Says US will continue to bomb Iranian shoreline and ships
\nWashington
\nUnited States President Donald Trump on Saturday said that warships from the American military and other countries were on their way to ensure the Strait of Hormuz remained \u201copen and safe\u201d for traffic.
\nHe also said the US would continue to bomb the Iranian shoreline and the country\u2019s boats and ships.
\nHe earlier threatened to strike the oil infrastructure of Iran\u2019s Kharg Island hub \u200bunless Tehran stopped attacking vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, a warning that could further roil markets coping with a historic supply disruption.
\nTrump paired his Friday ultimatum with a social media post saying \u200cthe U.S. had \u201ctotally obliterated\u201d military targets on the island, the export terminal for 90% of Iran\u2019s oil shipments, which lies about 500 kilometres northwest of the strait.
\nUS President Donald Trump said Iran has been \u201ctotally defeated\u201d in the ongoing US-Israeli military campaign, claiming Tehran had sought a deal he would not accept even as Iranian officials vowed to continue attacks.
\n\u201cThe Fake News Media hates to report how well the United States Military has done against Iran, which is totally defeated and wants a deal \u2013 But not a deal that I would accept!\u201d Trump wrote on Truth Social.
\nHis remarks came after reports of heavy US strikes on Iran\u2019s key oil hub, Kharg Island. Trump described the operation as \u201cone of the most powerful bombing raids in the History of the Middle East.\u201d
\nHe also warned Iran against disrupting shipping in the strategic Strait of Hormuz.
\n\u201cHowever, 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 this decision,\u201d Trump said.
\nTrump added that the US Navy would begin escorting oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz \u201cvery soon\u201d in a bid to ensure the safe movement of energy supplies.
\nThe escalation comes amid widening regional tensions. The US Embassy in the Iraqi capital Baghdad was hit in a missile attack on Saturday, Iraqi security sources told Reuters.
\nThe strike caused smoke to rise from the embassy building, the sources said, without providing details on the extent of the damage.
\nAn Iraqi security source told Al Jazeera that the attack destroyed the embassy\u2019s air defence system.
\nMeanwhile, Iran said it had shot down five drones over its airspace, bringing the total number of US and Israeli drones it claims to have downed during the war to 114, according to Iranian state television.
\nEarlier, Trump had threatened to order strikes on the petroleum infrastructure of Kharg Island if Iran did not halt attacks on vessels passing through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping lane for global energy supplies.
\nIn a social media post, Trump said US forces had \u201ctotally obliterated\u201d military targets on the island, which serves as the export terminal for about 90% of Iran\u2019s oil shipments and lies roughly 300 miles (483 kilometres) northwest of the strait.
\nUS strikes did not target Kharg\u2019s oil infrastructure, but \u201cshould 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 this decision,\u201d Trump wrote.
\nIran had no ability to defend against US attacks, the president added. \u201cIran\u2019s Military, and all others involved with this Terrorist Regime, would be wise to lay down their arms, and save what\u2019s left of their country, which isn\u2019t much!\u201d he posted on Truth Social.
\nIran\u2019s armed forces responded on Saturday by saying any strike on their country\u2019s oil and energy infrastructure would lead to strikes on facilities owned by oil companies cooperating with the United States in the region, Iranian media reported.
\nIran\u2019s semi-official Fars news agency reported, citing sources, that more than 15 explosions were heard on Kharg Island during the US attacks. The sources said the attacks targeted air defences, a naval base, and airport facilities, but caused no damage to oil infrastructure.
\nMarkets were watching for any sign that US strikes had damaged the island\u2019s intricate network of pipelines, terminals and storage tanks. Even minor disruptions could further tighten global supply, adding pressure to an already volatile market.
\nIn other strikes across the region, Iran\u2019s Revolutionary Guard said early Saturday that it had carried out additional attacks on Israel with Lebanon\u2019s Hezbollah militia, Iran\u2019s Tasnim news agency reported.
\nOn Friday, the Israeli military said its air force had struck more than 200 targets in western and central Iran over the past day, including ballistic missile launchers, air-defence systems and weapons production sites.
\nUS forces have suffered casualties. The US military on Friday confirmed that all six crew members aboard a refuelling aircraft that crashed in western Iraq were dead.
\nFive US Air Force tankers at a base in Saudi Arabia had been damaged by an Iranian missile strike and were being repaired, reported The Wall Street Journal, citing US officials.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Says US will continue to bomb Iranian shoreline and ships Washington United States President Donald Trump on Saturday said that warships from the American military and other countries were on their way to ensure the Strait of Hormuz remained \u201copen and safe\u201d for traffic. He also said the US would continue to bomb the Iranian …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":95076,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95095"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95095\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95105,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95095\/revisions\/95105"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}