Welcome to the beat. I'm Ari Melbert. We're reporting on what are now escalating attacks in the Middle East.

More U.S. forces are heading to the region. Secretary of State Rubio is saying today, as all of this

is being absorbed around the world, that he views the next stage of the operation as something that will be more intense.

That's the wording from the Trump administration. We'll be following the facts. The State Department is urging U.S. nationals to leave 14 different countries in the region, citing safety risks.

We have pictures out of Tehran, Iran today.

American and Israeli strikes have targeted key facilities.

You can see some of the fallout and smoke.

Central Command, releasing videos of

U.S. strikes on what they say are Iranian ballistic missile targets. This is unclassified video

courtesy of the United States government. We also have independent reporting and video from around

the region. Three U.S. planes we can report were shot down. This was by friendly fire over Kuwait. Some footage

shows a jet going down. The pilot was able to safely eject. U.S. military officials say all six

crew members impacted, as you see there, by those jet shootings. They all were able to survive.

Iran launched drone attacks early this morning on oil refineries in Saudi Arabia. The U.S. and Israel have struck more than 2,000 targets in Iran,

I repeat, 2,000 targets. That is the scale of this attack, obviously a ton of attention rightfully

focused on the initial successful hit that took out the Iranian

Supreme leader, but this is a wider set of attacks. That's according to military officials.

And even if it is at this point in air war, it is war Iran swiftly retaliating. They've hit locations

in multiple countries, Jordan, Kuwait, Iraq, Qatar, and the UAE.

Six Americans are now dead, according to the Pentagon. Iran's state media says they believe the

death toll in their country, according to their public estimates, is over 500. That includes

165 related to a girl's school that was hit. That is just what we know

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