Kuala Lampur, March 4 -- Just seventy-two hours after the United States and Israel began bombing Iran, what has been termed 'Operation Epic Fury' has expanded with astonishing speed.

What began as a pre-emptive strike has metastasised into a regional conflagration with global reverberations.

The scale is staggering.

At least eleven countries are now directly or indirectly entangled in the crisis - from the core triangle of United States, Israel and Iran, to states hosting American bases or lying within missile range.

The shockwaves have travelled swiftly through the Gulf, into the Levant, across the Mediterranean, and into Europe's energy markets.

The speed of escalation suggests that the war was never meant to remain contained.

A r...