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Country by country, here’s how the unfolding war is affecting the Middle East and beyond

04 March 2026
This content originally appeared on Trinidad Guardian.
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The un­fold­ing 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 re­port­ing ca­su­al­ties, and key em­bassies, eco­nom­ic en­gines and pas­sage­ways clos­ing down. Off the coast of Sri Lan­ka, a U.S. sub­ma­rine sank an Iran­ian war­ship as the war in­ten­si­fied and its foot­print grew.

For­eign gov­ern­ments have for days urged their cit­i­zens to leave Mid­dle East coun­tries on any avail­able com­mer­cial flight as Gulf air­spaces large­ly close, cruise ships can’t pass through the Strait of Hor­muz, and ma­jor air­lines can­cel 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 from the re­al-time flight-track­ing ser­vice Fligh­tradar 24, as of Wednes­day, or na­tion­al au­thor­i­ties.

Iran

Death toll: At least 1,045 peo­ple, 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: U.S.-Is­raeli strikes have tar­get­ed nu­clear in­fra­struc­ture, mis­sile launch­ers, gov­ern­ment build­ings in Tehran and lead­er­ship com­pounds, killing Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and oth­er top mil­i­tary of­fi­cials. Re­ports on state TV quote Ira­ni­ans say­ing their homes have been dam­aged.

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: Sev­en­ty-two peo­ple, in­clud­ing sev­en chil­dren, have been killed and 437 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 yet 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: At least 84,000 peo­ple have been dis­placed in Lebanon, ac­cord­ing to the Lebanese so­cial af­fairs min­is­ter Tues­day. Anx­i­eties have been run­ning high over a buildup of Syr­i­an forces on the bor­der. Is­rael says it is tar­get­ing “Hezbol­lah com­mand cen­ters and weapons stor­age fa­cil­i­ties,” and it sent ground troops in­to south­ern Lebanon bor­der ar­eas. Hezbol­lah al­so said it launched drones tar­get­ing an Is­raeli air base. The U.S. Em­bassy in Lebanon said Tues­day it was clos­ing to the pub­lic un­til fur­ther no­tice.

Air­space: Lebanon’s air­space is not ful­ly closed. Flights are com­ing and go­ing, but many air­lines have can­celed flights.

Kuwait

Ca­su­al­ties: At least eight peo­ple have died in Kuwait. Health au­thor­i­ties have so far 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.

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 Tues­day, it an­nounced it was clos­ing to the pub­lic un­til fur­ther no­tice. 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.

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: 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 UAE De­fense Min­istry al­so re­leased a break­down of its mis­sile and drone in­ter­cep­tions. It said it had de­tect­ed more than 800 Iran­ian drones in its air­space and 57 of them had struck land. Of 186 bal­lis­tic mis­siles it said it de­tect­ed, on­ly one hit its ter­ri­to­ry. Air de­fens­es in­ter­cept­ed all eight cruise mis­siles it said Iran fired.

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: Par­tial­ly closed.

Bahrain

Ca­su­al­ties: One civil­ian, an Asian work­er, was killed by a fire set by a strike on Mon­day, said Bahrain’s In­te­ri­or Min­istry. Two oth­ers were wound­ed.

Dam­age and im­pact: Ama­zon said Tues­day there was a drone im­pact near one of its da­ta cen­ters in the coun­try.

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: There was a fresh 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 claimed mul­ti­ple at­tacks on the Kur­dish re­gion, which hosts bases with U.S. troops, since the U.S.-Is­raeli joint at­tack on Iran.

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: Iran has hit en­er­gy fa­cil­i­ties in Qatar. Qatar’s Min­istry of De­fense said ear­ly Wednes­day that 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 British air base on the Mediter­ranean is­land has come un­der at­tack in the war.

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.

Sri Lan­ka

Dam­age and im­pact: A U.S. sub­ma­rine sank an Iran­ian war­ship in the In­di­an Ocean out­side Sri Lan­ka’s ter­ri­to­r­i­al wa­ters, of­fi­cials said Wednes­day. Sri Lan­ka’s navy res­cued 32 peo­ple and re­cov­ered 87 bod­ies. It had 180 on board.

Sri Lan­ka’s navy re­ceived a dis­tress sig­nal from the ship, the IRIS De­na, of­fi­cials said. A video re­leased by the U.S. showed the mo­ment of the tor­pe­do at­tack, with the Iran­ian ship ap­pear­ing to be hit by an un­der­wa­ter ex­plo­sion that caused it to break apart, a large plume of wa­ter ris­ing. —JERUSALEM (AP)

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Sto­ry by JU­LIA FRANKEL | As­so­ci­at­ed Press

AP writ­ers 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 in Wash­ing­ton con­tributed to this re­port.