The Latest: Iran's attacks on shipping worsen economic concerns as countries tap oil reserves

The ongoing American-Israeli war with Iran, for all its complexity and global effects, boils down to a single question: Who can take the pain the longest? A surge in oil prices points to what may be Iran’s most effective weapon and the United States’ biggest vulnerability in continuing the campaign: Damaging the world economy.

Wednesday’s major developments include Iranian attacks against commercial ships around the Strait of Hormuz and Dubai International Airport, escalating a campaign of squeezing the oil-rich Gulf region as global energy concerns mount.

The U.S. campaign of airstrikes in Iran is now in its 12th day with no end in sight. A U.S. commander says artificial intelligence has helped the military hit more than 5,500 targets in the country. An Israeli intelligence assessment also indicates that Iran’s new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, was wounded at the start of the war.

Witnesses in Tehran said they heard loud airstrikes and heavy anti-aircraft fire Wednesday, and columns of smoke made the sky overcast as a layer of gray dust settled over the city. The air is filled with the distinctive smell of burnt powder and gasoline. They spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid reprisal.

The Israeli military is also striking Iran and its militant ally Hezbollah in Lebanon, where more than 800,000 people have been displaced by the fighting.

Here's the latest:

Ship hit in Persian Gulf off UAE

A container ship off Dubai in the Persian Gulf came under attack Thursday, sparking a small fire, the British military said.

The British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said the attack happened just before dawn. It said an “unknown projectile” hit the vessel as it was some 65 kilometers (40 miles) off the coast of Dubai’s Jebel Ali port.

It added that the crew of the vessel were safe.

Brent crude oil tops $100 a barrel as Iran attacks on shipping worsen supply concerns

The price of a barrel of Brent crude oil, the international standard, topped $100 a barrel early Thursday, just days after it spiked near $120.

Oil prices shot more than 9% higher as supply concerns worsened with Iranian attacks on commercial shipping around the Strait of Hormuz.

U.S. benchmark crude oil jumped to about $95 a barrel.

Read more here.

Israeli strikes kill 3 near Beirut

Lebanon’s Health Ministry said Israeli strikes early Thursday a town in the hills overlooking Beirut killed three people and wounded a child.

Aramoun, a town about 10 kilometers (6 miles) south of Beirut where dozens of displaced families have found shelter, has been targeted twice since the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel renewed after Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel on March 2.

The Health Ministry also said the death toll from an earlier Israeli strike on central Beirut had risen to eight people, with 31 wounded.

Iraqi officials shut oil terminals after deadly strike hits Basra port

An attack on Iraq’s Basra port early Thursday killed at least one person and forced authorities to halt operations at all the country’s oil terminals, officials said.

Farhan al-Fartousi, the director-general of the General Company for Ports of Iraq, made the announcement in a statement carried by the state-run Iraqi News Agency on Thursday. Al-Fartousi said the attack targeted a ship engaged in a ship-to-ship transfer of oil in the Basra port on the Persian Gulf. He said it remained unclear if the ship was targeted by a flying or seaborne drone or a missile.

Rescuers recovered one dead body and helped 38 others after the attack. He said commercial ports in Iraq remained open, though the oil terminals had been shut.

Major fire strikes neighborhood home to Bahrain International Airport

A major fire struck a neighborhood in Bahrain’s capital home to the island kingdom’s international airport early Thursday after an Iranian attack, with authorities urging people in the surrounding area to close their windows due to the fumes.

The fire began in Bahrain’s Muharraq Island, which is home to Bahrain International Airport. Bahrain’s Interior Ministry described it as a blaze affecting oil tanks in the area. The airport has jet fuel tanks, while there’s also other tanks in the area for the kingdom’s oil industry.

Bahrain’s Interior Ministry put out an alert for people in surrounding neighborhoods “to remain in their homes, close windows and ventilation openings, as a precautionary measure against possible exposure to smoke from the ongoing fire being combated.”

Bahrain moved some aircraft out of the area of the airport early Wednesday.

The Iranian strike comes as the U.S. military’s Central Command published video showing its strikes targeting Iranian military aircraft in the ongoing war. Iran also has targeted Dubai International Airport in the United Arab Emirates, the world’s busiest for international travel.

Fire put out at Dubai Creek Harbor after drone strike

Firefighters extinguished a blaze at a tower in Dubai Creek Harbor early Thursday morning after an Iranian drone strike.

The drone hit the Address Creek Harbour 2 tower in the neighborhood.

An image published by authorities appeared to show damage at two units in the building.

Saudi Arabia reports downing drones early Thursday

The country’s defense ministry said it downed drones in the kingdom’s east, including at least one trying to target its Shaybah oil field in the Empty Quarter desert.

CitiBank closes branches in UAE after Iran threat

CitiBank said it would close all its branches except one Thursday after a threat by Iran to target financial institutions in the region.

CitiBank said it made the decision “given the evolving situation within the country,” without elaborating.

Other financial institutions reportedly have urged their staff to work from home over the threat.

Authorities respond to drone that fell on building in Dubai

Dubai authorities are responding to a drone that fell on a building near Dubai Creek Harbour, a luxury waterfront development north of the country’s downtown, the Dubai Media Center said, adding that officials are carrying out evacuations.

Bahrain officials say Iranian-linked attacks targeted fuel tanks

Bahrain’s Ministry of Interior said Iranian-linked attacks targeted fuel tanks at a facility in Muharraq Governorate, northeast of the country’s capital, Manama.

“Authorities are taking the required procedures,” the ministry said.

7 killed, 21 wounded in Israeli strike on central Beirut

The Lebanese Health Ministry reported the casualties in the coastal area of Ramlet al-Bayda. The strike hit a car along the seaside, where dozens of displaced families were sheltering in makeshift tents.

Israel's military said it was not aware of a strike at that location.

Israeli strike hits a car in central Beirut, local media reports

An Israeli strike hit a car in the coastal area of Ramlet al-Bayda, according to local media. The seaside area is popular with tourists and is where dozens of displaced people have been sheltering.

Israel’s military didn’t immediately respond to a request for information.

The strike, which came without warning, occurred in an area with no notable Hezbollah presence that is far from Beirut’s southern suburbs, where the Israeli military has issued evacuation notices and said it is targeting Hezbollah positions overnight.

It was not immediately clear who was targeted, and the number of casualties was not known. Videos circulating from the strike site showed smoke rising from the seaside. The strike came near the site of a recent Israeli attack on a tourist hotel, where the Israeli military said it killed four members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.

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This entry has been updated to reflect that Ramlet al-Bayda is not on the east side of Beirut.

US says it will release 172 million barrels of oil as part of effort to combat prices

U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright says the U.S. will release 172 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve as part of the International Energy Agency’s efforts to combat steep oil prices amid the Iran war.

Wright said the release would begin next week and take about 120 days “to deliver based on planned discharge rates.” He also said the U.S. would replace about 200 million barrels within the next year.

The U.S. had more than 415 million barrels in the SPR as of the end of last month. President Trump previously downplayed the importance of using reserve oil, but confirmed earlier Wednesday that his administration would “reduce it a little bit” and then fill it back up.

First week of war with Iran cost US $11.3 billion

The Pentagon provided the estimate to Congress in a briefing earlier this week, according to a person familiar with the situation who was granted anonymity to discuss the private meeting.

That comes after it reported spending $5 billion on munitions alone over the first weekend of the war.

The Trump administration had previously indicated it would be sending Congress a request for supplemental funding for the war, but that appears to have cooled, for now.

Sen. Roger Wicker, the GOP chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Wednesday that he was not expecting the supplemental request this month.

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— By Lisa Mascaro

US defense secretary calls for review of military lawyers’ focus to prioritize ‘support to the warfighter’

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth argued that military attorneys need to be focused on advising commanders on operations and in deployed environments where “seconds and minutes count.”

Hegseth’s announcement comes as scrutiny over civilian casualties in the Iran war intensifies, including the bombing of a girl’s school that evidence suggests was likely caused by U.S. airstrikes.

“Commanders need agile, independent, dead-on legal advice that enables decisive action, not endless process or turf wars,” Hegseth said in a video posted to X.

Hegseth said military legal support needs a “hard reset” after becoming “bloated and duplicative.”

“Our warriors deserve legal teams as lethal and focused as they are,” Hegseth said.

Israel says it has begun ‘wave of strikes’ in Iran’s capital

Minutes after saying Iran had launched missiles into Israel very early on Thursday morning, Israel’s military said it had begun a “wide-scale wave of strikes” in Tehran.

The last such announcement was early Wednesday afternoon. Israel’s military also said it was targeting Hezbollah with strikes and raids in various parts of Lebanon. That includes the capital Beirut, where loud booms were heard in the central portion of the city early Thursday morning.

Sirens wailed and loud explosions were heard early Thursday in Jerusalem

Alerts also blared in the north, where Hezbollah has fired drones and rockets into Israel.

Israel’s military said shortly after midnight that it was working to intercept missiles launched from Iran.

Russia’s UN envoy says there are no negotiations to end the war in Iran

Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia was responding to a question about the possibility of negotiations following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s talks with U.S. President Donald Trump and Arab leaders.

Nebenzia said Iran was ready to continue negotiations when the U.S. and Israel launched “a premeditated, deliberate attack” on Feb. 28.

“There are no negotiations, although Iran expressed willingness for negotiations,” he told reporters after the Security Council rejected a Russian-drafted resolution on the war.

Nonetheless, Nebenzia said, “We are ready to help to get out of the dire situation the whole region and the United States got itself into.”

Police in Bahrain arrest 6 people accused of posting videos at sites of Iranian strikes

They were arrested for “filming and posting videos related to the aftermath of the Iranian aggression, expressing sympathy and glorifying its hostile acts,” the country’s Interior Ministry said.

The ministry said Bahrain’s anti-cybercrime directorate arrested the suspects and referred them to prosecutors after their videos circulated on social media, “potentially misleading public opinion, spreading fear among citizens and residents and harming security and public order.”

Bahraini authorities have arrested dozens of people accused of documenting Iranian strike sites or participating in pro-Iran demonstrations in the Shiite-majority, Sunni-ruled nation. Iran is majority Shiite.

Drone attacks hit Iraq’s Kurdistan region, oil ship targeted near southern port

Drone attacks were launched late Wednesday toward the cities of Irbil and Sulaymaniyah. One intercepted drone fell near the Divan Hotel in the Saad Abdullah Conference Hall complex in Irbil, a venue for high-level political meetings.

In southern Iraq, an oil vessel flying the Australian flag was struck near Khor Al-Zubair Port, according to two Iraqi navy officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly.

The attack occurred in a loading area within Iraqi territorial waters, the officials said, adding that 25 members of the crew were rescued. It was not immediately clear whether any others remained unaccounted for.

Videos circulating online showed a large vessel engulfed in flames, with massive plumes of fire and thick black smoke billowing into the sky.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks.