DUBAI, United Arab Emirates • Israel and the United States pounded Iran in an escalating campaign that President Donald Trump said Monday would likely take several weeks.

Tehran and its allies hit back across the region, striking Israel and a variety of targets inside Gulf states, including energy facilities in Qatar and the American embassy in Saudi Arabia.

The intensity of the attacks and the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei set the stage for a widespread conflict that Middle East.

Places deemed safe havens in the Mideast, such as Dubai, have seen incoming fire; hundreds of thousands of airline passengers are stranded around the globe; energy prices shot up; and U.S. allies pledged to help stop Iranian missiles and drones.

Meanwhile, Iranians across the globe — from Iran to Europe to cities like Denver in the U.S. — celebrated the death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed following the initial wave of U.S.-Israel attacks on Saturday. There were also public mourning for the Iranian leader.

As the attacks from both sides intensified, Trump said operations are likely to last four to five weeks but that he was prepared “to go far longer than that.”

The State Department on Monday urged U.S. citizens to leave more than a dozen Middle Eastern countries due to safety risks.

“The hardest hits are yet to come from the U.S. military,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters. “The next phase will be even more punishing on Iran than it is right now.”

Trump said the military campaign’s objectives are to destroy Iran’s missile capabilities, wipe out its navy, prevent it from obtaining a nuclear weapon and ensure that it cannot continue to support allied groups, such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which fired missiles at Israel on Monday.

As several airstrikes hit Iran’s capital, Tehran, the top security official Ali Larijani vowed on X: “We will not negotiate with the United States.”

Ahead of the conflict, two brigades from Fort Carson deployed to the Middle East to assist with peacekeeping efforts in the area over the summer, according to the Army.

The 4th Combat Aviation Brigade and the 4th Sustainment Brigade are both stationed in the region as part of regular rotations. The aviation brigade took Apache, Blackhawk and Chinook helicopters with them. Helicopters typically fly low and slow.

Space Command, headquartered in Colorado Springs, and Cyber Command, headquartered in Maryland, both played a role in the war in Iran ahead of the first airstrikes on Saturday. 

The commands paved the way for the attack by “disrupting and degrading and blinding Iran’s ability to see, communicate and respond,” said Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He did not provide additional detail. 

Space Force guardians played a similar role in Operation Midnight Hammer, when the U.S. bombed Iran’s nuclear sites and ensured the B-2 stealth bombers got in and got out safely in part through electromagnetic warfare.

Disrupting electromagnetic signals can interfere with radar or drown out GPS, The Denver Gazette reported previously. 

Guardians are likely playing an ongoing role in the conflict by providing missile warning and missile tracking. The Second Space Warning squadron at Buckley Space Force Base uses infrared satellites to track missiles, and the 5^th Space Warning Squadron is focused on providing real-time missile warning for the military. 

Saudi Arabia said early Tuesday that the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh came under attack from two drones, causing a “limited fire” and minor damage. A resident in the neighborhood of the embassy, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the security situation, described light smoke coming from the embassy. On Monday, the U.S. Embassy compound in Kuwait was struck.

Saudi Arabia’s Ras Tanura oil refinery also came under attack from drones, but its defenses downed the incoming 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.

After two of its facilities were struck, QatarEnergy said it would stop producing liquefied natural gas indefinitely, taking one of the world’s top suppliers off the market. European natural gas prices surged by 40% in response.

World markets were rattled as the fighting expanded across a region vital to energy supplies.

Several ships have been attacked in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all oil traded passes and where Iran has threatened attacks.

IRAN SAYS NUCLEAR SITE TARGETED

Reza Najafi, Iran’s ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, told reporters that airstrikes targeted the Natanz nuclear enrichment site on Sunday.

Israel and the U.S. have not acknowledged strikes at the site, which the U.S. bombed in the 12-day war between Iran and Israel in June. Israel has said it is targeting the “leadership and nuclear infrastructure.”

Iran has said it has not enriched uranium since June, though it has maintained its right to do so while saying its nuclear program is peaceful.

The Iranian Red Crescent Society said the U.S.-Israeli operation has killed at least 555 people. In Israel, where several locations were hit by Iranian missiles, 11 people were killed. Israel’s retaliatory strikes against Hezbollah killed dozens of people in Lebanon.

The U.S. military announced that two previously unaccounted for American service members have been confirmed dead, bringing the total to six. All six were Army soldiers and part of the same logistics unit in Kuwait, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Three people were reported killed in the United Arab Emirates, and one each in Kuwait and Bahrain.

Meanwhile, the U.S. military said Kuwait had “mistakenly shot down” three American F-15E Strike Eagles while Iran was attacking with aircraft, ballistic missiles and drones. U.S. Central Command said all six pilots ejected safely.

Iran’s top diplomat on Monday shared an aerial photo showing rows of graves that he said were for more than 160 girls killed during a U.S.-Israeli strike on an elementary school in Minab.

In Israel, three young siblings killed by an Iranian strike were being laid to rest at the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem on Monday night.

Hezbollah said it fired missiles on Israel early Monday in response to Khamenei’s killing and “repeated Israeli aggressions.”

There were no reports of injuries or damage.

Israel retaliated with strikes on Lebanon. The country’s Health Ministry reported at least 52 people were killed and 154 wounded in overnight strikes in the Beirut suburbs and southern Lebanon.

An Israeli military spokesman, Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin, said Israel is keeping “all options on the table,” including a potential ground invasion of Lebanon.

IRAN’S NAVY LOSES SHIPS

The U.S. military, which has used B-2 stealth bombers to strike Iran’s ballistic missile facilities with 2,000-pound bombs, said Monday that it had taken out 11 Iranian warships. Trump has said the Iranian navy’s headquarters had been “largely destroyed.”

Trump sought to more clearly define the administration’s objectives on Monday following an earlier statement — as the attack was unfolding Saturday — in which he urged Iranians to “take over” their government.

Trump has also signaled an openness to dialogue with Iran’s new leadership, which could be chosen soon.

The Denver Gazette’s Mary Shinn contributed to this story.