As Israeli strikes shattered the nighttime quiet, Beirut cafe owner Hassan rushed home to whisk his wife and young daughter to safety in the nearby mountains outside the city.
The sound of heavy gunfire was a warning to residents that war had returned. The roads quickly clogged and the trip took Hassan, 30, and his family more than three hours.
"We rushed out without taking anything with us, no clothes and no food for my daughter," he said.
Thriving thanks to their strategic geographical position, strong state backing and leading carriers, huge air hubs in the Gulf oil kingdoms have been shaken by the conflict over Iran.
Following US and Israel strikes on the Islamic Republic, Iran's retaliatory strikes have hit targets across the Gulf, forcing authorities to close airspace and stalling traffic at big hubs such as Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
"Gulf airspace closures are disrupting aviation corridors between Europe and Asia," wrote analysts from ING bank in a note on Monday.
MADRID, March 2 (Reuters) - Fifteen U.S. aircraft have left the Rota and Moron military bases in southern Spain since the U.S. and Israel launched weekend attacks on Iran, maps by flight tracking website FlightRadar24 showed on Monday.
Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said Spain would not allow its military bases, which are jointly operated by the U.S. and Spain but under Spanish sovereignty, to be used for attacks on Iran, which Spain has condemned.
At least seven of the aircraft were shown on FlightRadar24 as having landed at Ramstein Air Base in Germany.
AKROTIRI, Cyprus, March 2 (Reuters) - A drone strike hit a British air base in Cyprus overnight, causing limited damage and no casualties, Cypriot and British officials said on Monday, in a marked escalation effectively dragging an EU member state into the conflict surrounding Iran.
GENEVA, March 2 (Reuters) - The World Health Organization said on Monday that a hospital in Iran's capital has been evacuated after explosions nearby and that it is working to verify reports that three other medical centres in the country had been hit since the start of the U.S.-Israeli air war against Iran on February 28.
"We understand patients were moved due to nearby explosions that caused collateral damage to the hospital," said a WHO spokesperson, referring to the Gandhi Hospital in Tehran.
South Korea went to the top of Pool A in the Women's Asian Cup after overcoming a dogged Iran 3-0 in their tournament opener on Queensland's Gold Coast on Monday.
The Koreans, runners-up to China in the 2022 edition, totally dominated a brave but outclassed Iran, who showed no signs of being affected by the war raging at home, while some supporters waved shah-era flags.
South Korea's Casey Phair, who came on as a second-half substitute, said her side had plenty of room for improvement.
March 2 (Reuters) - Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said Lebanon will ban Hezbollah's military activities after Israel said it struck Hezbollah-linked sites in response to the group's missile and drone attacks following the reported killing of Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
(Reporting by Laila Bassam and Maya Gebeily; Writng by Tala Ramadan; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
LONDON, March 2 (Reuters) - Donald Trump said he was "very disappointed" with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer for not allowing the U.S. to use the Diego Garcia air base to carry out strikes on Iran, the Daily Telegraph quoted the U.S. president as saying in an interview.
Britain had initially denied the U.S. permission to conduct air strikes from its bases, but on Sunday evening Starmer said he was accepting a request for their use in any "defensive strikes" the U.S. wanted to make against Iranian targets.
March 1 (Reuters) - A grandson of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the late founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, is likely to figure prominently in the deliberations of the clerics who will determine who replaces Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as Supreme Leader.
The killing of Khamenei, 86, in a U.S.-Israeli attack has brought new urgency to the question of who will be the next Supreme Leader, a long-simmering issue over which there had been no clarity despite his age.
By Nandita Bose, Gram Slattery and Bo Erickson
WASHINGTON, March 2 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump pressed ahead with military strikes against Iran despite private warnings from senior aides that the escalation could be difficult to contain and carry political risks for Republicans in November's midterm elections, according to two senior White House officials and a Republican close to the administration.
