The war with Iran, which began on Friday night when the U.S. and Israel launched joint strikes against Tehran, entered its fourth day Tuesday, with CENTCOM reporting at least six U.S. servicemen killed. Reports suggest that number is an undercount. The Iranian Red Crescent Society reported that the death toll in Iran is already at least 787 people.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday night confirmed what the New York Times had reported earlier in the day, that the U.S. made the decision to bomb Iran to support a war that Israel had decided to launch. “We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action” against Iran, Rubio told reporters on Capitol Hill, adding that “we knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces” from Iran.
The State Department urged Americans in 14 different countries in the region to immediately evacuate due to safety risks. The U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday morning warned of an “imminent” attack on the Saudi city of Dhahran, the site of Saudi Aramco headquarters.
“Do not come to the U.S. Consulate [in Dhahrab],” the embassy announced. “Take cover immediately in your residence on the lowest available floor and away from windows.”
The United States is weighing the possible relocation of air defense assets, including THAAD and Patriot batteries stationed with U.S. Forces Korea, to the Middle East if operations against Iran extend beyond the four- to five-week timeline projected by President Donald Trump. In a Monday evening post on Truth Social, Trump claimed the United States’ medium and upper-tier munitions stockpiles are at historic highs and sufficient to sustain prolonged conflict.
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“Wars can be fought ‘forever,’ and very successfully,” he wrote, while acknowledging that top-end weapons inventories are “not where we want to be.”
Israel sent ground troops into southern Lebanon on Tuesday morning and told residents of more than 80 villages to evacuate. According to a senior Israeli official cited by Fox News, Israeli forces struck a meeting of Iran’s Supreme Council as members gathered to select a successor to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. During a visit to a site struck by an Iranian missile on Monday evening, Israel’s Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu invoked Amalek to rally IDF soldiers for war. “We read in this week’s Torah portion, ‘Remember what Amalek did to you.’ We remember—and we act.”
Global stock markets spiraled on Tuesday morning while the price of oil surged. The price of gasoline increased 11 cents overnight, AARP says. The Strait of Hormuz, an important shipping route for oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) is currently shut down. The EU has asked Ukraine to allow an inspection of its Druzhba pipeline with Russia, seeking to renew European access to Russian oil.
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