Iran war: US 'ramping up' strikes in coming days

President Donald Trump said the United States has carried out one of its heaviest strikes in the Middle East in years, bombing military targets on Iran's Kharg Island.

The island handles nearly all of Iran's crude oil exports.

Trump posted on his Truth Social media platform that US Central Command had "totally obliterated" what he called Iran's military assets on the island.

"I have chosen NOT to wipe out the Oil Infrastructure on the Island. However, should Iran, or anyone else, do anything to interfere with the Free and Safe Passage of Ships through the Strait of Hormuz, I will immediately reconsider."

There was no immediate reaction from Tehran.

Nepal's consulate in Beirut has condemned an attack on a UN peacekeeping base in southern Lebanon.

The strike hit the headquarters of a Nepali battalion in the border village of Mais al‑Jabal, in the Marjeyoun district.

No Nepali soldiers were injured.

It remains unclear who carried out the attack, though Lebanon's state news agency reported that Israeli shells landed inside the UNIFIL compound.

UNIFIL and the Israeli military did not immediately comment on the incident.

Clashes between Hezbollah and Israel have intensified since March 2, after the Iran‑backed group fired rockets into northern Israel.

Peacekeeping posts have been repeatedly caught in the crossfire, most recently on March 6, when three Ghanaian peacekeepers were wounded at another UNIFIL base.

The United Nations humanitarian chief urged all sides in the US-Israeli war on Iran to guarantee safe passage for aid through the Strait of Hormuz.

The critical waterway has been virtually closed since the war started, and Tom Fletcher warned it is already threatening deliveries of food and medicine.

"Humanitarian cargo must be allowed to pass safely through the Strait of Hormuz," he said in a statement, warning that "millions of people are at risk" if disruptions persist.

He added that Iran's deployment of mines and the wider conflict have sent transport costs soaring and slowed traffic to a halt.

"I am speaking directly with key parties, pressing for humanitarian supplies to be allowed to keep moving unobstructed through the Strait," Fletcher said.

Iranian authorities have arrested a man for allegedly running a network selling access to the internet via Starlink terminals, the Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) reported.

"A 37-year-old man, who had put in place a network in several provinces of the country to sell access to the unrestricted internet via Starlink, has been arrested" ISNA reported, citing a deputy police commander for Fars province.

The technology is banned in Iran and the country is under a complete internet blackout since the start of the war.

Some Iranians have tried to circumvent the measures by using Starlink terminals that connect to the internet by satellite.

The Iranian regime routinely cuts off internet connectivity when faced with mass anti-government protest.

The recent nationwide protests in January, in which thousands were reported to have been killed, saw a weeks-long internet blackout.

Internet was also cut during the 12-day war with Israel in June of last year.

The impact the war in Iran is having on shipping  though the Strait of Hormuz is quickly having global consequences, with energy prices skyrocketing around the world. 

On Friday, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said "we have been dealing with it, don't need to worry about it."

Several ships were hit by blasts this week around the Persian Gulf, as Iran's supreme leader said in a statement that Iran would keep the strait closed to apply "leverage" on the US and its allies

However, the US defense secretary said Iranian strikes on civilian and energy targets were a sign of "desperation" and denied that the war was "widening," but rather that Iran's leadership was "shrinking and moving underground." 

He also said vital shipping lane would not become a contested waterway.

"The only thing prohibiting transit in the strait right now is Iran and shooting at shipping," Hegseth said and went on to explain that was why the US has "destroyed" Iran's navy.

"That's not a strait that we're going to allow to remain contested with a lack of flow of commercial goods," Hegseth emphasized.

On Thursday, US Energy Secretary Chris Wright told broadcaster CNBC that the US "wasn't ready" to escort ships through Hormuz. 

"It'll happen relatively soon but it can't happen now," Wright said, adding that US military assets were focused on destroying Iran's military capabilities. 

 

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth painted a picture of military domination over Iran during a press briefing Friday on the status of joint US and Israeli combat operations in Iran.

While lambasting the media for allegedly downplaying US military success, Hegseth said the US is "decimating the radical Iranian regime's military in a way the world has never seen before."

He went on to say that "never before has a modern capable military — which Iran used to have — been so quickly destroyed and made combat ineffective."

Hegseth said that 15,000 targets had been struck in joint operations involving Israel's air force.

He said the US and Israeli air forces had complete air superiority over Iran and Tehran and that "fighters and bombers were, all day, picking targets as they choose," as Iran no longer has an air force or air defenses.

The US defense secretary added that Iranian drone and missile attacks had been curbed considerably, missile volume he said was down 90% and one way attack drones down 95%.

"As of two days ago, Iran's entire ballistic missile production capacity — every company that builds every component of those missiles — [has] been functionally defeated [and] destroyed," Hegseth said, also noting that assessment includes buildings, complexes and factory lines all across the country.

"We're shooting down and destroying what missiles [the enemy] still have in stock; but more importantly, we're ensuring that they have no ability to make more. Their production lines, their military plants [and] their defense innovation centers [are] defeated," Hegseth said. 

Sri Lanka has repatriated the remains of 84 Iranian seamen that died when their naval vessel was sunk by a US submarine, according to local officials.

A specially chartered Airbus A340 "left a short while ago carrying the remains of the sailors," an airport official at Mattala International Airport in the island's south told the AFP news agency by telephone.

"The departure was delayed because 84 sealed boxes had to be loaded," the officials who requested anonymity, told AFP.

The Iranian warship IRIS Dena was sunk by torpedo on March 4 while it was returning from a naval exercise in India amid the US-Israel war on Iran.

Two other ​vessels that had also taken part in the exercises sought shelter: the IRIS Lavan, which docked in India, and the IRIS Booshehr, which ​docked in Sri Lanka.

The Wall Street Journal has reported that a Marine expeditionary unit and warships are being moved to the Middle East, citing three US officials with the information.

The newspaper cited the officials as saying that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had approved a US Central Command (CENTCOM) request, "for an amphibious ready group and attached Marine expeditionary unit, typically consisting of several warships and 5,000 Marines."

According to the report, the USS Tripoli, based in Japan, along with its attached Marines was now heading to the Middle East.

The Associated Press reported that 2,500 Marines and one amphibious assault ship are headed for the Middle East, according to an unnamed US official. 

The report comes as Iran continues to threaten global shipping, essentially turning the Strait of Hormuz into a choke point for 20% of global oil shipments. 

Hegseth on Friday said the US would step up airstrikes in the coming days. 

"As we continue to ramp up every tool [of warfare], we're employing [them], blinding, confusing and deceiving our enemy; because we know who the good guys are here, and the American people do, too," Hegseth told a press conference. 

Hegseth said that since the conflict started, the US and Israeli air forces had struck more than 15,000 targets.

As Israel and the US near the third week of war with Iran, Israel is striking deep inside the country while also trading fire with Hezbollah in Lebanon. Casualties are rising on both fronts as the conflict widens.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Friday gave a breakdown in numbers of the amount of strikes conducted on Iran, nearly two weeks into what it has code-named "Operation Roaring Lion."

In a post on X, the IDF said a total of 7,600 strikes had been launched with over 2,000 of these targeting headquarters and various assets of the Iranian regime.

Iran's missile program was targeted in 4,700 strikes with the IDF saying that "thousands of terror operatives" had been eliminated.

The IDF also said that 1,100 strikes were launched in Lebanon targeting Hezbollah's Radwan Force, including missile launchers and command and control sites, with more than 380 of the Iran-linked militants killed.

Associated Press correspondent Philip Crowther spoke to DW from the United Arab Emirates on the Strait of Hormuz and said dozens of ships could be seen lining up and the shipping lane has essentially been blocked by the threat of Iranian attack.

"We have detected no movement with the naked eye," Crowther said.

The AP correspondent explained that the only exception had been some vessels "with a link to China."

Crowther pointed out that the China-linked vessels in these instances were not oil tankers.

Crowther also told DW about having witnessed one of the vessels ablaze just days ago from their point of observation.

"Now, we cannot ascertain for sure which ship that was and where that fire came from, but you know that there have been over a dozen Iranian attacks on ships that have either been close to the Strait of Hormuz or have been attempting to get through." 

Crowther went on to explain that there was no actual physical military blockade by the Iranians, but rather a blockade "because of the fear of there being further Iranian attacks."

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has called for a "convincing plan" on how to end the US-Israeli war with Iran.

Merz was speaking on Friday at military exercises in Norway, alongside Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.

He warned the world was witnessing a "dangerous escalation," adding that Iran was "indiscriminately" attacking countries across the region.

The German chancellor stressed the war should end "as soon as possible," as it "benefits no-one and harms many economically, including us."

"We are making every effort to end this war... all diplomatic channels are being used," Merz said, specifically when asked whether Europeans should make direct contact with Iran to secure the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.

A Turkish-owned ship was able to cross the Strait of Hormuz after getting Iran's permission, Turkey's Transport Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu said.

"We have 15 ships in the Strait of Hormuz and were able to get one of them through after obtaining permission from the Iranian authorities," Uraloglu told journalists in comments on Thursday that were made public on Friday.

The ministry identified the ship that managed to pass the strategic waterway as the Rozana.

The Strait of Hormuz has been effectively shut since the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran. Several tankers and other ships have been stranded, raising concerns about global energy supply. However, Iran has signaled it would let certain ships pass. 

Earlier on Friday, an Indian government official said that the Indian-flagged oil tanker, Jag Prakash, had set sail from the east of the Strait of Hormuz. The tanker was carrying gasoline from Oman to Africa.

Reuters news agency reported Friday that Iran also allowed two ‌liquefied ⁠petroleum ⁠gas (LPG) carriers to sail
through the ​strait. LPG is a common source of cooking gas in India. 

The passage of specific ships through the strategic waterway comes after Iran's new supreme leader said that the country will keep Hormuz shut, with high global energy prices providing leverage against the US and Israel.

A US-led investigation into a strike on a primary girls' school in Iran on the first day of the US-Israeli war on the Islamic Republic will take "as long as necessary," US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Friday.

The officer conducting the investigation is from outside the US Central Command.

Hegseth said the investigation "will take as long as necessary to address all the matters surrounding this incident."

Iran has accused the US and Israel of carrying out the missile attack that hit the school, reportedly killing at least 165 people, including children.

Hegseth said the US and Israel "never target civilians" in Iran.

The New York Times, citing a preliminary inquiry, reported this week that a US Tomahawk missile likely struck the school after target coordinates were provided using outdated data. 

The US Central Command has revised an earlier toll from the loss of a refueling aircraft over western Iraq on Thursday, saying all six crew members aboard the KC-135 were confirmed deceased.

Earlier on Friday, the US CENTCOM had put the death toll at four, while the search continued for the remaining two.

"The aircraft was lost while flying over friendly airspace March 12 during Operation Epic Fury," the CENTCOM said on X. It reiterated that the circumstances of the incident were under investigation, adding it did not believe it was due to "hostile fire or friendly fire."

The Pentagon has not yet shared information on the cause of the crash. 

Dan Caine, the us chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters at the Pentagon on Friday morning that the crash occurred "over friendly territory in western Iraq, while the crew was on a combat mission:"

A total of 13 US service members have been killed since the war began on February 28. About 140 US service members have been injured, including eight severely, the Pentagon said earlier this week.

Speaking at the same press conference, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said the crew were "heroes" and added "bad things can happen" during a war.