President Trump gave conflicting statements on Monday about the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran, first saying that the operation was “very complete, pretty much,” then later vowing to hit Iran harder if its leaders tried to cut off the world’s energy supply.
His initial comments, made in an interview with CBS News, appeared to ease market fears of an extended war and caused soaring oil prices to fall. After markets closed, Mr. Trump told Republican lawmakers in Florida, “We go forward more determined than ever to achieve ultimate victory that will end this long-running danger once and for all.”
Still, it remained unclear what Mr. Trump’s endgame for the war might be. Here’s what else happened on Monday.
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Death toll: At least 1,855 people have been killed since the start of the war, largely in Iran, where officials have said about 1,300 people were killed.In Lebanon, the death toll rose sharply from Israeli attacks on Monday, jumping to nearly 500 people from nearly 400 on Sunday, the authorities said. More than 1,300 people in the country have been injured.
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Iran: Israel and the United States continued their attacks on Iran, and the Israeli military said it had embarked on new “wide-scale” strikes, including in Tehran, Isfahan and in southern Iran on Monday. Families spent hours burying relatives killed by U.S.-Israeli airstrikes at Behesht-e Zahra, the largest cemetery in Tehran.
Key Iranian allies, including Prime Minister Mohammed al-Sudani of Iraq and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, congratulated Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei. His appointment was celebrated by the country’s hard-line political forces and by a crowd in Tehran, but elsewhere in the city, opponents of the government were heard chanting, “Death to Mojtaba.” Turkey accused Iran of targeting it with a ballistic missile for the second time in a week. NATO defenses downed the missile, the Turkish defense ministry said. Iran had yet to comment on the latest accusation.
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Lebanon: Israel intensified its assault on Lebanon, invading new territory in the southern part of the country and carrying out some of its heaviest bombardment yet of the densely populated southern suburbs of Beirut. Military analysts said that Israeli actions could signal that Israeli forces were preparing for an even wider ground invasion in Lebanon, though an Israeli military spokesman dismissed the idea. Lebanon has already faced a steep toll from Israeli attacks. On average, more than 10 children have been killed every day in the country over the past week, the regional director for the United Nations’ children’s agency said in a statement on Monday, calling it a “horrifying rate” of death. At least 600,000 people in the country have been displaced, according to the Lebanese president, Joseph Aoun. He said Lebanon was trapped in the fighting between Israel, which he said showed “no respect for the laws of war,” and Hezbollah, which he said had “no regard for the interests of Lebanon and the lives of its people.”
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Persian Gulf: Bahrain’s Interior Ministry said Tuesday morning local time that one person had been killed and others were injured from an Iranian attack that hit a residential building in the capital, Manama. Previously, officials said that 32 people, including children, had been injured by an Iranian drone strike on the island of Sitra. The state-owned energy company also said that the fighting and an attack on its refinery complex meant it could no longer fulfill its contracts. The United Arab Emirates’ defense ministry reported its first military deaths since the war began, saying that two members of the armed forces had been killed in a helicopter crash caused by a technical malfunction. And Saudi Arabia said on Monday that it had intercepted drones over Riyadh, ballistic missiles targeting an air base and attacks heading toward a large oil field.
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Israel: At least one person was killed in central Israel shortly after air-raid sirens warned of incoming missile fire, according to the Israeli emergency service. The authorities did not immediately identify the victim. Another man was evacuated to a hospital with severe injuries, medics said.
Anushka Patil is a Times reporter covering breaking and developing news around the world.
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