Iranian drones strike the US embassy in Riyadh as Tehran intensifies retaliatory attacks on the Gulf and Israel, while Israeli forces begin operations in southern Lebanon on the fourth day of the regional conflict

The drone attack on the US embassy in Riyadh caused a minor fire, prompting the diplomatic mission to tell Americans to distance themselves from the compound, The Caspian Post reports, citing The Guardian.

The attack followed an earlier Iranian drone strike on the US embassy in Kuwait, as Iran continued to target US bases, facilities and personnel in Arab Gulf states.

The pro-Iran group Hezbollah also continued to target Israel, saying it launched two missile salvoes overnight targeting military bases in northern Israel. In response, Israel continued to carry out strikes and issue evacuation orders for villages in south Lebanon, virtually emptying out the country south of the Litani River and turning the southern suburbs of Beirut into a ghost town.

On Tuesday morning, the Israeli defence minister, Israel Katz, said he had instructed Israeli soldiers to “hold and advance” into areas of south Lebanon to prevent further Hezbollah fire on northern Israel. It was the first acknowledgment that Israel’s campaign against Hezbollah would not just be aerial but would involve boots on the ground.

Meanwhile, US and Israel continued their strikes against Iran, with the US claiming it had destroyed Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps command and control facilities.

What started as a war between Iran on one side and the US and Israel on the other has turned into a regional conflict with dizzying speed, with new fronts being opened on each day.

The US and Israeli air war against Iran began on Saturday with attacks against Tehran, killing the supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, and prompting Iranian retaliation against Israel and missile attacks at Arab nations with US bases across the region. The fighting expanded rapidly to include at least nine countries and various pro-Iran groups.

On Tuesday, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said the war against Iran could take “some time”, saying that while it would not “take years”, it could drag on. “It’s not an endless war,” he told Fox News.

The US president, Donald Trump, who has issued a series of contradicting statements regarding the length of the war, also said on Monday that it could take “far longer” than the initially planned month.