President Donald Trump said U.S. forces on Friday “obliterated” targets on Iran’s Kharg Island, which is home to the primary terminal that handles the country’s oil exports. The speaker of the Iranian Parliament had warned that such strikes would provoke a new level of retaliation.
Meanwhile, an American official said 2,500 more Marines and an amphibious assault ship are being sent to the Middle East nearly two weeks into the war with the Islamic Republic.
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 moves appear to signal the two-week-old war is not nearing an end.
Here is the latest:
Airstrike kills 2 in Baghdad
An airstrike hit a house in Iraq’s capital, Baghdad, early Saturday, killing at least one person, according to a security official and another affiliated with the Iranian-backed armed groups in the country.
The strike in Baghdad’s Karrada district also wounded two people, they said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak to the press.
In a statement, the Iraqi military condemned the strike as “a blatant violation of all humanitarian values and a disregard for international conventions.”
The strike happened before a missile attack hit the U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad.
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By Qassim Abdul-Zahra
Iranian media reports 15 explosions in Kharg following US strikes
Iran’s semiofficial Fars news agency reported at least 15 explosions with thick smoke rising over Kharg Island, earlier hit by U.S. strikes.
It said the strikes targeted an air defense facility, a naval base, the airport control tower, and an offshore oil company’s helicopter hangar, adding no oil infrastructure was damaged in the attack.
Iran reiterates threats to target US-linked oil facilities
Iran’s joint military command reiterated its threat to attack U.S.-linked oil and energy facilities in the region if the Islamic Republic’s oil infrastructure were hit.
Ebrahim Zolfaghari, spokesperson for the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters made the threat early Saturday, according to Iran’s state-run television.
He warned that Iran will target “all oil, economic, and energy infrastructures belonging to oil companies across the region that have American shares or cooperate with America” if energy and economic infrastructure in Iran is attacked.
No comment from US Embassy after strike on Baghdad compound






