Kuwait accidentally shoots down US fighter jet

The US-Israeli air war against Iran expanded on Monday with no end in sight after Israel launched an attack on Lebanon in response to attacks by the Hezbollah group, and Tehran fired missiles and drones at Gulf states and a British air base in Cyprus.

Kuwait mistakenly shot down three US F-15A fighter jets while repelling an Iranian attack.

All six crew members parachuted in and were rescued, images and videos showed one of the planes crashing with its engine on fire.

After two days of bombing that killed Iran’s supreme leader, dragged Iran’s neighbors into war and halted navigation in the Gulf, markets opened on Monday amid a sharp rise in energy prices, threatening the global economic recovery.

In the first official briefing by the Pentagon since the start of the military campaign, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth declined to set a timeframe for ending the war, saying it was up to President Donald Trump.

“The US military’s goal is to destroy Iran’s ability to extend its influence beyond its borders, which it has been using as a cover to build a nuclear weapon… We beat them with precision, force, and relentlessly,” Hegseth said.

From his part, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine, said that the large-scale military campaign included more than 1,000 targets in the first 24 hours, and noted that additional troops were on their way to the area.

“This isn’t a process that will end quickly… The military objectives assigned to US Central Command and the Joint Forces will take time to achieve, and in some cases will be arduous and arduous work”.

The US Central Command announced the death of a fourth US soldier, without going into the details of the circumstances of his death.

The first three US soldiers of the current war were confirmed dead, as they were killed at a military base in Kuwait on Sunday.

Meanwhile, the interruption of oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, through which about one-fifth of the world’s oil trade passes along Iran’s coast, has confused global economies.

Oil prices jumped at the opening of trading on Monday, while stocks fell and the dollar rose.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said on Sunday it had targeted three US and British oil tankers in the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz.

Shipping data showed that hundreds of ships, including oil and gas tankers, docked in nearby waters.

Global air traffic has been hit hard by airstrikes that have kept key airports in the Middle East closed.