President Donald Trump said the U.S. bombed military sites on Iran’s Kharg Island on Friday, describing the strikes as “obliterated” targets on the island that he said is vital to Iran’s oil network. Trump added that Iran’s oil infrastructure could be next, as the war continued to rattle global markets with no clear sign of easing.
The account was reported alongside an expansion of the U.S. force posture in the region. An American official speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity said roughly 2,500 additional Marines and the amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli are being sent to the Middle East nearly two weeks into the conflict.
The official described the deployment as part of a wider buildup that includes Marine Expeditionary Unit elements. The Marines in such units are able to conduct amphibious landings, but the deployment does not necessarily indicate that a ground operation is imminent, according to AP’s reporting on how the units are used. The same AP report said the new Marine deployment was first reported by The Wall Street Journal, and it noted that elements of the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit and the USS Tripoli are based in Japan and have been in the Pacific Ocean.
AP said military images showed the Tripoli moving alone near Taiwan and that the ship was more than a week away from the waters off Iran. The report also described how, in the broader region, earlier in the week the U.S. Navy had 12 ships operating in the Arabian Sea, including the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and eight destroyers, and it said Tripoli would be the second-largest ship behind the Lincoln if it joined that flotilla. It also cited Al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar as typically housing about 8,000 U.S. troops.
Trump also addressed the strategic risk around the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway through which a fifth of the world’s traded oil passes. In a social media post about the Kharg Island strikes, he said U.S. strikes targeted military sites while leaving the oil infrastructure for now, but he warned that if Iran or anyone else interferes with shipping passage through the strait, he would reconsider his decision not to “wipe out the Oil Infrastructure.” The warning came after Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, said on social media on Thursday that attacks on islands on Iran’s southern maritime frontier would cause Iran to “abandon all restraint.”
While the U.S. and Iranian officials exchanged threats over maritime assets, AP reported that an explosion in Tehran struck an area where thousands had gathered for the annual Quds Day rally. The blast hit the Ferdowsi Square area midday, where protesters chanted “death to Israel” and “death to America,” AP reported. The report said there were no reports of casualties.
AP described Iran’s information environment around the rally as authorities having nearly shut down the internet, and it reported that Israel had issued a warning in Farsi-language on X telling people to clear the area shortly before the blast, though few Iranians would likely have seen it. The Israeli military later posted a second message in Farsi, saying the head of Iran’s judiciary was at the rally and criticizing Iran for blocking many people from seeing Israel’s earlier warning.
AP reported that Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, who leads Iran’s judiciary, was giving an interview on state television at the demonstration when the strike happened. It said his bodyguards encircled him as he raised his fist and told the crowd Iran “under this rain and missiles will never withdraw.”
Elsewhere, U.S. officials and other regional developments added to the sense of mounting pressure across multiple fronts. U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters that over 15,000 enemy targets had been struck, more than 1,000 a day since the war began, AP reported. Hegseth also sought to address concerns about bottling the Strait of Hormuz, telling reporters, “We have been dealing with it and don’t need to worry about it.”
AP also reported that all six crew members of an American KC-135 refueling plane were killed when it crashed in Iraq, raising the U.S. death toll to at least 13 service members. The report cited Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine as saying three victims were from his state and had deployed with the Ohio Air National Guard’s 121st Air Refueling Wing, and it said U.S. Central Command stated the crash was not related to friendly or hostile fire, with two aircraft involved and one landing safely.
The war’s spillover included reported attacks across the Gulf and fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon. AP said Iran continued its daily attacks on oil and other infrastructure across the Gulf, including a report from Oman News Agency that two people were killed in the Sohar region after two drones crashed. AP also reported that the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Oscar Austin shot down an Iranian ballistic missile over Turkey, according to a U.S. official speaking on condition of anonymity.
In Lebanon, AP reported that an Israeli strike in the village of Burj Qalaouiyah hit a health care center, killing 12 doctors, paramedics and nurses, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. The report also said at least eight people were killed in a strike on the southern coastal city of Sidon, and that the ministry said 773 people—including more than 100 children and 18 paramedics—had been killed since fighting erupted between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah militants 10 days earlier.
In the background of energy anxieties, U.S. inflation and construction data can also shape how households and markets respond to oil-price shocks: Housing starts stood at 1,487.0 and core PCE inflation was 3.055696019648922% year over year in the March 13, 2026 FRED vintage used for this article, according to the figures block provided with this cluster.