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Israel, Iran trade blows across region: latest developments in US-Iran war Paris, France, March 2 (AFP) Mar 02, 2026 Israel traded fire with Hezbollah in Lebanon on Monday and pressed its attacks on Iran as the fallout from two days of US-Israeli strikes widened, with Iranian counterattacks hitting Gulf states and a British base in Cyprus. US President Donald Trump vowed to avenge the deaths of US service members and said the war with Iran could last for weeks. Here are the latest developments:
Loud explosions were heard in several parts of the Iranian capital, AFP journalists said, shaking apartment buildings in the centre. Iran's president appointed Revolutionary Guards general Majid Ebnelreza as acting defence minister after his predecessor was killed in Israeli-US strikes.
The Israeli army told residents in towns and villages in the south to leave the area, though the army said there was no reason yet for a ground invasion. The Lebanese government imposed an "immediate ban" on Hezbollah's military and security activities and called for it to hand over its weapons to the state, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam announced.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards issued statements throughout the day describing waves of missile and drone attacks on Israel, with targets including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office along with security sites in Tel Aviv, Haifa and east Jerusalem. A series of explosions were heard above Jerusalem late morning Monday.
QatarEnergy was forced to halt LNG production after a processing base and a power plant were hit, one person was killed as an oil tanker was targeted off Oman, and British officials said a vessel in a Bahrain port had been struck by "unknown projectiles". The US embassy in Kuwait, where black smoke could be seen, said in a statement that people should not come to the diplomatic mission: "Take cover in your residence on the lowest available floor and away from windows. Do not go outside."
The US leader also called on Iranians to rise up, saying: "America is with you." He warned the country's Revolutionary Guards to surrender or face "certain death".
However, Iran's security chief Ali Larijani said later: "Iran, unlike the United States, has prepared itself for a long war."
"Following the joint US-Israeli attack on Arag square in southern Tehran on Sunday evening, parts of the Golestan Palace... were damaged," the ISNA news agency reported, adding that windows, doors and mirrors were hit by reverberations from blasts.
While Greece said it was sending two frigates and two F-16 jets to Cyprus, the island's government said it would seek guarantees that British bases there would not be used for anything other than humanitarian purposes. - UK-US spat -
"It took far too much time. Far too much time," Trump told the Daily Telegraph, adding he was "very disappointed" with the initial refusal.
The Saudi army later raised its readiness to "full alert".
Later, state media reported Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his Iranian counterpart Beijing "supports Iran defending sovereignty".
He said Trump's "delusional fantasies" had plunged the region into chaos.
Rubio, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and military chief Dan Caine "will brief the full membership of both chambers of Congress," White House spokesman Dylan Johnson said.
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