Trump threatens Iran following new wave of attacks on Gulf states and Israel

DUBAI — Iran launched multiple attacks early Friday (March 13) on Gulf Arab states, including dozens of drones at Saudi Arabia, following warnings from its new supreme leader about hosting American bases, and US President Donald Trump threatened major new retaliation.

"Watch what happens to these deranged scumbags today," Trump wrote in a post on his social media platform Truth Social. 

"Iran's Navy is gone, their Air Force is no longer, missiles, drones and everything else are being decimated, and their leaders have been wiped from the face of the earth."

The comments came the day after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei vowed to "not refrain from avenging the blood" of Iranians killed, and warned Gulf Arab nations to shut US bases, saying the notion of American protection was "nothing more than a lie".

Intense airstrikes landed around Iran's capital, Tehran, early Friday, just before rallies were to begin for the annual Quds Day event in support of Palestinians. 

Despite the attacks, thousands of people took to the streets chanting "death to Israel" and "death to America".

With growing global concerns about a possible energy crisis and no end to the war in sight, the price of Brent crude oil, the international standard, remained over US$100 (S$128) per barrel as Iran kept its stranglehold on shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic waterway through which a fifth of the world's oil transits on its way from the Persian Gulf to the open seas.

Brent prices have spiked as high as about US$120 per barrel and are about 40 per cent higher than when Israel and the US attacked Iran on Feb 28 to start the war.

Iran has been attacking ships that try to transit the strait, and Khamenei's comments — his first to the public since being named to replace his father, who was killed during the first day of the conflict — said that Iran would continue to block the waterway.

In Iraq, recovery efforts were underway after an American KC-135 refueling plane went down, according to US Central Command. 

And a French soldier who was stationed in the north of the country was killed in an attack, the French president said Friday.

New attacks on Gulf nations

Iran has been attacking oil and other infrastructure around the Gulf region, and on Friday Saudi Arabia that it had downed nearly 50 drones sent in multiple waves.

In Oman, two people were killed when two drones crashed in an industrial area in the region of Sohar, the Oman News Agency reported.

Sirens also sounded in Bahrain warning of incoming fire, and black smoke billowed from an industrial area in Dubai, after a blaze that authorities said was sparked by debris from an interception.

A building at the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) also sustained damage when hit with debris from what authorities described as a "successful interception".

DIFC is an economic free zone for banks, capital traders and wealth managers, home to exclusive restaurants and nightclubs for the city-state's elite.

Iran said earlier this week that it would target banks and financial institutions, after an airstrike hit a bank in Tehran.

Nearly 60 people were wounded in northern Israel after Lebanese militant group Hezbollah said that it had fired several rocket salvoes toward the area and at Israeli troops in southern Lebanon. 

Almost all the injuries were described as very minor.

One person was killed in southwestern Beirut in an Israeli strike, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry, and another attack hit an apartment in the capital, leaving it engulfed in flames. 

Following the attacks, the Israeli army said that it had been targeting a member of Iran-linked Hezbollah.

In eastern Lebanon, a strike on an apartment wounded a local official with the Lebanese branch of the Muslim Brotherhood and killed his two sons, the state-run National News Agency reported. 

For the past two years, Israel has targeted officials with the group, known as al-Jamaa al-Islamiya or the Islamic Group.

More than 600 people have been killed in Lebanon since the fighting began, the Health Ministry has reported. 

And nearly 800,000 have been internally displaced, according to the UN refugee agency.

Israel also said it had begun a wave of strikes on Iran targeting infrastructure. 

The military said that the Israeli air force had hit more than 200 targets in Iran over the past 24 hours, including missile launchers, defence systems and weapons production sites.

Israel's military issued a warning on its Farsi-language X account that it would "conduct operations" in an area near Tehran University later in the day, which was filled with people for the Quds Day demonstrations.

"Your presence in these areas puts your life at risk," the Israeli military said.

It wasn't clear how people in Tehran would be able to see the message, with the internet broadly shut down by Iran's theocracy, though many have workarounds.

Iranian authorities say that more than 1,300 people have been killed there, and Israel has reported 12 deaths. 

The US has lost at least seven soldiers, while another eight have suffered severe injuries.

In his Friday morning post, Trump said that "we are totally destroying the terrorist regime of Iran, militarily, economically, and otherwise".

"They've been killing innocent people all over the world for 47 years, and now I, as the 47th President of the US, am killing them," Trump said. "What a great honour it is to do so!"

The US military said that American forces have now struck more than 6,000 targets since the operation against Iran began, including more than 30 minelaying vessels.

French soldier killed in Iraq

On Friday, French President Emmanuel Macron said that a French soldier was killed in an attack targeting Irbil in Iraq's northern Kurdish region. 

France earlier said that six soldiers had been hurt in a drone strike in Irbil, where French troops are deployed as part of a multinational counterterrorism mission supporting Iraqi forces in their fight against militants from the Islamic State group.

In the same region, UK officials said that several US personnel suffered minor injuries Wednesday when drone strikes hit a base in Irbil that houses both British and American troops.

Italy said that a base where it has troops in Irbil was also hit Wednesday, but that there were no injuries. 

The Italian contingent in the region trains local Kurdish troops at the request of the Iraqi government

Recovery efforts were underway in western Iraq on Friday after the American KC-135 refueling aircraft crashed. 

It wasn't immediately clear whether there were any casualties, but the aircraft had five crew on board.

US Central Command said that 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 US military's operations against Iran. 

Last week, three American fighter jets were mistakenly downed by friendly Kuwaiti fire.

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