By Mostafa Salem, CNN

(CNN) — Arab states in the Persian Gulf tried to prevent a US-Israeli strike on Iran. Now, as Tehran retaliates, their own territories are under fire.

Iran’s neighbors have spent decades preparing for a potential attack. But the ferocity of Tehran’s retaliation has left both governments and people of the region stunned.

Since the Islamic Republic took power almost half a century ago, oil-rich US-allied Arab states have fortified themselves against their neighbor by spending hundreds of billions of dollars on American weapons and hosting US bases in the hope of deterring an attack. Up to 40,000 American troops are stationed across the region, equipped with advanced US missile-defense systems.

For decades, Iran has protested the presence of US troops across from its shores, repeatedly warning its Arab neighbors that states hosting American military assets could be targeted in the event of a US attack on the country.

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in an airstrike this week that also took out 49 other top Iranian officials, US President Donald Trump said. US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Monday that Iran’s “nuclear pursuits” and the “swelling arsenal of ballistic missiles and killer drones” are “no longer tolerable.”

As the US military began massing military assets near Iran over the past few weeks, Tehran repeatedly warned that any US attack would not be met with the same “restraint” it showed during last summer’s 12-day war, which started when Israel launched a surprise attack on Iran that eventually drew in the United States.

Still, the response to Khamenei’s killing has triggered a response that few observers expected. The regime has fired more than 400 ballistic missiles and almost 1,000 drones at Arab states along the Persian Gulf since Khamenei’s killing, according to regional governments.

Even more striking was the rapid escalation by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Tactics once considered a last resort were deployed within the first 72 hours. Urban centers, energy infrastructure, airports and hotels across the gulf’s Arab states were hit, shaking populations long used to their relatively security.

Ironically, some of the very gulf states that had urged the Trump administration just weeks ago not to strike Iran were the ones that came under fire when war erupted.

Iran deploys ‘mosaic defense’

In three days, Iran’s devastating blows crippled the gulf’s tourism industry, knocked some oil and gas facilities offline, targeted international airports and US bases, killed American soldiers, injured dozens of civilians and sowed widespread chaos that eventually caused the downing of three US fighter jets in friendly fire.

Iranian forces switched to a “mosaic defense” tactic, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said, deploying cells of military units operating under a decentralized system to conduct clandestine drone and missile launches from across the large country. Experts say mobile launchers designed to look like civilian trucks can easily launch cheaply produced drones and short-range ballistic missiles.

Although the Trump administration unleashed what Hegse

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By Eric Levenson, CNN

(CNN) — There are two people responsible for the mass shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, on September 4, 2024, a Barrow County prosecutor said in court Monday.

One is Colt Gray, the then-14-year-old who used an AR-15-style rifle to kill two teachers and two students and wound nine others.

The other is his father, Colin Gray, who prosecutors argue allowed his son access to the firearm and ammunition despite receiving sufficient warnings of his danger to others. Those actions constitute a “conscious disregard for a substantial and unjustifiable risk” and “criminal negligence,” prosecutor Patricia Brooks said, asking the jury to find the father guilty of murder and manslaughter.

“That man was the one person who could have prevented this mass shooting. He was the one man who ensured that Colt Gray had the tools he needed to commit mass murder,” Brooks said in closing arguments Monday. “That man and his son are both responsible for the immense suffering that occurred on September 4. The blood is on their hands.”

In contrast, the defense put the blame on the lone shooter, saying the teen was “smart” and “manipulative” and kept secrets from his father about his violent intentions. Colin Gray was doing his best to make his three children happy and did not have “sufficient warning” his oldest son, Colt, was a risk, attorney Jimmy Berry argued.

“He never in a million years thought that this son that he loved was going to turn out to be a monster that killed these people,” Berry said.

The closing arguments come after a two-week trial that has focused on what Colin Gray knew about his son leading up to the mass shooting at Apalachee High. The jury is expected to begin deliberations late Monday.

He has pleaded not guilty to more than 25 charges, including two counts each of second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter. The jury can also consider lesser charges of manslaughter if they cannot reach a verdict on the murder counts, the judge said.

The trial is part of a broader push to hold more people accountable for a school shooting, including the shooter’s parents and responding law enforcement officers. This case bears close similarities to the trials and convictions of James and Jennifer Crumbley, whose then-15-year-old son killed four students in 2021 at his high school in Oxford, Michigan.

Colt Gray has admitted to the shooting, according to authorities. Now 16, he has pleaded not guilty to 55 felony counts, including four counts of malice murder. A trial date has not been set.

In the prosecution’s final rebuttal in court Monday, Brooks dug into the details of the case and accused Colin Gray of being a liar, a narcissist and a bad parent.

“Do not give the defendant one more day to peddle his made-up excuses for why he did nothing to stop this tragedy,” she said. “Do not give the defendant one more minute by listening to his lies about how he did everything he could. Do not give him one more second of not b

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By Haley Britzky, CNN

(CNN) — The first US service members to die in the conflict between the US and Iran were killed by a direct Iranian strike on a makeshift operations center at a civilian port in Kuwait on Sunday morning local time, a source familiar with the situation told CNN.

The death toll from that event at the Shuaiba port has since risen to six, US Central Command announced on Monday afternoon, after the remains of two additional service members were recovered.

Earlier Monday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that the strike that killed the service members hit a “tactical operation center that was fortified,” but there was “one” projectile that made it through air defenses. CNN previously reported the event was a suspected drone strike.

The source familiar said it was a direct hit just after 9 a.m. local time, on the center of the building they described as a triple-wide trailer with office space inside. The attack came quickly and with no warning or sirens to alert troops to evacuate or get into a bunker, the source said. Hours after the strike, fire was still smoldering in some parts of the building, the source described – the inside of the makeshift operations center blackened and the walls blown outwards from the blast, some parts peeling away from the building.

A satellite image taken Sunday morning showed a building at the port on fire and dark smoke billowing into the sky.

US Central Command initially said that three service members were killed but didn’t specify the location of the strike. There were dozens of people at the site, the source said, but the final service members who were declared killed in action were unaccounted for when the dust settled. With the building still burning in some places, it took time to recover the remaining service members, the source said.

The CENTCOM release on Monday also said a facility was struck “during Iran’s initial attacks.” The military has not identified the troops killed on Sunday, as families are still being notified.

CENTCOM’s statement said US forces “recently recovered the remains of two previously unaccounted for service members” from the facility that was struck.

The six casualties are the first killed in action in the military operation against Iran that began early Saturday Eastern standard time, dubbed Operation Epic Fury. Hegseth and President Donald Trump have both said that more casualties are likely. A CENTCOM spokesperson said Monday that 18 troops have been seriously wounded throughout the US military’s operation.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine called the service members killed in action “the best that our nation has to offer” and “true examples of what selfless service means.”

“Our deepest and heartfelt condolences are with their families, their friends, and their units,” he said. “We grieve with you and we will never forget you.”

CNN’s Thomas Bordeaux contributed to this story

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