Updated March 9, 2026 at 1:23 PM EDT
The U.S. military identified a soldier who died from his injuries sustained in Saudi Arabia as a Space Brigade sergeant, as fighting in the Middle East continued on Monday, Day 10 of the war with Iran.
Iran launched fresh attacks on Israel and several Gulf states, hours after naming Mojtaba Khamenei as the country's new supreme leader.
The 56-year-old is the son of the previous supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed by airstrikes at the start of the war. He has close ties with Iran's Revolutionary Guard, signaling a continuation of his father's rule and hard-line stance.
Israel, meanwhile, launched new strikes overnight it said targeted sites linked to the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah in the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital Beirut and more Iranian regime-linked infrastructure in Tehran.
The escalation jolted markets, with crude oil prices briefly nearing $120 a barrel Monday. The widening conflict has increased fears of supply disruptions across the region.
In Bahrain, the country's state oil company Bapco declared "force majeure" on its operations, allowing it to suspend contractual obligations amid extraordinary disruptions following a drone attack.
The war has killed more than 1,200 people in Iran, more than 400 in Lebanon and 11 people in Israel, according to figures from Iranian and Lebanese health officials and Israeli authorities.
The Pentagon said seven U.S. service members have been killed since the war began. Six were killed in a drone attack in Kuwait and the latest casualty died after sustaining injuries during an Iranian strike on a military base in Saudi Arabia.
Here's what to know about the latest developments in the conflict.
To jump to specific areas of coverage, use the links below:
Seventh dead U.S. soldier | Iran retaliatory attacks| Iran's new leader| Price of crude oil |Bahrain oil attack| Senate Democrats condemn school strike | U.S. officials react to strikes on Iranian oil
A U.S. Space Brigade sergeant died of his wounds from an attack in Saudi Arabia
The U.S. Defense Department announced the identity of the seventh soldier killed in the war with Iran on Monday.
Sgt. Benjamin N. Pennington, 26, of Glendale, Ky., died on Sunday of injuries sustained during a March 1 attack at a military base in Saudi Arabia, the Pentagon said. It said he was assigned to the 1st Space Battalion, 1st Space Brigade, and that the incident is under investigation.
As Louisville Public Media reported, several Kentucky politicians have issued statements mourning the death of Pennington and expressing sympathy for his grieving family.
Six members of the Army Reserve were killed last week by a drone attack in Kuwait, where they had been working at a command center.
Since the U.S. and Israel began attacks against Iran on Feb. 28, Iran has launched hundreds of missiles and drones at several countries in the Gulf region that host to the U.S. military.
Iran retaliates after Israel launches fresh attacks on Beirut and Tehran
Iran launched a new round of missiles and drone attacks overnight into Monday, targeting Israel and several Gulf states. The attacks came after Israel said it carried out fresh strikes on sites linked to the militant group Hezbollah in Beirut's southern suburbs and on regime-linked infrastructure in Tehran.
On Monday, Bahrain's state news agency said that at least 32 people were injured, including children, in an Iranian strike on the island of Sitra, south of the capital Manama.
Qatar's Foreign Ministry condemned what it called an Iranian strike on a residential facility in Al-Kharj, Saudi Arabia, saying two civilians were killed and others wounded.
Officials in Fujairah, United Arab Emirates, said a fire broke out at an oil facility that was attacked overnight. Saudi Arabia said it had intercepted several drones attacking its Shaybah oil field.
In a statement Monday, Saudi Arabia's Foreign Ministry reiterated its "firm condemnation of the Iranian attacks against the Kingdom" and neighboring countries and warned it was ready to defend itself against any future attacks.
"The Kingdom affirms that it retains its full right to take all necessary measures to safeguard its security, sovereignty, and the safety of its citizens and residents, and to deter aggression."
— Rebecca Rosman
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's son named as new supreme leader
In an announcement early Monday in Iran, the Assembly of Experts, the clerical body responsible for selecting the country's supreme leader, said a majority of its members voted to appoint Mojtaba Khamenei as the Islamic Republic's third leader since it was founded in 1979.
The assembly also called on the Iranian public, political figures, intellectuals and senior clergy to pledge their allegiance to the newly appointed leader.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was Iran's supreme leader for 37 years and was killed on Feb. 28 in a U.S.–Israeli strike on Tehran, marking the first day of the war.
President Trump had said Khamenei's son would be an unacceptable choice to lead Iran.
Israel's military had said earlier that it would pursue any successor to Khamenei and target those participating in the selection process. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a press conference he seeks to "destabilize the regime and enable change."
Price of crude oil surpasses $100 a barrel
Global oil prices surged into the triple digits as the war continued to disrupt shipping and energy infrastructure in the Middle East.
The price of Brent crude oil, the global benchmark, briefly neared $120 a barrel in early trading Monday, amid fears the conflict could keep tankers sidelined and supplies constrained. Crude oil last traded at above $100 a barrel in 2022, after Russia invaded Ukraine.
The move had been building for days. Before the war broke out, crude was trading at $70 a barrel. Prices then jumped to just over $80 the middle of last week. Then the price hikes began to accelerate, closing at nearly $93 on Friday.
"We have gone from traders with ice in their veins to traders with panic in their veins," Rebecca Babin, an energy trader with CIBC Private Wealth, said Friday.
The average gasoline price in the U.S. has already jumped about 50 cents a gallon in a week, from just under $2.98 to $3.45, according to AAA. Patrick De Haan, the petroleum analyst for the app GasBuddy, says gasoline is likely to hit a $4 national average this week.
The surge has also rattled financial markets in Asia. Japan's Nikkei fell more than 5% Monday as oil prices rose.
— Camila Domonoske
Bahrain's state oil company declares "force majeure" on operations
Bahrain's state oil company, Bapco Energies, declared force majeure on Monday, according to its state-owned news agency, saying the ongoing regional conflict — and recent attack on its refinery complex — had disrupted operations.
Force majeure is a legal maneuver that can allow a company to suspend contractual obligations amid extraordinary events.
Top Senate Democrats condemn strike on Iranian girls school
Top Senate Democrats condemned what they called a U.S. strike on a girls elementary school in southeastern Iran on Feb. 28, saying they were "horrified" by reports that between 165 and 180 people were killed, most of them children.
NPR reported on March 4, based on a review of commercial satellite imagery and interviews with independent experts, that a strike hit more sites than initially reported and appeared consistent with a precision airstrike on a nearby military compound — raising questions about whether outdated targeting information contributed to the school being hit.
A video released by Iranian state media on Sunday showed what appeared to be a U.S. cruise missile striking the compound. The independent online research group Bellingcat said it verified the geographical location of the video.
In a joint statement, Sens. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, Patty Murray, D-Wash., Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., Jack Reed, D-R.I., Mark Warner, D-Va., and Chris Coons, D-Del., pointed to independent analysis suggesting the strike "may have been conducted by U.S. forces," and urged a full review.
They singled out Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for what they cited as his "openly cavalier" use of force and called for a "thorough" investigation examining "whether any policy decisions may have contributed to the catastrophe."
U.S. officials dissatisfied with Israel's weekend strikes on Iranian oil facilities
U.S. officials were displeased with Israeli airstrikes that hit an oil depot in Tehran over the weekend, a person who was briefed on the matter but not authorized to speak publicly told NPR.
The strikes, which marked the first time in the war Israel has openly attacked civilian industrial infrastructure in Iran, sent fiery pillars and black smoke into the sky and caused oily raindrops to fall onto the city.
Israel said Iran's military was using the oil to fuel its missile launches at Israel.
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, who strongly supported the initial U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran, tweeted at Israel to be cautious about its targets.
"Please be cautious about what targets you select," Graham wrote in a post on X.
He continued: "Our goal is to liberate the Iranian people in a fashion that does not cripple their chance to start a new and better life when this regime collapses. The oil economy of Iran will be essential to that endeavor."
— Daniel Estrin
Rebecca Rosman contributed to this report from Paris, Camila Domonoske from Washington, D.C., and Daniel Estrin from Tel Aviv, Israel.
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