Iran's Revolutionary Guards said Sunday that the country's forces could fight an intense war for six months against the United States and Israel, which said it struck Tehran's commanders at a seaside hotel in the heart of Beirut.

As the conflict spilled into its second week, the regional repercussions spiralled, with Saudi Arabia intercepting a wave of drones headed for targets including the diplomatic quarter in capital Riyadh and Kuwait saying an attack hit fuel tanks at its international airport.

Sri Lanka discharged 22 Iranian crew from hospital who were plucked from life rafts after their warship was sunk by a US submarine, officials said Sunday.

The crew had been treated at Karapitiya Hospital in the southern port city of Galle since Wednesday after the IRIS Dena was torpedoed just outside Sri Lanka's territorial waters.

The attack on Dena was the first military strike far outside the Middle East since the United States and Israel launched their war on Iran a week ago.

By Maya Gebeily, Alexander Cornwell, Nandita Bose and Parisa Hafezi

BEIRUT/MIAMI/TEL AVIV/DUBAI, March 8 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said he is not interested in negotiating with Iran and raised the possibility that the Iran war would only end once Tehran no longer has a functioning military or any remaining leadership in power.

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Saturday, Trump said the air campaign could make negotiations a moot point if all potential leaders of Iran are killed and the Iranian military is destroyed.

SYDNEY, March 8 (Reuters) - Australia's government said on Sunday it was considering requests to help protect countries attacked by Iran in the widening Middle East conflict, but reiterated it would not take part in any military operations in Iran.

"We've had many countries, which are non participants, (that) have been attacked by Iran through this. You would anticipate as a consequence that we have been asked for assistance, and we will work through that carefully," Foreign Minister Penny Wong said in televised remarks.

Iran struck Gulf infrastructure Sunday, hitting fuel tanks at Kuwait's airport and a desalination plant in Bahrain, with at least four reported dead in the region as Tehran pressed its campaign there into a second week.

In Saudi Arabia, the civil defence said a "military projectile" killed two people -- an Indian and a Bangladeshi -- and injured 12 others after it fell in a residential area in Al-Kharj governorate south of Riyadh.

The global positioning system (GPS) capabilities of cargo ships, oil tankers and other vessels stuck in the Middle East because of the widening war are likely worse than those in your cell phone.

Experts say this deficiency explains why since the start of US-Israeli strikes, the jamming of satellite navigation signals has left about 1,000 ships in the Gulf and the Gulf of Oman unable to determine their location, either momentarily or continuously.

Israel struck a hotel in central Beirut on Sunday, the first attack on the city centre since the start of the new war with Hezbollah, as Lebanon said nearly 400 people were killed over the past week.

Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war on Monday, when Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah attacked Israel in response to the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during US-Israeli strikes.

By Nicole Jao, Ted Hesson and Nandita Bose

NEW YORK, March 7 (Reuters) - The White House has halted, at least for now, a federal security bulletin warning of a heightened threat to the U.S. in light of the conflict in Iran, a Trump administration official told Reuters.

By Costas Pitas and Andrew MacAskill

March 7 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump said on Saturday that Britain is giving "serious thought" to sending two aircraft carriers to the Middle East, but added that the U.S. does not need them to win the war with Iran, in the latest clash between the military allies.

Trump has repeatedly criticised British Prime Minister Keir Starmer suggesting this week that he helped "ruin" the countries' historically close relationship after London blocked the U.S.'s initial use ‌of British bases to attack Iran.

President Donald Trump on Saturday blamed Iran for what the country's authorities said was a deadly strike on a school in the southern county of Minab.

"We think it was done by Iran. Because they are very inaccurate, as you know, with their munitions. They have no accuracy whatsoever," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.

According to Iranian authorities, a strike hit a girls' elementary school last Saturday, killing more than 150 people, mostly students.