West Asia war widens, spikes oil, strands flyers

INTERNATIONAL – ASIA

3 MARCH 2026

• Iran and allied armed groups fired missiles at Israel, Arab states, and U.S. military targets around the region, while Israel and the U.S. pounded the West Asian country as the war expanded to several fronts and death toll grew on all sides.
• Three American warplanes, F-15E Strike Eagles, were downed in Kuwait, which the Pentagon said were hit by Kuwaiti “friendly fire”, while Iran claimed it shot down a U.S. jet.
• The conflict, in its third day, was already having far-reaching consequences, with previously safe havens in the Gulf like Dubai seeing incoming fire, hundreds of thousands of airline passengers stranded around the globe, and oil prices shooting up by more than 8% to hover around the $80 a barrel mark.
• The Iranian Red Crescent Society said that the U.S.-Israeli strikes have killed at least 555 people.
• In Israel, where several locations were hit by Iranian missiles, 11 people were killed.
• The Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group also targeted Israel, which responded with strikes on Lebanon, killing more than two dozen people.
• Four U.S. troops have also been killed.
• Iran also accused Israel and the U.S. of having attacked its nuclear facility at Natanz, one of the main targets of the previous conflict between them in June 2025.
• Meanwhile,Saudi Arabia’s Ras Tanura oil refinery came under attack from drones, with defences downing the incoming aircraft, a
• A drone also targeted an oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman, killing one mariner, the sultanate said, while debris fell on an oil refinery in Kuwait.