Country by country, here’s how the unfolding war is affecting the Middle East and beyond
JERUSALEM (AP) — The broadening Iran war has ricocheted across the region and beyond, with nearly every country in the Middle East sustaining damage from missile hits, drone strikes or shrapnel. Many are reporting casualties, and key embassies, economic engines and passageways have closed down.
On Thursday, with the conflict’s footprint growing, Azerbaijan accused Iran of carrying out a drone attack against it. Iran denied that, as its retaliatory attacks on Israel, other countries and American military bases continued.
Since the war started with a joint U.S.-Israel attack on Iran on Saturday, foreign governments have urged citizens to leave Middle East countries on any available commercial flight. Airspaces have closed, cruise ships have been unable to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, and major airlines have canceled flights. The U.S. State Department says it has evacuated nonemergency personnel and families in six nations. It has advised citizens from more than a dozen countries to leave. Governments from Russia to Germany and India also scrambled to run repatriation flights.
Here’s a country-by-country breakdown of the impact of the war so far.
All airspace information is for commercial flights, from the real-time flight-tracking service Flightradar 24, as of Thursday, or national authorities.
Iran
Death toll: At least 1,230 according to Iran’s Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs. It is unknown how many are civilians.
Major casualty incidents: More than 160 were killed by a strike on an elementary school in Minab, according to the state-run IRNA news agency. Israel says it was not involved in the incident. When asked by reporters about it, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he did not have details but that the U.S. would not deliberately target a school.
Damage and impact: State TV and the Red Crescent Society of Iran say the U.S.-Israeli strikes have hit hospitals, pharmacies, schools, police stations, gyms, missile launchers, government buildings in Tehran and leadership compounds. Israel says it is also targeting nuclear infrastructure. Reports on state TV quote Iranians saying their homes have been damaged. The Red Crescent Society says the strikes have hit 174 cities in the country. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and top military officials have been killed.
Airspace: Closed.
Israel and the Palestinian territories
Death toll: Eleven civilians have been killed, according to Israeli authorities. That includes three siblings, ages 16, 15, 13; a Filipina caretaker killed while escorting the woman in her charge to a shelter; and a mother of three who was a volunteer medic.
Major casualty incidents: A strike in Beit Shemesh left nine dead.
Damage and impact: Several locations — among them a synagogue and public shelter in Beit Shemesh, an apartment building in Tel Aviv, a road in Jerusalem — have been hit by Iranian missiles. Israeli police also say an Iranian warhead landed close to Jerusalem’s Old City, close to many holy sites. The extent of damage to Israeli military bases and other sensitive locations is unknown; the military does not reveal that information.
Airspace: Closed.
Lebanon
Death toll: One hundred and two people have been killed and 638 wounded, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said Tuesday evening. Officials with the Iranian-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group were also killed. Hezbollah has not confirmed anyone killed in their ranks in this conflict, though Israel says it has struck only Hezbollah-linked targets.
Major casualty incidents: Israeli airstrikes killed six people in a residential complex in Baalbeck, state-run media reported. Others hit the towns of Aramoun and Saadiyat, killing six and wounding eight.
Damage and impact: On Wednesday, Israel warned residents of large parts of southern Lebanon and Beirut’s southern suburbs to evacuate for their lives. Nearly 84,000 people have been displaced in Lebanon, according to the Lebanese social affairs minister Tuesday.
Israel says it is targeting “Hezbollah command centers and weapons storage facilities,” and it sent ground troops into southern Lebanon border areas. Hezbollah in response has launched drones toward Israel.
U.N. peacekeepers in southern Lebanon say they have seen and heard clashes, including ground combat, in southern Lebanon as more Israeli forces have moved across the border.
Anxieties have been running high over a buildup of Syrian forces on the border.
Airspace: Lebanon’s airspace is not fully closed. Flights are coming and going, but many airlines have canceled flights.
Kuwait
Casualties: At least 10 people have died in Kuwait. Health authorities announced the deaths of two civilians — one migrant worker killed in a strike that injured 32 others and an 11-year-old girl killed after shrapnel fell in a residential area in Kuwait City. And on Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Rubio expressed condolences for the deaths of at least two Kuwaiti troops killed in Iranian retaliatory strikes.
Major casualty incidents: Six American soldiers were killed at an operations center located at a civilian port in Kuwait, more than 10 miles (16 kilometers) from the main Army base, according to satellite images and a U.S. official.
Damage and impact: On Monday, the U.S. Embassy compound in Kuwait was struck. On Thursday, the embassy closed — fully shutting down operations, the second such move in the Middle East and South Asia since the war with Iran began. A satellite image taken Monday and reviewed by AP shows the main building in the complex destroyed, with a trail of black smoke rising from it. It’s in Port Shuaiba, a working seaport south of Kuwait City.
Missiles were shot toward Kuwait on Thursday evening, activating air defense systems, the army general chief of staff said in a statement.
Airspace: Closed
United Arab Emirates
Casualties: Three civilians have been killed in the UAE, foreign workers from Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan, the country reported. At least 68 people have been injured.
Damage and impact: The United Arab Emirates’ Defense Ministry said Thursday that one ballistic missile and six drones hit the country’s territory. The ministry also said it repelled six missiles and 131 drones Thursday, and hundreds since the start of the war. Earlier this week, shrapnel from the interception of cruise missiles killed three residents, and falling shrapnel in past days has wounded 94, it said.
An Iranian drone slammed into a parking lot outside the U.S. consulate in Dubai on Tuesday, sparking a small fire, according to U.S. Secretary of State Rubio.
The city of Dubai, with a global reputation as the safest place in the Middle East and a hub for global investment, has sustained damage to its international airport and, according to CENTCOM, hotels along its coastline. Iran also targeted two Amazon data centers in the UAE, the company said Tuesday.
Airspace: Closed.
Bahrain
Casualties: One civilian, an Asian worker, was killed by a fire set by a strike Monday, according to Bahrain’s Interior Ministry. Two others were wounded.
Damage and impact: Bahrain said a fire was started Thursday night by an Iranian missile that hit a state-run oil refinery in Maameer, south of the capital. It said the fire was extinguished without injuries and the refinery was still working.
Its defense ministry said Thursday it had intercepted 75 Iranian ballistic missiles, destroying 65 while 10 fell inside its territory. It also reported intercepting 124 drones, downing 88.
Amazon said Tuesday there was a drone impact near one of its data centers.
Airspace: Closed.
Syria
Damage and casualties: Several people, including children, suffered minor injuries in the countryside outside Damascus from Iranian missile debris, Syria’s state news agency SANA said. Some areas in Syria’s southern provinces also saw missile debris fall from Iranian projectiles fired toward Israel, with no additional injuries or material damage reported, SANA said.
Airspace: Closed.
Iraq
Casualties: Strikes on Iranian proxy sites by the U.S. or Israel have killed militia members, though it’s not clear how many.
Damage and impact: A security official with Iraq’s navy said an oil tanker flying the Bahamas flag was hit by an explosion Thursday while docked near Khor al-Zubair port in southern Iraq. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly.
It comes after a wave of drone and missile attacks intercepted over Irbil on Tuesday, the capital of northern Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish region. Multiple drones targeted areas around the U.S. consulate building but did not hit it directly. Debris from the intercepted drones caused fires and property damage.
Iran-linked Iraqi militias have also claimed multiple attacks on the Kurdish region, which hosts bases with U.S. troops.
Protesters also attempted to storm the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad on Sunday.
Iraq’s Ministry of Oil said Tuesday that it would stop production in a key oil field because of disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz, causing crude oil prices to surge worldwide.
Airspace: Closed.
Jordan
Damage and impact: Jordanian police announced Sunday that five people were injured by falling shrapnel after Iranian projectiles were intercepted in the kingdom’s airspace.
Airspace: Open, but many airlines have canceled flights.
Saudi Arabia
Damage and impact: Saudi Arabia’s Defense Ministry said early Wednesday that forces have intercepted and destroyed nine drones over the country since the war began. It came a day after Iran struck the U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia’s capital of Riyadh with two drones, causing “limited fire” and minor damage, according to Saudi Arabia’s Defense Ministry. The embassy has urged Americans to avoid the compound.
Saudi Arabia’s Ras Tanura oil refinery also came under attack from drones, but its defenses downed the aircraft, a military spokesman told the state-run Saudi Press Agency. The refinery has a capacity of over half a million barrels of crude oil a day.
Airspace: Partially closed in the area bordering Iraq and the Persian Gulf.
Egypt
Damage and impact: The ripple effects of the war have hit Egypt’s struggling economy, as global shipping firms decided to reroute vessel fleets away from the Suez Canal. The canal, which connects the Mediterranean and Red Seas, is a major source of foreign currency for the cash-strapped country.
Airspace: Commercial flights are leaving the country, though there have been cancellations, and most countries are recommending residents travel through Taba and Sharm al-Sheikh instead of Cairo.
Qatar
Damage and impact: Qatar’s Ministry of Defense said Thursday that 14 ballistic missiles and four drones were fired at the country. It said air defenses intercepted all the drones and 13 of the missiles, while the 14th fell in the sea. On Wednesday, it said Iran launched two ballistic missiles against it, with one hitting Al-Udeid Qatari Base, though it didn’t cause casualties.
Airspace: Closed.
Oman
Casualties: An Indian mariner was killed off the coast of Muscat, the sultanate’s capital, Monday, when a bomb-carrying drone boat exploded against a Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker. Four more mariners were injured Sunday when their oil tanker in the strategic Strait of Hormuz came under attack, the state-run Oman News Agency said. It’s not clear who launched either attack, but Iran has been threatening vessels approaching the Strait.
Damage and impact: Oman, long an intermediary between the West and Iran, has repeatedly come under attack by Iran. A vessel was hit by a projectile early Wednesday in the Gulf of Oman off the United Arab Emirates, according to an agency of the U.K. military. There were no reported casualties. Drone attacks have also targeted the country’s largest port of Salalah, as well as Duqm port.
Airspace: Open, but many commercial flights are canceled. Muscat airport has become a base for evacuation flights.
Cyprus
Damage and impact: A Shahed drone damaged a hangar at a British air base on Cyprus’ southern coastline. Cyprus says the drone was launched from Beirut.
Turkey
Damage and impact: NATO defense systems have intercepted a ballistic missile launched from Iran as it headed toward Turkey’s airspace, the country’s defense ministry said. A ministry statement said the missile was detected after crossing the Iraqi and Syrian airspace and was intercepted by NATO units stationed in the eastern Mediterranean.
Debris from the missile fell into a district of Hatay province, near the border with Syria. There were no casualties.
Airspace: Open
Sri Lanka
Damage and impact: A U.S. submarine sank an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean outside Sri Lanka’s territorial waters Wednesday. Sri Lankan officials say 87 bodies were recovered and 32 people rescued, with roughly 180 people believed to have been aboard the IRIS Dena.
On Thursday, the country said another Iranian ship arrived in its waters, with authorities informed that one of its engines suffered a failure and rescuers evacuating 200 sailors.
Airspace: Open
Azerbaijan
Damage and impact: The country said Thursday that Iranian drones had attacked its exclave of Nakhchivan, injuring four civilians and damaging an airport building. Iran denied launching the drone. Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev called it “a groundless act of terror and aggression” and said the military had been instructed “to prepare and implement retaliatory measures.”
Airspace: Southern sector closed
___
AP writers Toqa Ezzidin in Cairo; Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad; Kareem Chehayeb, Abby Sewell and Bassem Mroue in Beirut; Samy Magdy in Cairo; Jon Gambrell in Dubai; Haratha Mallawarachi in Colombo, Sri Lanka; Sam Metz in Ramallah; Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey; Menelaos Hadjicostis in Nicosia, Cyprus; Omar Akour in Amman, Jordan; and Konstantin Toropin and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.