Iran warns civilians to evacuate UAE ports as US strikes Kharg Island
Trump threatens to hit Iran’s Kharg Island oil network
The United States executed a large-scale strike on Kharg Island in Iran, the US Central Command said yesterday.
"US forces successfully struck more than 90 Iranian military targets on Kharg Island, while preserving the oil infrastructure," CentCom said.
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The strike destroyed naval mine storage facilities, missile storage bunkers, and multiple other military sites, the US military said in a post on X.
Later, US President Donald Trump threatened to strike the oil infrastructure of the Island hub unless Tehran stopped attacking vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, a warning that could further roil markets coping with a historic supply disruption.
Trump paired his Friday ultimatum with a social media post saying the US had "totally obliterated" military targets on the island, the export terminal for 90% of Iran's oil shipments, which lies about 500 km northwest of the strait.
US strikes did not target Kharg's oil infrastructure, but "should Iran, or anyone else, do anything to interfere with the Free and Safe Passage of Ships through the Strait of Hormuz, I will immediately reconsider this decision," Trump wrote.
He also urged the UK and other nations to send ships to help secure the Strait of Hormuz after Iranian attacks.
IRGC urges evacuation of UAE ports, docks, US military shelters
As the war entered its third week, Iran, however, struck a defiant note, playing down the extent of the damage on Kharg while threatening to step up its use of more powerful weapons and warning parts of the United Arab Emirates were a legitimate target.
In a statement, the IRGC urged residents in the UAE to evacuate ports, docks, and US military shelters to avoid civilian casualties.
"We declare to the leaders of the UAE that Iran considers it a legitimate right to defend its national sovereignty and territory by targeting the origin of American enemy missile launches in the shipping ports, docks, and military shelters of the US hidden in some cities of the UAE," a spokesperson for Iran's Revolutionary Guards said.
Nine ballistic missiles and 33 drones were launched from Iran towards the UAE yesterday, the Ministry of Defence said, making a total of 294 ballistic missiles, 15 cruise missiles and 1,600 drones launched from Iran since the war started.
Some oil loading operations have been suspended in the UAE's Fujairah emirate, a major bunkering hub, industry and trade sources said, after a fire broke out there on Saturday.
The fire occurred after debris fell during the interception of a drone, but no injuries were reported, the emirate's media office said.
Behind the scenes, resentment had already been mounting in Gulf Arab capitals at being drawn into a war they neither initiated nor endorsed but are now paying for economically and militarily, regional sources have told Reuters.
Iran shows no sign of capitulation as strikes spread
Iran also vowed to increase its usage of upgraded weapons, particularly ballistic missiles and other missiles with greater destructive power, a defence ministry spokesperson was quoted as saying in state media.
Oil exports from Kharg Island were continuing normally despite the US attack, a senior provincial governor was quoted by the IRNA news agency as saying.
Trump told reporters on Friday the US Navy will "soon" start escorting tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, a conduit for 20% of the world's fossil energy supplies.
Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who replaced his slain father, has said the strategic waterway should remain closed as a tool of pressure.
Iran's armed forces responded to the Kharg attack by saying any strike on their country's oil and energy infrastructure would lead to strikes on facilities owned by oil companies cooperating with the US in the region, Iranian media reported.
Iran, which ramped up oil output in the run-up to the February 28 launch of the war by Israel and the US, has continued to ship oil at a rate of 1.1 million to 1.5 million barrels per day, TankerTracker.com and Kpler data show.
Much of the oil shipped from Iran via Kharg goes to China, the top global crude importer.
Oil prices have swung sharply on Trump's changing comments about the likely duration of the war, which began with massive US and Israeli bombardments of Iran and quickly spread into a regional conflict with broad consequences for worldwide energy and stock markets.
'Five US Air Force refueling planes hit'
Five US Air Force refueling planes were struck and damaged on the ground at Prince Sultan air base in Saudi Arabia, the Wall Street Journal reported citing two US officials.
The planes, which were hit during an Iranian missile strike on the Saudi base in recent days, were damaged but not fully destroyed and are being repaired, the Journal said, adding that no one was killed in the strikes.
Death toll mounts
The US embassy in the Iraqi capital Baghdad was hit in a missile attack on Saturday, causing smoke to rise from the building, Iraqi security sources said. They did not have further details on the strike.
In other attacks across the region, Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they had carried out additional attacks on Israel with Lebanon's Hezbollah militia, Iran's Tasnim news agency reported.
At least 12 medical personnel were killed in an Israeli strike on a healthcare centre in the town of Borj Qalaouiya in southern Lebanon, the Lebanese state news agency reported yesterday, citing the health ministry.
Reports from Iranian media said at least 12 people were killed and several others wounded in attacks on multiple locations across Iran, including central and southeastern provinces.
After two weeks of war, 2,000 people have been killed, mostly in Iran but many in Lebanon and a growing number in the Gulf. Several million people have been displaced from their homes.
US forces have suffered casualties, including the deaths of all six crew members aboard a refueling aircraft that crashed in western Iraq.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Iran-aligned militant group Hamas has called on Iran to not target neighbouring countries, while still reaffirming Tehran's right to respond to the US-Israeli attacks.
This is the first time the group has publicly commented on Iranian policies. It has expressed solidarity with Iran during the war but appeared to steer clear from threatening any retaliatory actions so far.
