War spread to Europe, Lebanon; U.S. jet crashes.
Trump predicts "four or five weeks" of war.
The latest news this hour:
US FIGHTER JET CRASHES: CNN has geolocated video of a military plane crashing in Kuwait. Video here. “The fighter pilot appears to have ejected and landed safely, later being assisted by locals,” The Telegraph reports.
DRONE HITS UK BASE IN EUROPE: Cyprus is an EU member state, marking an expansion of the war to Europe. A British Royal Air Force base was targeted by a drone overnight, but caused no casualties, reports The Times of Israel. “Sources earlier told Reuters that RAF Akrotiri had been targeted by two drones, one of which was intercepted.”
What’s striking is how far Cyprus is from Iran: ~1,700 km/1,000 miles.
…EU BACKS REGIME CHANGE: Splitting with EU foreign ministers who focused on calling for the protection of civilians, European Commission President Ursula von de Leyen said “a credible transition in Iran is urgently needed,” reports Euronews.
IRAN CONFLICT WIDENS TO LEBANON: Israel launched new airstrikes it said was targeted at Hezbollah militants, following Hezbollah launches of missiles and drones towards Israel.
US CLAIMS DESTRUCTION OF IRGC HEADQUARTERS: “The Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) killed more than 1,000 Americans over the past 47 years,” U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East, said in a social media post.
TRUMP PREDICTS “FOUR OR FIVE WEEKS”: The U.S. president told the NYT that it “won’t be difficult” for the United States and Israel to maintain the tempo of military operations for more than a month. Three Americans service members have already been killed.
“We expect casualties,” he said. “If you look at projections, they do projections, it, you know, it could be quite a bit higher than that.”