Iran war continues to escalate

IRAN and Iranian-backed militias fired missiles at Israel and Arab states yesterday, apparently hitting the United States embassy compound in Kuwait, while Israel and the US pounded targets in Iran as the war expanded yesterday with statements of defiance and increasing casualties.

- 

A plume of smoke rises after a military strike hits Tehran, Iran's capital, yesterday

(MOHSEN GANJI/ASSOCIATED PRESS)

The US military said Kuwait had "mistakenly shot down" three American F-15E Strike Eagles during a combat mission while attacks from Iranian aircraft, ballistic missiles, and drones were under way.

At least 555 people have been killed in Iran so far due to the US-Israeli military onslaught, the Iranian Red Crescent Society said, and more than 130 cities across the country have come under attack, while 11 people have been killed in Israel and 31 in Lebanon, according to authorities in those countries.

As the attacks on Iran continued, the Hezbollah militant group said it fired missiles from Lebanon into Israel early yesterday in response to the killing of Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khame-nei, last Saturday, and “repeated Israeli aggressions”.