The U.S. Embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, was attacked by two drones according to initial estimates from the Saudi Ministry of Defense in a statement early Tuesday, as Iran appeared to be expanding its assault on American allies in the region.

The ministry said there was “limited fire and minor material damage to the building.” However, the embassy warned people to avoid the location, saying there had been “an attack on the facility” and issued a security alert and a shelter in place notification for the cities of Jeddah, Riyadh and Dhahran.

“We recommend American citizens in the Kingdom to shelter in place immediately,” it said, noting that it was limiting “nonessential travel to any military installations in the region.”

The embassy’s announcement came as nations across the Middle East hosting U.S. military bases were facing Iran’s ire following the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran that began Saturday and that has killed many top military and political officials in Iran, including the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Riyadh had been spared the spate of attacks that had rocked other Gulf cities including, Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, and Manama, the capital of Bahrain. Most of the city’s embassies, including the U.S. Embassy, are in a secluded, heavily secured and gated neighborhood called the Diplomatic Quarters.

But the fortifications there were built to prevent risks such as suicide attacks, not drones.

Iran has fired hundreds of missiles and drones at Gulf States in retaliation after the barrage of U.S. and Israeli strikes over the past three days. The majority of the Iranian attacks were intercepted, according to the governments of the gulf countries.

At least four people were killed and more than 100 others were injured in the attacks across the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman as of Sunday, according to official reports tallied by The New York Times.

The toll of the fighting on U.S. service members also rose Monday, with six military personnel killed in the fighting, according to U.S. Central Command.

Iran has launched at least 390 missiles and 830 drone attacks across the Persian Gulf, home to several U.S. military bases, according to government reports. The United States Central Command said Sunday that Iran had attacked more than a dozen locations in the region, including civilian centers like airports, hotels and residential areas.

Early Tuesday, the United Arab Emirates’ ministry of defense said on social media that the Emirates’ air defenses were “dealing with a barrage of ballistic missiles coming from Iran.”

Similarly, the defense ministry of Bahrain said its air defense systems have successfully destroyed and downed 70 missiles and 76 drones from Iran since the conflict began.

Sirens also sounded in Israel and the military sent residents in several areas there to shelters after saying it detected launches from Iran for about an hour early Tuesday. The U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem had on Monday directed that all U.S. government employees and their family members continue to shelter in place in and near their residences until further notice, and said it would be closed Tuesday.

The hostilities in the region have left travelers scrambling. In recent days, airstrikes forced the closure of airports in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha, Qatar. In Dubai, the largest Emirati city and the business and tourism capital of the Middle East, five-star hotels have caught fire, explosions have shattered the windows of apartment towers and the emirate’s bustling international airport was damaged, injuring four people.

The United States and Israel are also continuing to target Iran. Israel said it had targeted the Iranian regime’s broadcaster in Tehran around midnight.

In a post on social media Tuesday in the Middle East, U.S. Central Command said “this morning, U.S. forces are hitting Iran surgically, overwhelmingly, and unapologetically.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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President Donald Trump said Monday that the United States would attack Iran for as long as it took to leave it incapable of posing a threat, and his secretary of state signaled that the military campaign would escalate, in comments that indicated that the expanding war in the Middle East could intensify and continue for weeks or more.

“Whatever the time is, it’s OK, whatever it takes,” Trump said at his first public event since U.S.-Israeli airstrikes on Iran began Saturday. “Right from the beginning we projected four to five weeks, but we have the capability to go far longer than that.” On Capitol Hill, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters that “the hardest hits are yet to come from the U.S. military.”

Both men’s comments underscored the administration’s murky messaging on the Iran attack.

Speaking ahead of a classified briefing for congressional leaders, Rubio argued that U.S.-Israeli strikes against Iran were intended to address an “imminent threat,” but then went on to describe an attack undertaken preemptively, on the expectation that Israel would begin strikes even without the United States and that Iran would include U.S. targets in its retaliation. He said the United States would strike Iran until it had achieved its objectives, including the destruction of Iran’s ballistic missile capabilities.

Listing those objectives at the White House earlier in the day, Trump said, “We’re destroying Iran’s missile capability, and we’re doing that hourly.” He said the strikes were “annihilating their navy,” and ensuring that “this sick and sinister regime” in Tehran “can never obtain a nuclear weapon” or continue to sponsor militant groups across the Middle East.

The Pentagon said the death toll of U.S. service members killed in Iranian strikes had risen to six. And three U.S. jets were shot down by Kuwaiti air defenses in what the U.S. military called an “apparent friendly fire incident.” All six crew members from the planes ejected safely and were recovered, the U.S. said.

The New York Post reported that the president had said in an interview Monday: “I don’t have the yips with respect to boots on the ground — like every president says, ‘There will be no boots on the ground.’ I don’t say it.”

As U.S. and Israeli planes pounded targets in Iran for the third day, the fighting expanded into Lebanon, where the Iranian-allied militia Hezbollah fired rockets into Israel, prompting Israel to bombard the militia’s strongholds outside Beirut. Early Tuesday, the Israeli military said it was attacking again in Lebanon, targeting Hezbollah command centers and weapons storage facilities in the capital, Beirut.

Around the same time, the United Arab Emirates’ Ministry of Defense said its air defenses were “dealing with a barrage of ballistic missiles” from Iran. And within hours, the Saudi Defense Ministry said that U.S. Embassy in Riyadh had been attacked by two drones, resulting in a “limited fire” and minor damage.

A senior Revolutionary Guard official vowed Monday that “not a single drop of oil” would pass through the Strait of Hormuz, the conduit for about one-fifth of the world’s supply. Ebrahim Jabari, an adviser to the Revolutionary Guard commander, said on Iranian state TV that Iran would “set on fire” any ships attempting to transit the strait. Traffic through the strait has already slowed to a trickle, after the Revolutionary Guard warned ships away over the weekend, but Iran had not directly threatened them.

In another sign of an expansion of attacks in the Middle East, Qatar’s Ministry of Defense said its air force had shot down two Su-24 bombers coming from Iran, the first report that Iran, which has fired missiles and drones at its gulf neighbors and Israel in retaliation for the Israeli-U.S. assault, had also sent warplanes into their airspace.

Iranian leaders remained defiant. The country’s top security official, Ali Larijani, denied news reports that Iran’s new leaders were seeking to negotiate with Washington, denouncing Trump for “delusional fantasies” and for plunging the Middle East “into chaos.” Iran, he said in a string of fiery social media posts Monday, “has prepared itself for a long war.”

Here’s what else is happening:

— Economic fallout: Oil and natural gas markets remained highly volatile as the fighting shut down shipping routes and damaged production facilities. Naval traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, the conduit for one-fifth of the world’s oil supply, has shut down, according to shipping companies and Iranian media. And Qatar’s state-owned energy company said that it would halt production of liquefied natural gas, cutting off a large share of the world’s supply of the fuel.

— Death toll: More than 550 people have been killed in Iran since the beginning of the war, the Iranian Red Crescent emergency service said Monday. The Lebanese Health Ministry said that at least 31 people had been killed in Israeli airstrikes. At least 10 people have been killed in Israel and six, including civilians, across the gulf since Saturday, according to the authorities.

— Persian Gulf: Iranian missiles and drone attacks led to explosions in Iraq, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and other countries where the U.S. has military bases. Iranian leaders have said the attacks have targeted U.S. assets, but they have also struck Dubai’s international airport, hotels and other civilian and economic infrastructure.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By STEVEN SLOAN

WASHINGTON (AP) — For Democrats demoralized at being shut out of power in Washington, the past several months have offered reason for optimism.

A party often beset by ideological division has largely been unified in opposition to President Donald Trump’s hardline immigration tactics, particularly after two U.S. citizens were killed in Minneapolis. Heading into a midterm election year in which they are just a few seats shy of reclaiming the U.S. House majority, Democrats have also kept the White House on defense with criticism of Trump’s economic policies and ties to Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender.

But the U.S. and Israeli strikes against Iran could test the durability of that cohesion. Initially, Democrats balanced condemnation of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed over the weekend, with calls for Congress to quickly pass a war powers resolution that would restrain Trump’s attack options.

“As soon as our resolution comes to the floor, senators need to pick a side,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said on Monday. “Stand with Americans who don’t want war, or stand with Donald Trump as he singlehandedly starts another war.”

Democratic divisions going into war powers vote

But some divisions are surfacing as a handful of Democrats, especially those who are strongly aligned with Israel, express reservations about the war powers measure. Rep. Greg Landsman, D-Ohio, won’t back an Iran resolution. Before the strike, Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., also said he would vote no.

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., who backed a war powers vote tied to Venezuela in January, also has broken with Democrats over the Iranian measure and rejected arguments that the attack was illegal, spurring frustration among some party leaders.

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., arrives before President Donald Trump delivers the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress in the House chamber at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

“John Fetterman knows better,” House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said Monday on CNN.

Republicans are also facing internal dissent. Trump, who did little to prepare Americans for the prospect of such a dramatic conflict, said Monday the operation could last four to five weeks. He hasn’t articulated a clear exit strategy and warns that American casualties could mount, which will pose a severe test of voter patience for the conflict.

The war could also lead to rising gas prices and economic volatility that may bolster Democratic arguments that the president is out of touch with the financial realities facing many Americans.

Still, Republicans see an opportunity to portray Democrats as reflexively opposed to Trump.

“For my Democratic colleagues, this is not about what’s best for our national security or what’s best for protecting the American people,” said Sen. John Kennedy, R-La. “This is about how to defeat Donald Trump.”

A searing debate among Democrats over Israel

Democrats have undergone a searing internal debate over the party’s relationship with Israel in the wake of the war in Gaza. Then-President Joe Biden’s loyalty to Israel during the heat of the 2024 campaign was starkly at odds with younger generations outraged by the treatment of Palestinians in Gaza. By the time Kamala Harris rose to the top of the ticket that year, she struggled to win over some younger voters who are critical to Democratic success.

Paco Fabian, the political director for the progressive advocacy group Our Revolution, acknowledged that Democrats “aren’t monolithic.” But he also suggested a shift was underway, noting the results of a New Jersey special election last month.

During that campaign, the affiliated super PAC of the pro-Israel American Israel Public Affairs committee sought to thwart the moderate candidate, Tom Malinowski, after he questioned unconditional aid to the Israeli government. Those efforts appeared to backfire with the more progressive contender, Analilia Mejia, winning the primary.

“Given what’s going on right now, I don’t think the moment is doing AIPAC and Israel any favors,” Fabian said.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., arrives at a secure facility in the basement of the Capitol for an intelligence briefing with Secretary of State Marco Rubio on the Iran war in Washington, Monday, March 2, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Sympathy toward Israel appears to be shifting. Three years ago, 54% of Americans sympathized more with the Israelis, compared with 31% for the Palestinians, according to Gallup polling released last month. Now, their support is about evenly balanced, with 41% saying their sympathies lie more with the Palestinians, and only 36% saying the same about the Israelis.

Americans’ initial reactions to airstrikes also appeared more negative than positive, early polling suggested. About 6 in 10 U.S. adults disapproved of the U.S. decision to take military action in Iran, according to a CNN poll conducted via text message over the weekend. A separate snap poll from The Washington Post conducted via text message on Sunday suggested that about half of those polled opposed the strikes, while 39% were in support. Roughly 1 in 10 were unsure.

Democrats and independents drove much of the disapproval in those early polls, while Republicans were much more supportive.

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Elections this week could show impact of attacks

The initial political impact of the attacks in Iran could emerge as soon as Tuesday during the first primary elections of this year’s midterm campaign.

In North Carolina, Durham County Commissioner Nida Allam was already going into her bid to unseat two-term Rep. Valerie Foushee with backing from Our Revolution and other top progressives. After receiving support from groups tied to AIPAC during her 2022 campaign, Foushee’s campaign rejected such contributions this cycle. Over the weekend, she said she doesn’t support “Trump’s illegal war with Iran” and would back the war powers resolution.

Still, Allam, who would be the first Muslim elected to Congress from North Carolina, was quick to release a video ahead of Tuesday’s vote criticizing Trump for “starting another endless war” and promising to never accept support from “the pro-Israel lobby.”

In Texas, home to high-profile Senate primaries on Tuesday, Democratic voters expressed alarm at the attacks.

“It shouldn’t have happened,” said Charles Padmore, 45, an independent contractor in Houston. “Affordability should be the top priority on Trump’s list.”

Alex Diaz, 31, a biology high school teacher in Houston, called the bombing of Iran “uncalled for.”

“You’re trying to start World War III, and we don’t need that right now,” he said.

The fallout could spread to other contests this month. Ahead of the March 17 primary in Illinois, AIPAC-aligned groups have also criticized Daniel Biss, the Evanston mayor who is aiming to become the Democratic candidate to succeed the retiring Rep. Jan Schakowsky. In an interview, Biss spoke of the “backlash I’m hearing people have against AIPAC, their MAGA-aligned money and their Trump-aligned policy agenda.”

Asked about such predictions, Patrick Dorton, a spokesman for AIPAC’s affiliated super PAC, said “the key distinction will be between those who recognize that Iran is a murderous regime that tortures women for leaving their hair uncovered, hangs gay people, and executes peaceful democratic protestors, and those who will turn a blind eye to the regime’s atrocities.”

Calls for a ‘united opposition party’

As Congress moves toward a potential war powers vote this week, Biss said there was a need for Democrats to act as a “strong, clear, vocal, united opposition party.”

“I also would like to see the Democratic Party united not just on the procedural argument but on the basic acknowledgment that this war is wrong,” he added.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Ct., speaks during a Senate Homeland Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Tom Brenner)

On Capitol Hill, Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, a Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, said he was less concerned about party unity than the prospect of achieving a bipartisan vote on the war powers resolution.

“What I want to see happen is the war powers resolution pass,” he said. “I’m not focused on what Democrats as a whole do. We’re going to have differing opinions among Democrats and among Republicans.”

Associated Press journalists Linley Sanders in Washington and Juan Lozano in Houston contributed to this report.

By REFUGIO RUÍZ and FABIOLA SÁNCHEZ

GUADALAJARA, Mexico — The leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel was buried Monday in a shiny golden casket with enormous flower wreaths and a large military presence in the state that gave name to one of Mexico’s most powerful cartels.

A federal official confirmed that Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, alias “El Mencho,” was buried in a cemetery in Zapopan, a suburb of Guadalajara, Mexico’s second-largest city. Dozens of people accompanied the funeral procession, many carrying black umbrellas on a sunny day and with a band playing Mexican regional music known as banda.

The official who discussed the location requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case. The Attorney General’s Office declined to confirm the location of El Mencho’s burial for “security reasons.”

There had been stepped up security since Sunday around a funeral home where large flower wreaths had been arriving without a name. Some did include the image of a rooster in flowers and Oseguera Cervantes was sometimes called the “Lord of the Roosters.”

The Mexican army killed Oseguera Cervantes just over a week ago while attempting to capture him. He died from multiple bullet wounds, according to the death certificate obtained by The Associated Press.

The killing set off violence in some 20 states. The death certificate fits with a description of the operation to capture Oseguera Cervantes given by Defense Secretary Ricardo Trevilla, who had said that the cartel leader and two bodyguards had been badly wounded in a gunfight with soldiers outside a home in Tapalpa, Jalisco. The three died en route to a hospital.

The certificate specified that Oseguera Cervantes had bullet wounds to his chest, abdomen and legs.

His body was taken to Mexico City where an autopsy was performed and then the body was turned over to his family on Saturday, the Attorney General’s Office said in a brief statement.

The death certificate also notes that Oseguera Cervantes was to be buried, standard practice in cases of violent deaths to allow for additional forensic evidence to be gathered if needed in the future. The document did not say where the burial would take place.

Authorities’ security concerns surrounding the burial location are well founded. Oseguera Cervantes’ killing set off retaliation by the cartel in numerous states. More than 70 people died between the military operation and the violence that followed. The government has said that security operations continue against other high-ranking members of the cartel.

It customary for an air of mystery to surround the burials of drug lords in Mexico, something their supporters take advantage of to try to elevate them to legend. Within hours of El Mencho’s death there were already ballads, known as narcocorridos, written about his killing.

In Culiacan, in neighboring Sinaloa state, home to a cartel of the same name, there is a cemetery known for its luxury crypts and mausoleums for one-time kingpins like Ignacio Coronel — an old associate of El Mencho — and Arturo Beltrán Leyva.

There was the drug lord who was famously killed twice, Nazario Moreno, leader of the violent and pseudo religious Knights Templar cartel who authorities said was killed in 2010 only to kill him for real in 2014.

Sometimes the bodies disappear, like in the case of Heriberto Lazcano, leader of the fearsome Zetas, whose body was stolen in 2012. Or they die under bizarre circumstances, like Amado Carrillo Fuentes, “Lord of the Skies,” who died in a botched plastic surgery.

___

Sánchez reported from Mexico City. AP writer María Verza in Mexico City contributed to this report.

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