Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei issued his first statement on the war on Thursday, saying Iran should close the Strait of Hormuz and keep attacking its Gulf Arab neighbors as leverage. Khamenei also called on people in Gulf countries to “shut down” U.S. bases, saying promised U.S. protection is “nothing more than a lie.”

Khamenei did not appear on camera. Israeli intelligence assessed that he was likely wounded in the war’s opening salvo, which he said also killed his wife, one of his sisters, his niece and his father, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

As American and Israeli strikes pound the Islamic Republic and Iran attacks Persian Gulf shipping and energy infrastructure with no sign of an end to the war, oil prices have soared back above US$100 a barrel.

U.S. President Donald Trump promised to “finish the job,” even as Iran is “virtually destroyed.” The first week of war cost the United States $11.3 billion, according to the Pentagon. The UN refugee agency says up to 3.2 million people in Iran have been displaced, and authorities in Lebanon say 800,000 have been forced from their homes as Israel’s military destroys buildings linked to Iran-backed Hezbollah militants.

U.S. Air Force refuelling plane has gone down in Iraq

Rescue efforts are underway, the U.S military said Thursday.

The aircraft is part of the U.S. military operation against Iran, but the crash was not due to hostile or friendly fire, it said.

U.S. Central Command, which oversees the Middle East, said in a statement that two KC-135 refuelling aircraft were involved in the incident. One landed safely, while the other went down in western Iraq.

Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon kill 15

One attack on the village of Erkay, in the Sidon district, killed nine people, including five children, Lebanon’s health ministry said, adding that seven others were wounded.

An AP photographer who visited the scene found several buildings flattened and widespread destruction. Rescue workers searched through the rubble.

Two other Israeli strikes on separate towns in southern Lebanon killed six more, the ministry said.

Israel’s renewed offensive in Lebanon began March 2 after Hezbollah launched rockets toward northern Israel during the early days of the war triggered by the U.S. and Israel’s attack on Iran.

Pentagon concedes it’s reworking how it wants to handle efforts to minimize civilian casualties

The Defense Department said in a statement that its efforts to reduce civilian harm are “currently undergoing a strategic reassessment to inform its future reorganization.”

AP has reported that outdated intelligence likely led to the United States carrying out a missile strike on an elementary school in Iran that killed over 165 people, many of them children.

The Pentagon did not address media reports and critics who said that the military slashed the size of its mission central to civilian protection and that the emphasis on updating intelligence had come to a near halt.

The statement did acknowledge, however, that a “reorganization” was being conducted and that functions to reduce civilian casualties have been “streamlined” directly into the operations of combatant commands.

Iranian diplomat says Tehran is not ruling out closing the Strait of Hormuz

“Iran has an inherent right to preserve the peace and security in the Strait of Hormuz, and it is our responsibility,” Amir Saeid Iravani, Tehran’s envoy to the UN, told reporters Thursday.

His comments come a few hours after Iran’s new supreme leader issued his first statement on the war, saying that the leverage of closing the strategic waterway should be used in the ongoing war with Israel and the U.S.

Iran’s attacks on shipping during the war have effectively closed the strait.

Israeli strikes on checkpoints in Iran aim to weaken state control, monitoring group says

At least 18 instances in which Israel struck checkpoints operated by Iran’s paramilitary Basij forces, mostly in the capital, were documented on Wednesday alone by Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, the U.S-based group known as ACLED.

ACLED said the strikes may be aimed at stoking unrest among the security forces, who play a key role in suppressing dissent.

Since the start of the war, ACLED said at least 30% of its recorded U.S. and Israeli strikes have targeted Iran’s system of internal control, including police stations and sites used by intelligence and Revolutionary Guard forces involved in domestic security.

Israel’s prime minister said Thursday that his country was trying to create the conditions for Iranians to rise up against the government. However, hundreds of thousands of people work for the internal security forces across the country, ACLED said.

Stocks sink worldwide as Iran war rages on

With no clear end in sight, the war with Iran sent oil prices back to $100 per barrel on Thursday, and stocks sank worldwide.

The S&P 500 fell 1.5% and resumed its sharp swings following a couple days of relative calm. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 739 points, or 1.6%, and the Nasdaq composite lost 1.8%.

The center of action was again the oil market, where the price of a barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, climbed 9.2% to settle at $100.46. Worries are worsening that the war could block the production of oil in the Persian Gulf for a long time and cause a debilitating surge of inflation for the global economy.

Damage to historical sites in Iran raises alarm about war’s impact on protected places

At least four of Iran’s nearly 30 historical sites, including palaces and an ancient mosque, have sustained damage from U.S. and Israeli strikes during the war.

The speed and extent of the damage made Iran and Lebanon so concerned that they sent a request this week to the United Nations’ cultural agency, UNESCO, to add more sites to its enhanced protection list.

UNESCO said it shared site coordinates with combatants beforehand to help avoid damage, but warned that modern conflicts increasingly endanger civilians, infrastructure and cultural heritage.

One nonprofit group has pointed to U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth saying last week that America’s approach to the war would not include “stupid rules of engagement.”

Israel claims strikes have killed top nuclear scientists

In other developments, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli attacks have killed top Iranian nuclear scientists.

Speaking Thursday night at a news conference, Netanyahu denounced Iran’s new supreme leader as a “puppet of the Revolutionary Guards” who cannot appear in public. And he addressed the Iranian people, saying the moment for a “new path of freedom” was approaching and that Israel stands with them.

No significant injuries to U.S. personnel after attack on base in Iraq, official says

An attack on a base in northern Iraq resulted in no significant injuries to American personnel, a U.S. defence official said Thursday.

The official, who wasn’t authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the U.S. personnel are still on duty after Wednesday’s attack.

British military officials said earlier Thursday that several U.S. personnel were injured in drone strikes at a base in Irbil that houses both British and American troops.

The U.K. and U.S. military officials did not specify if the wounded were American troops.

Hezbollah official says Beirut branch of financial arm that Israel hit had been shuttered for 2 weeks

Amin Sherri, a member of Lebanon’s parliament, made the remarks after an Israeli strike hit the ground floor of a building in crowded central Beirut.

In the current conflict with Hezbollah and the last one in 2024, Israel has targeted branches of the militant group’s financial arm, Al-Qard al-Hassan, which offers small loans to people but also transfers funds within the group.

This was the second Israeli strike Thursday in the heart of the Lebanese capital, close to government, United Nations, and diplomatic buildings.

Residents gathered afterward, walking through the narrow street filled with debris and shattered glass. Several vehicles were badly damaged.

“The al-Qard al-Hassan branch in Zoqaq el-Blat has been inactive,” Sherri said after walking through the area.

The islands off Iran’s southern coast are key to its economy and security

Iran’s parliament speaker warned on Thursday that attacks on the Persian Gulf islands on Iran’s southern maritime frontier would provoke a new level of retaliation, underscoring how central they are to the country’s economy and security.

In a social media post, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf said Iran “will abandon all restraint” if the islands come under attack and said Trump will be responsible for “the blood of American soldiers.”

Kharg Island, Qeshm Island, and the tiny islands of Abu Musa and the Greater and Lesser Tunb carry outsized importance because of their oil facilities and strategic location. “A direct strike would immediately halt the bulk of Iran’s crude exports, likely triggering severe retaliation,” JPMorgan said in an investment note this week.

Oil jumps to $100 per barrel as global markets sink

Stocks were sinking worldwide on Thursday with no clear end in sight for the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran.

The S&P 500 fell 1.4 per cent and is returning to sharp swings following a couple days of relative calm. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 674 points, or 1.3 per cent, and the Nasdaq composite was 1.6 per cent lower.

The centre of action was again the oil market, where the price of a barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, climbed 9.2 per cent to settle at $100.46. Worries are worsening that the war could block the production of oil in the Persian Gulf for a long time and cause a debilitating surge of inflation for the global economy.

Top U.S. military commander in Europe says air defences moved because of Iran war

Gen. Alexus Grynkewich told lawmakers on a Senate committee that the precious weapons systems have been moved from Europe to the Eastern Mediterranean to protect NATO allies. He also said “we do have a robust set of air defences in the Middle East.”

The general was pressed on the issue by Sen. Angus King, and independent from Maine, who cited Ukraine’s need for such weapons systems to defend against Russia.

Democratic lawmakers have argued Trump is waging a “war of choice” as munitions for missile defence systems diminish. The Trump administration has repeatedly said American forces have all the weapons they need.

U.S. general tells lawmakers military has `robust standards’ for reducing civilian harm

A top Pentagon official addressed concerns Thursday that outdated intelligence likely led to a deadly American missile strike on an Iranian school.

Gen. Alexus Grynkewich spoke at a Senate committee hearing on European operations. But Sen. Kristen Gillibrand, D-N.Y., pressed the head of European Command on the strike and on staffing cuts at a Pentagon office that focuses on reducing civilian casualties.

“We have robust standards that we go through, and look to see and update the imagery, and update our understanding of the target and refresh the intelligence on a recurring basis to determine the chances of civilian harm,” he said.

Israeli strike kills two academics at Lebanese university

The Israeli strike that hit in the vicinity of Lebanon’s only public university killed the director of the faculty of sciences Hussein Bazzi and professor Mortada Srour.

The campus is in Hadath, on the outskirts of Beirut’s southern suburbs, which Israel had warned last week should be evacuated. It was not clear whether the campus was directly targeted, but smoke could be seen rising near the building’s courtyard in the aftermath. Israel had no immediate comment.