Attacks in the Middle East conflict extended into a fifth week Sunday, with Israel striking Tehran and Saudi Arabia intercepting almost a dozen drones, a day after Yemen-based Houthi militants entered the war. The strikes came as 3,500 additional US troops arrived in the Middle East and regional powers including Saudi Arabia and Turkey meet in Pakistan to discuss how to end the conflict, which has killed thousands and caused chaos in commodity markets and global trade. Trump Admin Signals No Immediate Plans for Invasion The Iran-backed Houthis launched ballistic missiles at Israel on Saturday morning, following US-Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. Tehran also struck aluminum producers in Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, along with a US base in Saudi Arabia, wounding a dozen American personnel. The Washington Post reported that the US defense department was preparing for potentially weeks of ground operations in Iran, citing unidentified US officials. Any mission would likely first target opening the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic waterway through which a fifth of seaborne global oil flowed before the war but which has now slowed to a trickle, inflicting the biggest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market. Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf told the semi-official Tasnim news agency “our men are waiting for American soldiers to enter on the ground.” The strait has emerged as Iran’s main source of leverage in the war, and Pakistan on Saturday said it had reached a deal with Tehran to allow 20 of its ships passage. Bahrain on Sunday announced a ban on fishing and pleasure boats at night, citing the Iranian threat. Saudi Arabia has managed to reroute some of its oil around the strait, with its East-West pipeline now operating at its full capacity of 7 million barrels a day, according to a person familiar with the matter. Iran launched what it said were retaliatory strikes on Gulf Arab states and Israel after US-Israeli attacks on its nuclear facilities and steel plants on Friday. Meanwhile, in a sign of the conflict’s long reach, French anti-terrorism authorities are investigating a foiled bombing near the Bank of America Corp. headquarters in Paris that they said appeared to be linked to the Middle East conflict. Iran’s state-run news agency IRNA reported extensive damage to residential areas in Tehran overnight, with early reports of civilian injuries. The semi-official Fars news agency said five people were killed and two boats were hit in early Sunday attacks on a port in the southern Hormozgan province. In the city of Shaft, near the Caspian Sea, one person was killed in strikes on a residential area.