Iranian drones hit the US Embassy in Saudi Arabia, while hundreds are
reported dead in Iran
[March 03, 2026]
By JON GAMBRELL, ELENA BECATOROS and SAMY MAGDY
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran struck the U.S. Embassy in Saudi
Arabia’s capital with a drone early Tuesday as it kept hitting targets
around the region, while the United States and Israel pounded Iran with
airstrikes in what U.S. President Donald Trump suggested was just the
start of a relentless campaign that could last more than a month.
The attack from two drones on the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh caused a
“limited fire” and minor damage, according to Saudi Arabia’s Defense
Ministry, and the embassy urged Americans to avoid the compound. It
followed an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait, which announced
Tuesday it had been closed until further notice. The U.S. State
Department also ordered the evacuation of non-emergency personnel and
family in Kuwait, as well as Bahrain, Iraq, Qatar, Jordan and the United
Arab Emirates as a precaution.
The expanding conflict has so far killed hundreds of people, the vast
majority in Iran.
Across Iran’s capital, explosions rang out throughout the night into
Tuesday, with aircraft heard overhead. It was not immediately clear what
had been hit. The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, the International
Atomic Energy Agency, said Iran’s Natanz nuclear enrichment site had
sustained “some recent damage,” though there was “no radiological
consequence expected.” Natanz earlier came under attack by the U.S. in
the 12-day Iran-Israel war in June.
In Lebanon, Israel launched more strikes on Hezbollah, the Iran-backed
militia group. Explosions could be heard and smoke seen in a southern
suburb of Beirut. Israel also said its soldiers were “operating in
southern Lebanon.” Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said the
Lebanese army was evacuating some of its positions along the border.
The conflict could have far-reaching consequences
The expansion of Iranian retaliation across the Gulf and the intensity
of the Israeli and American attacks, the killing of Iranian Supreme
Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the lack of any apparent exit plan
portend a possibly prolonged conflict with far-reaching consequences.
Iran has hit many countries deemed safe havens in the Mideast in
retaliation for the U.S. and Israeli strikes. Recent targets include two
Amazon data centers in the UAE and a drone impact near another in
Bahrain that caused damage, the company said Tuesday. Iran has also hit
energy facilities in Qatar and Saudi Arabia, and attacked several ships
in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through
which a fifth of all oil traded passes, sending global oil and natural
gas prices soaring.
“The Strait of Hormuz is closed," declared Iranian Brig. Gen. Ebrahim
Jabbari, an adviser to the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, threatening
to set fire to any ships attempting to transit. “Don’t come to this
region.”
US citizens urged to leave
The U.S. State Department urged U.S. citizens to leave more than a dozen
Middle Eastern countries due to safety risks, as have many other
countries, though with much of the airspace closed many remain stranded.
Trump said operations are likely to last four to five weeks but that he
was prepared “to go far longer than that.” He later added that the U.S.
had a “virtually unlimited supply” of munitions and pre-positioned “high
grade weaponry.”
“Wars can be fought ‘forever,’ and very successfully, using just these
supplies,” he wrote on social media.
Hundreds dead in Iran and dozens in Lebanon along with 11 in Israel
The Iranian Red Crescent Society said the U.S.-Israeli operation has
killed at least 787 people. In Israel, where several locations were hit
by Iranian missiles, 11 people were killed. The semiofficial Tasnim news
agency reported airstrikes killed 13 Iranian troops in Kerman, 800
kilometers (500 miles) southeast of Iran’s capital, Tehran.
Israel’s retaliatory strikes against Hezbollah killed 52 people in
Lebanon.
“Military escalation would force more families from their homes and hit
civilians hard,” said Amy Pope, director general of the International
Organization on Migration, calling for the international community to
press for de-escalation. “Millions are already displaced in the region.”
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An Iranian flag is placed among the ruins of a police station struck
Monday during the U.S.–Israeli military campaign in Tehran, Iran,
Tuesday, March 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
The U.S. military has confirmed six deaths of American service
members. All six were Army soldiers in a logistics unit in Kuwait,
according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to comment
publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Three people were killed in the UAE, and one each in Kuwait and
Bahrain.
The chaos of the conflict became apparent when the U.S. military
said Kuwait had “mistakenly shot down” three American fighter jets
while Iran was attacking it with aircraft, ballistic missiles and
drones. U.S. Central Command said all six pilots ejected safely.
Israel and US target nuclear facilities and missile
infrastructure
Iranian state TV said strikes caused two explosions early Tuesday at
a broadcasting facility in Tehran, but said no one was injured.
Reza Najafi, Iran’s ambassador to the International Atomic Energy
Agency, told reporters that airstrikes targeted the Natanz nuclear
enrichment site on Sunday.
“Their justification that Iran wants to develop nuclear weapons is
simply a big lie,” he said.
Israel and the U.S. have not acknowledged strikes at the site, which
the U.S. bombed in the 12-day war between Iran and Israel in June.
Israel has said it is targeting the “leadership and nuclear
infrastructure.”
Trump said the military campaign’s objectives are to destroy Iran’s
missile capabilities, wipe out its navy, prevent it from obtaining a
nuclear weapon and ensure that it cannot continue to support allied
groups like Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which fired missiles at Israel on
Monday.
Iran has said it has not enriched uranium since June, though it has
maintained its right to do so and says its nuclear program is
peaceful.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu maintained, however, that
Iran was rebuilding “new sites, new places” underground for making
atomic bombs. He offered no evidence to support his claim.
“We had to take the action now and we did,” Netanyahu told Fox News
Channel’s Hannity.
Satellite photos analyzed by The Associated Press showed limited
activity at two nuclear sites in Iran before the war. Analysts said
Tehran was likely assessing damage from the 2025 U.S. strikes and
possibly salvaging what remained.
Attacks on Iran have drawn in proxy forces from around region
The conflict has also spread to Lebanon, where the Iranian-supported
militant group Hezbollah fired missiles at Israel on Monday,
prompting Israel to retaliate.
At least 52 people have been killed and 154 wounded, Lebanese
authorities said.
Israel hit Beirut with more airstrikes early Tuesday, saying it was
targeting “Hezbollah command centers and weapons storage
facilities.”
Hezbollah also said it launched drones targeting an Israeli air
base. The Israeli military said it downed two drones.
An Iranian-linked militant in Iraq has also claimed strikes on U.S.
military facilities there. The Israeli military said its troops
operating in southern Lebanon were positioned at several points near
the border in what it described as a “forward defense posture.”
The army said there were no plans to evacuate Israeli residents of
border areas.
___
David Rising in Bangkok, Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel, Hallie
Golden in Seattle, and Giovanna Dell'Orto in Miami contributed to
this report. Becatoros reported from Athens, Greece, and Magdy
reported from Cairo.
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