Middle East chaos spreads as Iran continues retaliation

Donald Trump claims he took ‘last, best chance to strike’

- TARA COBHAM

The war in the Middle East continued to escalate yesterday, with multiple countries now dragged into the growing conflict between the US, Israel and Iran.

The US and Israel have continued to pound Iran following the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei over the weekend, with Donald Trump warning the worst is yet to come.

“We haven’t even started hitting them hard,” he told CNN. “The big wave hasn’t even happened. The big one is coming soon.”

"This was our last, best chance to strike - what we're doing right now - and eliminate the intolerable threats posed by this sick and sinister regime," Mr Trump said later.

Tehran and its allies have hit back, with the UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Jordan, Oman and Saudi Arabia among the nations struck in retaliatory attacks.

A series of loud explosions were heard across Gulf cities yesterday, with civilian targets in the region, including hotels and airports, also hit.

Tourists and residents in supposed Middle Eastern safe havens like Dubai have described missiles flying past their windows, while hundreds of thousands of airline passengers have found themselves stranded by flights cancelled in hotspot areas.

The conflict is already having a global economic impact with oil prices shooting up in response to the crisis. The death toll continues to climb on all sides, with fears the strikes could go on for weeks. The Iranian Red Crescent Society said that the US-Israeli operation has already killed at least 555 people, with reports of 165 victims at a girls' school in southern Iran.