The United States shuttered its embassies in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait as Iran has stepped up retaliatory strikes across the Middle East in a widening military conflict that is threatening to plunge the region into a prolonged war.<\/p>\n
Iran struck the U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia<\/a> with two drones overnight, causing part of its roof to collapse and prompting its closure. The embassy in Riyadh on Tuesday warned of \u201cimminent\u201d missile and drone attacks and urged people in the area to \u201ctake cover immediately.\u201d The U.S. State Department also urged Americans across the Middle East to leave the region and said it was preparing military and charter flights for those seeking to escape.<\/p>\n Israel launched strikes on Iranian missile launchers and factories and carried out attacks on Hezbollah militants in Tehran and Lebanon. At least 800 people have been killed in Iran since the U.S.-Israeli weekend assault on Tehran, including supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.<\/p>\n Six U.S. service members have died in retaliatory strikes, according to the U.S. Central Command<\/a>. The names of four of the dead Americans were released by the Pentagon<\/a> on Tuesday afternoon. They were killed by a drone strike while stationed in Kuwait, according to the Department of Defense.<\/p>\n At the White House on Monday, President Trump defended ordering the U.S. strikes without congressional approval, saying Iran’s refusal to halt its pursuit of nuclear weapons, combined with a growing ballistic missile program, posed \u201can intolerable threat.\u201d<\/p>\n On Tuesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the United States will \u201cunleash\u201d even more attacks in the near future that will mark a significant increase in the scope and in the intensity of its assault on Iran.<\/p>\n Trump and U.S. officials have not ruled out sending ground troops into Iran.<\/p>\n Trump said that he expects the U.S. military campaign \u2014 dubbed \u201cOperation Epic Fury\u201d \u2014 will last four to five weeks but also said that the United States has the capability to go \u201cfar longer than that.\u201d<\/p>\n