the congressional leaders and the top lawmakers on the national security committees in Congress about the Iran operation.
US death toll rises to 6 troops
The US military on Monday announced the deaths of two more American service members during the operations against Iran, bringing the total death toll to six people.
US Central Command stated in a post on X that U.S. forces “recently recovered the remains of two previously unaccounted for service members from a facility that was struck during Iran’s initial attacks in the region.” The post did not state where two service members were killed. Their identities are being withheld until 24 hours after their families are notified, the military said.
Published on March 3, 2026