WASHINGTON, United States: The war between Israel, the United States, and Iran continues to intensify as both sides exchange strikes and the conflict spreads across the Middle East, raising fears of a wider regional escalation.
Explosions were reported in Tehran and Tel Aviv, oil prices surged amid fears of supply disruptions, and attacks were reported from Iraq to Lebanon as global powers and the United Nations warned of the growing risks.
Here are the latest events in the Middle East war:
The Israeli military said Saturday it had launched a “broad-scale wave of strikes” on targets in Tehran, as the Iranian state broadcaster reported an explosion in the western part of the capital.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said earlier it had detected another round of Iranian missile fire headed towards Israel after a series of explosions were heard in the Israeli commercial hub of Tel Aviv following the Iranian launches.
Saudi Arabia intercepts attacks
Saudi Arabia’s defence ministry said Saturday it intercepted a ballistic missile fired at an air base, and the Gulf nation’s state news said it thwarted a drone attack on an oil field near the Emirati border.
Saudi Arabia, the world’s top oil exporter, reported at least two drone attacks earlier this week that targeted the Ras Tanura refinery in the east.
Russia feeds Iran intel, US ‘aware’
The White House downplayed a report Friday that Russia is helping Iran target US forces in the Middle East, with Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth telling CBS News’s “60 Minutes” program that “our commanders are aware of everything.”
The Washington Post, citing officials familiar with the intelligence, said Russia has provided Iran with the locations of US military assets, including ships and aircraft.
Iran rejects Trump’s succession overtures
Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations Amir Saeid Iravani on Friday condemned US interference after President Donald Trump insisted that he should be involved in selecting the successor of slain supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
“The selection of Iran’s leadership will take place strictly in accordance with our constitutional procedures and solely by the will of the Iranian people, without any foreign interference,” Irvani told reporters in New York.
US to boost weapons production
Major US defence companies have agreed to quadruple production of advanced weapons, Trump said on the seventh day of his war against Iran.
The United States struck more than 3,000 targets during the first week of the conflict, the military said.
Oil prices surge
Crude prices surged on mounting fears about oil supply disruption as the US-Israel strikes and Tehran’s retaliatory attacks across the Gulf region upend the world’s energy and transport sectors.
The international benchmark oil contract, Brent North Sea crude, jumped to $92.69 per barrel, up 8.5 percent for the day and nearly 30 percent for the week.
Rockets target Baghdad airport complex
Rockets targeted the Baghdad airport complex that hosts a military base and a US diplomatic facility.
A shadowy group called Saraya Awliyaa al-Dam (Guardians of Blood), which claims to be part of the Tehran-backed Islamic Resistance in Iraq, said it was behind the attack on the base.
Trump to Receive Bodies of US Troops killed in Iran War
Trump is to attend the dignified transfer on Saturday of six soldiers killed in an Iranian attack on Kuwait, the White House said, as the United States brings home its first dead from the war.
The troops were killed when a drone struck a key US command center in Kuwait’s southern industrial hub of Port Shuaiba.
UN peacekeepers wounded in Lebanon
Several Ghanaian members of a United Nations peacekeeping force were wounded when their base was hit in southern Lebanon, state media reported, without specifying the source of the attack.
Israel has been hitting southern Lebanon in its battle against the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia.
Trump demands ‘unconditional surrender.’
US President Donald Trump demanded Iran’s “unconditional surrender” as the only acceptable outcome to end the Middle East war, promising to help rebuild the country’s economy if it complied.
His new stance appeared to be a major expansion of US aims for the war, which Washington has previously said was focused on Iran’s missile program and naval forces.
UN chief slams ‘unlawful attacks.’
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned “unlawful attacks” across the Middle East and warned that the war could spiral out of control.
Guterres said the crisis was causing “tremendous suffering and harm” and posed a “grave risk” to the global economy.
Only nine commercial ships navigate the Hormuz
Just nine oil tankers, cargo, and container ships have been recorded passing through the Strait of Hormuz since Monday, according to MarineTraffic data analyzed by AFP.
Nearly 20 percent of the world’s crude oil and about 20 percent of liquefied natural gas (LNG) usually transit the waterway, but the conflict has virtually shut it down.
France deploys helicopter carrier
France has sent a helicopter carrier to the Mediterranean in response to the war, the French military told AFP.
Paris decided to deploy its flagship aircraft carrier and a frigate earlier in the week.
Lebanon records 217 dead, 300,000 displaced
The death toll in Lebanon rose to 217, the country’s health ministry said, as Israeli air strikes battered Beirut’s southern suburbs, where Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah holds sway.
The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said 300,000 people in Lebanon had been forced to flee and questioned the legality of the Israeli orders.
Explosions in Iraqi Kurdistan
Explosions sounded near Erbil airport in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region and an attack forced a US-run oil field to shut production.
AFP journalists reported explosions and grey smoke rising from near the airport area, which hosts US-led coalition troops. Iraqi Kurdish authorities said earlier that oil production at a field operated by US firm HKN Energy had been halted following an attack.
