The grim toll signaled that Iran was more prepared for war than the Trump administration anticipated, U.S. military officials said.

A combat-unit commander told non-commissioned officers Monday that the Iran war was part of God's plan to usher in the End Times and bring about Jesus Christ's second coming, according to a complaint filed with a religious freedom watchdog.

Operation Kipion has effectively been suspended as the Royal Navy has withdrawn its two vessels from the Gulf. The frigate HMS Lancaster was decommissioned in December 2025, and the minesweeper HMS Middleton left the Gulf the week before US and Israeli airstrikes began, to return to the UK.

Israel sent troops into Lebanon as the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran widened, and some of Iran's Gulf neighbors warned that Iran's retaliatory fire could draw them into the spreading conflict.

U.S. President Donald Trump sought to justify a broad, ⁠open-ended ⁠war on Iran in his most extensive public comments yet on an ⁠operation whose stated aims and timeline have shifted since it began over the weekend.

As the conflict entered its second day, Trump said 48 Iranian leaders had been killed and that the U.S. military had started sinking Iran’s Navy, destroying nine Iranian warships so far and “going after the rest.