Mojtaba's father, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in joint US-Israel strikes on February 28
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A large explosion rocked a central square in Iran’s capital where thousands were gathered Friday for an annual state-organized rally to support the Palestinians and call for Israel’s demise. Israel had warned that it would target the area in central Tehran.
There were no reports of casualties. But the decision to proceed with the mass demonstration that was attended by some senior government officials, and Israel’s threat to target the area, underscored the fierce determination on both sides nearly two weeks into a war that has rattled the global economy and shows no sign of letting up.
Meanwhile, a U.S. official told The Associated Press that roughly 2,500 Marines and at least one amphibious assault ship were headed for the Middle East in a major addition of troops.
Iran has continued to launch widespread missile and drone attacks on Israel and neighboring Gulf states, and has effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz , through which a fifth of the world's traded oil passes, even as U.S. and Israeli warplanes pummel military and other targets across Iran.
The humanitarian crisis in Lebanon deepened, with nearly 800 people killed and 850,000 displaced as Israel launched waves of strikes against Iran-backed Hezbollah militants and warned there would be no let up.
In an interview with Fox News, U.S. President Donald Trump said the war would end “when I feel it in my bones.”
Explosion rocks area of mass demonstration The explosion in Tehran rocked the Ferdowsi Square area midday, where thousands had gathered for an annual Quds Day rally in which they chanted “death to Israel” and “death to America.”
Israel had issued a warning on a Farsi-language X account for people to clear the area shortly before the blast. But few Iranians would have seen it, as authorities have almost completely shut down the internet since the start of the war. Footage from the scene showed people chanting “God is greatest,” as smoke rose in the area.
The Israeli military later posted a second message in Farsi, noting the head of Iran’s judiciary was at the rally and criticizing Iran for blocking many from seeing their warning.
The hard-liner who leads Iran’s judiciary, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, had been giving an interview on state television at the demonstration when the strike happened. His bodyguards encircled him, as he raised his fist and said Iran “under this rain and missiles will never withdraw.”
US Marines and another ship are ordered to the Mideast Elements from the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit and the amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli have been ordered to the Middle East, according to the U.S. official, who spoke to AP on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military plans.
Marine Expeditionary Units are trained and equipped to conduct amphibious landings, but they also specialize in bolstering security at embassies, evacuating civilians and disaster relief. While the deployment is a major increase of troops in the region, it does not necessarily indicate that a ground operation is imminent or will take place at all.
The 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, as well the Tripoli and other amphibious assault ships carrying the Marines, are based in Japan and have been at sea in the Pacific Ocean for several days, according to images released by the military. The Tripoli was spotted by commercial satellites sailing alone near Taiwan. That location puts it more than a week away from the waters off Iran.
Earlier in the week, the Navy had 12 ships, including the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and eight destroyers, operating in the Arabian Sea. Should the Tripoli join this flotilla, it would be the second-largest ship behind the Lincoln to operate in the waters off Iran.
While the total number of U.S. service members on the ground in the Middle East is not clear, Al-Udeid Air Base alone, one of the largest in the region, typically houses some 8,000 U.S. troops.
US says 15,000 targets struck in Iran since the start of the war Israel had earlier announced another wave of strikes in Iran targeting infrastructure, and said its air force had hit more than 200 targets in the last 24 hours, including missile launchers, defense systems and weapons production sites.
In Washington, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that over 15,000 enemy targets have been struck, which is more than 1,000 a day since the war began.
He also sought to address concerns about the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, telling reporters: “We have been dealing with it and don’t need to worry about it.”
Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei on Thursday vowed to continue the attacks and keep the strait closed in his first public statement since succeeding his father, who was killed in the opening day of the war. Khamenei has not been seen in public since taking over leadership and released a written statement.
Hegseth said Khamenei “is wounded and likely disfigured,” without providing evidence or elaborating. Israel suspects Khamenei was wounded at the start of the war.
All six crew of US refueling plane confirmed dead after crash The U.S. military confirmed on Friday that all six crew members of an American KC-135 refueling plane were killed when it crashed in Iraq, bringing the U.S. death toll to at least 13 service members.
U.S. Central Command said the crash wasn’t related to friendly or hostile fire, and that two aircraft were involved, including one that landed safely.
The KC-135 is the fourth publicly acknowledged aircraft to crash as part of the U.S. military’s operations against Iran. Last week, three American fighter jets were mistakenly downed by friendly Kuwaiti fire.
New Iranian attacks across the region Iran continued its daily attacks on oil and other infrastructure across the Gulf. In Oman, two people were killed when two drones crashed in the Sohar region, the Oman News Agency reported.
The U.S. Navy destroyer USS Oscar Austin shot down an Iranian ballistic missile over Turkey on Friday, a U.S. official said on condition of anonymity in order to discuss ongoing military operations. It was the third such interception over the NATO member in the last two weeks.
Residents in the southern Turkish city of Adana reported hearing a loud explosion and sirens sounding at Incirlik Air Base, which is used by U.S. forces.
Fighting escalates between Israel and Hezbollah At least eight people were killed in an Israeli strike on Lebanon's southern coastal city of Sidon, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said Friday. Nine others were wounded, the ministry added. The toll could rise as rescuers search the rubble.
The ministry said 773 people — including more than 100 children and 62 women — have been killed since fighting erupted between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah militants 10 days ago. More than 1,900 people have been wounded, it said.
Some 850,000 have been internally displaced in Lebanon, according to United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, who launched a $325 million humanitarian appeal during a surprise visit to the country.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam urged Israel to halt strikes on his country and criticized Hezbollah for firing rockets at Israeli targets.
“There is no justification in holding an entire nation hostage,” he said.
Earlier, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the strikes so far were “just the beginning.”
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Rising reported from Bangkok. Corder reported from The Hague, Netherlands. Associated Press writers Kareem Chehayeb and Bassem Mroue in Beirut; Sam Mednik in Tel Aviv, Israel; and Konstantin Toropin and Tia Goldenberg in Washington contributed to this story.
PARIS, France, March 13, 2026 (AFP) - The war in the Middle East has largely paralysed the Gulf region's crucial oil industry, which has been hit by attacks and an export blockade.
The war has forced companies to dramatically slow or even halt production -- and restarting it will not be easy, even when the war is over.
- What has been targeted? -
Since the war started with US-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28, at least 33 strikes or attempted strikes have targeted energy infrastructure in the Middle East, according to an AFP tally.
The United States and Israel carried out 13 of them against Iran.
The other 20, which struck seven Gulf countries, were attributed to Iran.
The strikes mostly hit oil and gas fields or complexes, such as the massive Ras Tanura refinery in Saudi Arabia, Ras Laffan gas processing base in Qatar and the complex housing the Ruwais refinery in the United Arab Emirates.
Iran has also effectively blocked the crucial Strait of Hormuz, the usual shipping lane for around 20 percent of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas output.
- Why is production down? -
Some infrastructure has been damaged.
Other facilities have closed or reduced activity as a precaution, such as Ruwais.
The near-closure of the strait has also had a major impact.
Gulf countries' output of oil and oil products has plunged from 30 million barrels per day last year, excluding Oman, to 20 million currently, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).
It said the amount passing through the Strait of Hormuz had fallen to less than 10 percent of pre-war levels.
Saudi Arabia and the UAE have pipelines that can send some oil beyond the region, but their capacity is limited.
The result is storage facilities that are full to the brim.
"That's the main issue at the moment," an industry insider told AFP.
"Since there aren't enough ships to empty the storage facilities and export the product, suppliers have to stop production."
There is no easy fix, warned Pankaj Srivastava, a commodities expert at Rystad Energy.
"With crude supply increasingly stranded in the Gulf, refiners may soon be forced to adjust operations, curtailing runs as product exports stall and directing output solely to domestic markets," he said.
- How long to restart? -
"Depending how they were shut down, (restarting refineries) can take a week or two to reach full output," said the industry insider.
For oil wells, it is simpler: "You just reopen the valve."
According to the IEA, "upstream production will take weeks and, in some cases, months, to return to pre-crisis levels", depending on the site.
And "in the absence of a full ceasefire, ship owners, charterers, insurers, and crew will need to see robust security measures" to return to the strait, such as armed escorts, it added.
It said a traffic management system may need to be created to handle the massive backlog when traffic resumes in the strait, estimating it would take "several days to weeks" to clear.
Hinting at voter anxieties in the U.S. as the conflict in the Middle East continues, the president said the economy and American life will soon return to what it was before he launched strikes on Iran.
“This will bounce right back when it’s over, and I don’t think it’s going to be long,” Trump said in his interview with Fox News personality Brian Kilmeade.
Asked when the war will be over, Trump responded: “When I feel it — when I feel it in my bones.”
-All 6 crew aboard US KC-135 refueling aircraft that crashed in Iraq are dead, US military says. The American KC-135 aerial refueling aircraft crashed in western Iraq while a second plane involved in the incident landed safely, the US military said Thursday. "One of the aircraft went down in western Iraq, and the second landed safely. This was not due to hostile fire or friendly fire," US Central Command (CENTCOM), which is responsible for American forces in the Middle East, said in a statement.
Iran's military however said in a statement carried by state TV that an allied group in Iraq had downed the aircraft with a missile, killing all its crew.
- Israel's military said Thursday that it had struck a site in Iran it claimed was being used by the Islamic republic to develop nuclear weapons. Read more here.
Live Updates
- 12 March 2026 6:35 PM IST
Turkey Talking To US, Iran In Bid To End War : Turkey minister
Ankara :Turkey is talking to both Washington and Tehran in a bid to end the ongoing war in the Middle East, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Thursday
"We are at a time when we need negotiation and dialogue more than ever.. We are talking to the Iranian side, and we are talking to the American side," he said: "This war should end as soon as possible."
- 12 March 2026 6:29 PM IST
US Military 'Not Ready' To Escort Tankers Through Hormuz Strait: Energy Secretary
Washington : US military is currently "not ready" to escort tankers through the critical Strait of Hormuz because all its assets are focused on striking Iran, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Thursday.
Wright's comments came as an attack on two oil tankers off Iraq killed at least one person, and oil prices briefly soared past $100.
Since launching the war on Iran, US President Donald Trump has sought to calm the markets by offering US Navy escorts for oil tankers and reinsurance facilities for shipping companies -- but no escorts have so far taken place.
"It'll happen relatively soon, but it can't happen now. We're simply not ready," Wright told CNBC. "All of our military assets right now are focused on destroying Iran's offensive capabilities and the manufacturing industry that supplies their offensive capabilities."
He added that it was "quite likely" such escorts would be taking place by the end of the month.
As Iran launches a new wave of attacks against Gulf energy targets, the International Energy Agency said the war "is creating the largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market".
US and Israeli strikes on Iranian targets -- including energy infrastructure -- have also disrupted supplies.
IEA member countries have agreed to unlock 400 million barrels of oil from their reserves -- their largest release ever.
The United States will be releasing 172 million barrels, Wright said, under a swap arrangement that would see 200 million barrels flow back to its Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR).
However the move was unable to overcome fears about the choking of energy supplies, with the Strait of Hormuz -- through which a fifth of global crude passes -- effectively shut down.
Wright said he had meetings at the Pentagon on Thursday to discuss possible US Navy escorts for tankers.
- 12 March 2026 6:25 PM IST
Egyptian, Gulf Ministers Say Everyone Will Lose As War Drags On
Egypt’s foreign minister held phone calls with his Qatari, Emirati, Bahraini, Omani and German counterparts and they agreed that only diplomacy can end the war in the Middle East.
Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty also welcomed on Thursday the U.N. Security Council resolution that demands Iran halt its attacks on its Gulf neighbors.
Egypt, the most populous Arab country, said it was working with relevant parties to de-escalate tensions as the war has already had a severe impact on its economy. The ministers agreed that “everyone would lose” if the escalation persisted.
- 12 March 2026 6:18 PM IST
Key Oil Price Spikes Over $100 As Iranian Attacks Hit Shipping
The price of Brent crude oil, the international standard, spiked back over $100 as Iranian strikes hit ships and the American-Israeli war with Iran showed no signs of slowing.
Thursday’s major developments include Iran's attacks against commercial ships around the Strait of Hormuz and Iraq's port of Basra, escalating its defense strategy of squeezing the oil-rich Gulf region to threaten global economic stability after 13 days of U.S. airstrikes. The Israeli military also is striking Iran and moving troops to fight Iran's militant ally Hezbollah in Lebanon, where more than 800,000 people have been displaced by the fighting .
Greece imposes price controls on fuel and household staples The emergency controls Thursday are in response to global market turmoil caused by the war. Government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis said the measures take immediate effect through June 30, capping profit margins mostly at 2025 levels.
The controls affect retail and business sales of gasoline and diesel, as well as a list of household products including food, cleaning supplies and personal hygiene items.
- 12 March 2026 6:10 PM IST
Iran's New Supreme Leader To Issue First Message: Official Telegram Channel
Tehran : Iran's new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei will issue his first message since his appointment "in a few moments", his official Telegram channel said, without specifying if it will be a recorded message or written statement.
"The first message of Ayatollah Seyyed Mojtaba Hosseini Khamenei, the supreme leader of the Islamic revolution, will be released in a few moments," the channel said.
The message will address "the martyred leader of the revolution (Ali Khamenei), the role and duties of the people, the armed forces, executive bodies, the resistance front, as well as the countries of the region and dealing with enemies."
12 March 2026 5:53 PM ISTShips Identify Themselves As Chinese Around Strait of Hormuz To Avoid Attacks
Hong Kong : Some commercial ships near or in the Strait of Hormuz and Persian Gulf have declared themselves as China-linked since the Iran war began, marine traffic data show, as their operators apparently try to reduce risks of being targeted in attacks.
At least eight vessels in or near the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman changed their declared destination signals to short messages such as "CHINA OWNER" or "CHINA OWNER & CREW," according to data on the ship tracking platform Marine Traffic analysed by The Associated Press.
"The main goal of vessels publicly identifying themselves as Chinese' while transiting the Gulf or the Strait of Hormuz is primarily to reduce the risk of being attacked rather than to facilitate passage through the strait itself," said Ana Subasic, a trade risk analyst at data and analytics firm Kpler, which owns MarineTraffic.
Some of the vessels passed through the strait and headed for their destinations. Others were still in the area.
Iran and affiliated groups have generally avoided targeting ships linked to China, Subasic said, given China's relatively neutral stance and stronger economic ties with Iran.
"The message is more like do not mistake me for the kind of ship you said you would hit,'" said Kun Cao, client director at consulting firm Reddal.
Iranian attacks on vessels in the Persian Gulf and the wider region have particularly raised concerns among shippers. At least 19 commercial ships around the region had been damaged in the war as of Thursday.
Most of the eight vessels identified by Marine Traffic were not China flagged. Their flag states included Panama and the Marshall Islands, although Reddal's Cao noted that a vessel's flag often "has little to do with the ship owner's nationality" in commercial shipping.
While many bulk carriers have strong links with China in terms of ownership, operation and cargo, the actual effectiveness of declaring themselves as China-linked in avoiding attacks is unclear, said Rico Luman, a senior economist at the Dutch bank ING who focuses on transport and logistics.
Destination signals are short notes or messages manually entered by a ship's crew into a vessel's transponder, a global positioning system locator, and broadcast publicly, Subasic said. They typically show the ship's intended next port and are usually intended to help with navigation safety, traffic awareness and port planning.
Because destination signals are not strictly verified in real time, "some vessels occasionally use it to display additional information or signals, such as references to ownership or nationality," she said.
During earlier Houthi attacks in the Red Sea, some vessels adopted a similar approach by declaring themselves or their crew as having links to China, which appeared as an effort to try to reduce risks of attacks from the Iranian-backed Houthis.
- 12 March 2026 4:11 PM IST
Northern Israel residents reeling after Hezbollah assault
Hezbollah launched some 200 rockets at Israel’s north and deeper into the country overnight, the Israeli military says.
Many rockets were intercepted and no serious injuries were reported.
Sirens started blaring Wednesday evening across the north and continued almost nonstop for hours, warning of incoming attacks from Lebanon and Iran.
- 12 March 2026 4:10 PM IST
Israel says it has struck Iranian 'nuclear weapon development compound'
International media has reported that Israel has claimed that it has struck Iranian 'nuclear weapon development compound' in "the past days".
- 12 March 2026 4:05 PM IST
Zelenskyy says Ukraine seeking drone agreement with US
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Ukraine seeks to sign a major agreement with the United States on drone production but requires White House approval.
The deal would cover various types of drones and air defense systems operating as a single system capable of protecting against hundreds or even thousands of Iranian-designed Shahed drones and missiles, Zelenskyy said on Telegram Thursday.
