Iran war spreads across region as Israel strikes Hezbollah

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WASHINGTON - Israel bombarded Lebanon on March 2, expanding conflict across the region after the massive Israel-US attack on Iran that President Donald Trump launched to topple Tehran’s ruling clerics.

Israeli forces pounded targets across Lebanon

including Beirut, after Hezbollah – the Tehran-backed armed Shi’ite Muslim movement – fired rockets towards Israel in retaliation for the killing of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

“Large-scale strikes” were also ongoing in the heart of Tehran, Israeli forces said, as the US military widened its targets across Iran on March 1.

Retaliating against the heavy strikes that Washington said destroyed the headquarters of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Iranian forces fired missiles and drones across the Middle East, claiming lives in Israel and the United Arab Emirates.

Fresh explosions were heard across Doha, Dubai and Manama on the morning of March 2, AFP correspondents reported.

Mr Trump vowed to avenge the first US deaths, telling The New York Times that the US and Israel could keep up the same level of attacks for four to five weeks.

“It won’t be difficult. We have tremendous amounts of ammunition,” he said, adding that he had a shortlist of three unnamed people he favoured to lead Iran after the war.

But Mr Ali Larijani, the powerful head of Tehran’s Supreme National Security Council,

voiced defiance

.

Iran “will not negotiate with the United States”, he wrote on X, adding that “Trump plunged the region into chaos with his ‘delusional fantasies’ and now fears more American troop casualties”.

Mr Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have urged Iranians to overthrow the government in Iran, the sworn foe of Israel and the US since the 1979 Islamic revolution toppled the pro-Western shah.

In a video address, Mr Trump urged Iranian security forces “to lay down your arms and receive full immunity or face certain death”.

“It will be certain death,” he repeated. “It won’t be pretty.”

The Pentagon said that

three US service members were killed

and five seriously wounded in the operation it has called Epic Fury.

“Sadly, there will likely be more before it ends,” Mr Trump said.

“But America will avenge their deaths and deliver the most punishing blow to the terrorists who have waged war against, basically, civilisation.”

Mr Trump, who campaigned denouncing foreign interventions, has done little to explain the case for war to the US public.

Attacks across Middle East

Explosions rocked Beirut before dawn and southern Lebanon residents fled, according to AFP journalists, after the Israeli military announced it was striking both parts of the country.

In the city of Sidon, cars of families escaping from further south packed roads, an AFP journalist said, adding some vehicles had mattresses tied to the roof.

Hezbollah, which was weakened by an earlier Israeli offensive, said it had fired rockets and drones at Israel “in retaliation for the pure blood” of Mr Khamenei – the first time it has claimed such an attack since a November 2024 ceasefire agreement following a year of war between them.

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, whose government has pushed for Hezbollah’s disarmament, called March 2’s rocket fire “irresponsible”.

Such action “endangers Lebanon’s security and safety, and gives Israel pretexts to continue its attacks on it”, Mr Salam said on X.

In Israel, an Iranian missile attack killed at least nine people and injured dozens more in the central city of Beit Shemesh, after a death the previous day near Tel Aviv.

Three people were also injured on one of the main roads of Jerusalem.

Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian, whose elected role is subordinate to that of the supreme leader, called Mr Khamenei’s killing a “declaration of war against Muslims”.

“Iran considers it its legitimate duty and right to avenge the perpetrators,” Mr Pezeshkian said.

‘Rise up’

Israel and the US attacked Iran weeks after the authorities ruthlessly crushed mass protests, killing thousands.

The demonstrations, initially sparked by economic anxiety but also including calls for greater social freedoms, were considered one of the most serious threats to the religious state.

Mr Trump called on Iranians to rise up, and said: “America is with you.”

Mr Reza Pahlavi, the son of the late shah, cautioned Iranians to stay vigilant in the face of air strikes and await the right moment to return to the streets.

But he also urged “nightly chants” against the Islamic republic.

Cheers were heard as some Iranians celebrated reports of the death of Mr Khamenei, but after state media confirmed his killing, pro-government demonstrations also formed, chanting: “Death to America!”

Iran named Ayatollah Alireza Arafi to join Mr Pezeshkian on an interim leadership council to lead the country while a permanent successor is found for the supreme leader.

Mixed support

While many in the Iranian diaspora cheered Mr Khamenei’s death, anger was seen on the streets of Iran’s neighbour Pakistan, where officials said 17 people were killed and protesters tried to storm the US consulate in Karachi.

World leaders have given a mixed reaction to the attack, which came two days after Iran and the US held talks on Tehran’s nuclear programme.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on March 1 that he would

let the United States use British bases

for “defensive” strikes but that his country – a steadfast partner in the US-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan – “will not join offensive action now”.

Iran’s first retaliatory strikes on Feb 28 hit all the Gulf states apart from mediator Oman.

On March 1, Oman’s commercial port of Duqm was hit by two drones, injuring a foreign worker, the Oman News Agency said.

Three ships were also attacked in the Strait of Hormuz on March 1 after Iran had previously declared the strategic waterway was closed, sending global oil prices spiking.

The IRGC claimed to strike the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, but the Pentagon said the “missiles launched didn’t even come close”.

Mr Trump said that US military strikes had sunk nine Iranian naval vessels and partially destroyed its navy headquarters.

Iran’s retaliatory strikes in the Gulf have killed at least four people and wounded dozens of others.

Inside Iran, the Red Crescent in its last toll issued on the evening of Feb 28 said that strikes had killed 201 people and injured hundreds more.

Iran’s judiciary confirmed that Mr Ali Shamkhani, a top adviser to Mr Khamenei, and General Mohammad Pakpour, the head of the IRGC, were among those killed. AFP