The US military on Sunday said three service members have been killed and five seriously wounded in the war against Iran -- the first casualties announced on the US side.

The news, which could have serious political ramifications in Washington, came as President Donald Trump emphasized successes in the operation, announcing that nine Iranian naval ships had been sunk and not referring to the US deaths.

The United States and Israel launched massive bombardments against Iran and killed its supreme leader Saturday, with attacks ongoing Sunday.

By Yousef Saba, Jaidaa Taha and Jonathan Saul

DUBAI/LONDON, March 1 (Reuters) - At least three tankers were damaged off the Gulf coast after U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran triggered Iranian retaliation that put merchant ships at risk of collateral damage, shipping sources and officials said on Sunday.

Risks to commercial shipping have surged in the past 24 hours, with more than 200 vessels including oil and liquefied gas tankers dropping anchor around the Strait of Hormuz and surrounding waters, shipping data showed on Sunday.

Bashar al-Assad, Nicolas Maduro and now Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. In the last 18 months, Russian President Vladimir Putin has lost several key foreign allies -- and there is little that the Kremlin, bogged down in Ukraine, can do about it.

Tehran has stood by as one of Russia's closest backers throughout Moscow's four-year offensive and the Kremlin had earlier called for restraint amid reports of imminent US military action in Iran.

By Raghed Waked, Amr Alfiky, Timour Azhari and Rula Rouhana

DUBAI, March 1 (Reuters) - As Iran fired a barrage of drones and missiles at Gulf States in retaliation for U.S. and Israeli strikes, some in Dubai ran for cover and others froze at windows, watching the sky as if trying to make sense of something that had seemed impossible.

March 1 (Reuters) - A Palau-flagged oil tanker under U.S. sanctions was hit on Sunday off Oman's Musandam peninsula, injuring four people, the country's maritime security centre said, without specifying what hit the vessel.

The attack followed earlier drone strikes elsewhere in the Gulf country, at the commercial port of Duqm on the Arabian Sea.

The incidents mark the first time targets in or near Oman have been hit following a wave of retaliatory strikes by Tehran on Gulf states after joint U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran that have plunged the region into a new war.

MILAN, March 1 (Reuters) - Italian Defence Minister Guido Crosetto said on Sunday that he was returning to Italy from Dubai, where he had been stranded with his family after flights were suspended because of the U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran.

The minister left Rome on Friday evening aboard a civilian flight to join his family, already in Dubai on holiday. He was scheduled to return to Italy on Saturday afternoon.

Maersk, the major container shipping company, said Sunday it was halting passage through the Suez Canal and the narrow Strait of Hormuz in the Gulf, next to Iran, for "safety" reasons.

The Danish group was the latest of several shipping groups to make similar announcements after Iran's Revolutionary Guards declared the strait closed on Saturday.

"We have decided... to pause future Trans-Suez sailings through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait for the time being," Maersk said in an online advisory.

CAIRO, March 1 (Reuters) - Six people were killed after a missile strike on the Israeli town of Beit Shemesh, the Israeli ambulance service said on Sunday.

(Reporting by Jaidaa Taha and Muhammad Al Gebaly; Editing by Ros Russell)

Afghanistan said on Sunday that the war in neighbouring Iran would negatively impact the whole region and expressed "deep regret" over the violence flaring in multiple countries.

The Iranian flag was lowered to half-mast at the country's embassy in Kabul, an AFP journalist said, and a black cloth hung over the entrance following the killing of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a US-Israeli attack.

BEIJING/SHANGHAI, March 1 (Reuters) - China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi told Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Sunday that attacks by the United States and Israel on Iran during U.S.-Iran negotiations were "unacceptable", according to state news agency Xinhua.

Wang said the "blatant killing of a sovereign leader" and the incitement of regime change were unacceptable, after Iran reported the death of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in Saturday's barrage.