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

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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, killing at least 17 people, including three US service members, across the region and in Israel.

Several US military aircraft crashed in Kuwait on Monday, the Gulf country’s defense ministry said, adding that “all crew members survived.” 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, the country’s Ministry of Defense said “several United States military aircraft crashed” on Monday, without specifying the cause, and that “all crew members survived.” Videos geolocated by CNN showed a fighter jet crashing and a pilot parachuting to the ground.

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 threats posed by Iran and, most notably, to prevent the Islamic regime from acquiring a nuclear weapon, without providing any evidence that it was any closer to obtaining one.

The White House had previously claimed to have “totally” obliterated that threat when it briefly joined Israel’s 12-day war against Iran in June, a campaign which left the regime severely weakened.

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 the largest buildup of military materiel in the Middle East since the invasion of Iraq in 2003. 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. They decided to execute the operation as top Iranian officials, including Khamenei, planned to meet Saturday morning in Tehran.

In his video, Trump accused Iran of rejecting “every opportunity to renounce their nuclear ambitions” and said the US “can’t take it anymore.” He said it has “always” been US policy that “this terrorist regime can never have a nuclear weapon,” without providing evidence that Iran was any closer to obtaining one.

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.

Under Iran’s constitution, a three-person leadership council holds power until the new supreme leader is named. It includes the moderate president, Masoud Pezeshkian, the hard-line 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 other senior military officials in Saturday’s strikes.

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 and Karla Cripps contributed reporting.