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Iran’s attacks escalated during a period of U.S. and Israeli strikes on Tehran, as the conflict extended across air and maritime routes that serve the Persian Gulf and broader global commerce, the Associated Press reported.
The latest episode included an Iranian attack on Wednesday that targeted Bahrain’s Muharraq Island, home to the island kingdom’s international airport, while U.S. and Israeli strikes rocked Tehran, according to the AP. On Thursday, an attack triggered a major fire on Muharraq Island; Bahrain authorities urged people to stay indoors and close windows to avoid smoke, AP reported. The AP said the airport has jet fuel tanks and that other nearby tanks support Bahrain’s oil industry.
AP also reported that an attack on Iraq’s Basra port killed at least one person and forced a halt to operations at all of Iraq’s oil terminals. Farhan al-Fartousi, the director-general of the General Company for Ports of Iraq, said in remarks carried by the state-run Iraqi News Agency that the attack targeted a vessel in a ship-to-ship transfer area at the port on the Persian Gulf. The AP said Iraq’s commercial ports remained open, but the oil terminals were shut.
The attacks unfolded alongside an international push through the United Nations. The AP reported that the U.N. Security Council voted Wednesday to approve a resolution demanding Iran stop “egregious attacks” on its Gulf neighbors. The vote was 13-0, and the AP said China and Russia abstained, with both countries’ ambassadors arguing the resolution was “extremely unbalanced” because it did not mention strikes on Tehran that began the war.
Bahrain’s U.N. ambassador Jamal Alrowaiei said the international community was resolute in rejecting the Iranian attacks against sovereign countries, which he described as threatening the stability of peoples in a region tied to global economy, energy, security and security of global trade, AP reported. The AP said Russia’s U.N. ambassador Vassily Nebenzia argued the resolution could give the impression that Iran, “on its own volition and out of malice, conducted an unprovoked attack on Arab states.” Iran’s U.N. ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani said the resolution “deliberately ignores the root causes of the current crisis,” according to the AP.
As the conflict spread through the region, AP reported additional attacks in Gulf countries, including drones launched toward the Iraqi Kurdish cities of Irbil and Sulaymaniyah. The AP also reported that in southern Iraq, an oil vessel flying the Australian flag was struck near Khor Al-Zubair Port, citing two Iraqi navy officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly. AP reported that the official said 25 crew members were rescued, and it was not immediately clear whether others were missing.
In Israel and Lebanon, AP said explosions and sirens were reported shortly after midnight Thursday in Jerusalem and other parts of Israel. The Israeli military said it was responding with another “wide-scale wave of strikes” in Tehran. The AP said Israel also struck targets it described as connected to Iran-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon, including a strike in Ramlet al-Bayda, a major seaside tourist area of Beirut where displaced people had been sheltering; the Lebanese Health Ministry said seven people were killed and 21 were wounded, while an Israeli military press office told the AP it was “not aware” of a strike at that location.
AP said Israel’s military described the Beirut-area strikes as a response to Hezbollah firing dozens of rockets simultaneously across northern Israel, and that the fighting marked some of the heaviest between the two since the war began. The AP also reported a rocket hit a house near the Israeli town of Karmiel, lightly injuring two people, according to Israeli rescue services.
The conflict also fed into market and logistics responses aimed at stabilizing energy supplies. The AP reported that Iran has targeted oil fields and refineries in Gulf Arab nations and effectively stopped cargo traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, which carries about a fifth of all traded oil. In response, AP said the International Energy Agency agreed to release 400 million barrels of oil, described as the largest volume of emergency reserves in its history, and that the U.S. planned to release 172 million barrels next week from its Strategic Petroleum Reserve to counter the war’s effects on energy markets.
At the same time, AP reported an estimate from the Pentagon to Congress that the first week of war with Iran cost the United States $11.3 billion, and that the military reported spending $5 billion on munitions alone during the war’s first weekend, citing a person familiar with the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity because the briefing was private.