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Iran\u00a0attacked commercial ships\u00a0on Wednesday across the Persian Gulf and targeted Dubai International Airport, escalating a campaign of squeezing the oil-rich region as\u00a0global energy concerns mounted\u00a0and American and Israeli airstrikes pounded the Islamic Republic.<\/p>\n
Two\u00a0Iranian drones hit near Dubai International Airport, home to the long-haul carrier Emirates and the world\u2019s busiest for international travel. Four people were wounded but flights continued, the Dubai Media Office said.<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s joint military command announced it would start targeting banks and financial institutions in the Middle East. That would put at risk particularly Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, which is home to many international financial institutions, as well as Saudi Arabia and the island kingdom of Bahrain.<\/p>\n
Earlier, a projectile hit a Thai cargo ship off the coast of Oman in the\u00a0Strait of Hormuz, setting it ablaze. Authorities are searching for three missing crew members from the Mayuree Naree after 20 were rescued by the Omani navy, according to Thailand\u2019s Marine Department.<\/p>\n
Kuwait said its defenses downed eight Iranian drones and Saudi Arabia said it intercepted five heading toward the kingdom\u2019s Shaybah oil field.<\/p>\n
Iran has effectively stopped cargo traffic in the narrow strait through which about a fifth of all oil is shipped. It has also\u00a0targeted oil fields and refineries\u00a0in Gulf Arab nations, aiming at generating enough\u00a0global economic pain\u00a0to pressure the United States and Israel to end their strikes.<\/p>\n
The U.N. Security Council was to vote later Wednesday on a resolution sponsored by the Gulf Cooperation Council demanding Iran stop attacking its Arab neighbors.<\/p>\n
Witnesses reported continuous airstrikes hitting Tehran after Israel said it had renewed its attacks. Explosions were also heard in Beirut and in southern Lebanon after Israel said it was hitting targets connected to\u00a0Iran-backed Hezbollah militants.<\/p>\n
Israel launches new strikes on Lebanon<\/p>\n
The attacks set a building ablaze in central Beirut\u2019s densely populated Aicha Bakkar area, engulfing the top two floors. There were no immediate reports of casualties.<\/p>\n
Other Israeli strikes on southern and eastern Lebanon killed 14 people, and a Red Cross worker also died Wednesday of wounds sustained Monday, when his team was hit by an Israeli strike while they were rescuing people from an earlier attack.<\/p>\n
Lebanon\u2019s Health Ministry said Wednesday that 570 people have been killed in the country since that latest fighting began. Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel after the United States and Israel began the wider war with their surprise bombardment of Iran.<\/p>\n
Iran launches multiple salvos at Israel and Gulf Arab nations<\/p>\n
Israel warned of Iranian attacks and sirens rang out in Tel Aviv and elsewhere, but there were no immediate reports of casualties.<\/p>\n
Saudi Arabia said it had destroyed six ballistic missiles launched toward Prince Sultan Air Base, a major U.S.- and Saudi-operated facility, and intercepted two drones over the eastern city of Hafar al-Batin.<\/p>\n
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center, run by the British military, reported an attack on a container ship off the United Arab Emirates, saying the \u201cextent of the damage is currently unknown but under investigation by the crew.\u201d Another ship was hit by a projectile in the Persian Gulf, it said. The crew was reported safe.<\/p>\n
The ship attacks follow intense American airstrikes targeting Iranian navy assets and the port city of Bandar Abbas on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The Iranian threat against financial institutions did not identify any specifically. It came after a Tehran location of Bank Sepah, the state-owned financial institution sanctioned by the U.S. over funding its armed forces, came under attack early Wednesday, killing staffers there, the state-run IRNA news agency reported.<\/p>\n
At the United Nations, the Security Council was to vote Wednesday afternoon on the Gulf Cooperation Council resolution, according to three diplomats speaking on condition of anonymity ahead of an official announcement.<\/p>\n
The draft resolution, obtained by The Associated Press, condemns Iran\u2019s attacks on Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Jordan. The measure calls for an immediate end to all strikes and threats against neighboring states, including through proxies.<\/p>\n
It would be the first Security Council resolution considered since the start of the war on Feb. 28.<\/p>\n
Oil prices stay high on fears of prolonged shipping disruption<\/p>\n
Oil prices\u00a0remained well below Monday\u2019s peaks but the price of Brent crude, the international standard, was still up some 20% Wednesday from when the war began, and consumers around the world are already feeling the\u00a0pain at the pump.<\/p>\n
Germany and Austria said they are releasing parts of\u00a0their oil reserves\u00a0following an International Energy Agency request for its members to release 400 million barrels to help temper energy price spikes.<\/p>\n
The largest-ever previous collective release of emergency stocks by IEA member countries was 182.7 million barrels, in the wake of Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.<\/p>\n
Japan\u00a0also said\u00a0it will release some of its reserves starting Monday.<\/p>\n
The U.S. military said Tuesday it had destroyed\u00a016 Iranian minelayers\u00a0near the Strait of Hormuz, though U.S. President Donald Trump said in social media posts that there were no reports yet of Iran mining the passage.<\/p>\n
If the strait is mined, it could take at least weeks to clean it up once the conflict is over.<\/p>\n
Some tankers, believed linked to Iran, are continuing to get through the strait making so-called \u201cdark\u201d transits \u2014 meaning they aren\u2019t turning on their Automatic Identification System trackers, which show where vessels are. Vessels carrying sanctioned Iranian crude often turn off their AIS trackers.<\/p>\n
The security firm Neptune P2P Group said Wednesday there had been seven ships pass through the strait since March 8. Of them, five were linked to Iranian-associated shipping, it said. In ordinary times the strait typically sees 100 ships or more transit daily from the Persian Gulf into the Gulf of Oman.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the commodity-tracking firm Kpler said Iran has restarted crude exports through its Jask oil terminal on the Gulf of Oman. A tanker loaded roughly 2 million barrels at Jask on March 7, it said.<\/p>\n
Speculation over health of Iran\u2019s new supreme leader grows<\/p>\n
Concerns are growing over the health of Iran\u2019s new\u00a0Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei\u00a0after comments about him \u201cbeing injured.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 56-year-old Khamenei \u2014 the son of the late\u00a0Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei\u00a0\u2014 has not been seen since becoming supreme leader on Monday. His father and wife both were killed in an Israeli airstrike on the first day of the conflict.<\/p>\n
In addition to the 570 killed in Lebanon, Iran has said that more than 1,300 people have been killed there and Israel has reported 12 people dead.<\/p>\n
The U.S. has lost seven soldiers while another eight have suffered severe injuries.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
Magdy reported from Cairo, and Rising from Bangkok. Associated Press writers Sally Abou AIJoud in Beirut, Giovanna Dell\u2019Orto in Miami, Jamey Keaten in Geneva, Jintamas Saksornchai in Bangkok, Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this story.<\/p>\n
#Iran #targets #Dubai #airport #commercial #ships #Gulf #war #widens<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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