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Iran threatened to target recreational and tourist sites worldwide and insisted it was still building missiles. Friday\u2019s show of defiance came nearly\u00a0three weeks into U.S.-Israeli strikes\u00a0that have killed a slew of Tehran\u2019s top leaders and hammered its weapons and energy industries.<\/p>\n
Iran fired on Israel and\u00a0energy sites in neighboring Gulf Arab states\u00a0as many in the region marked one of the holiest days on the Muslim calendar. Iranians were also celebrating the Persian New Year, known as Nowruz, a normally festive holiday that\u00a0is more subdued this year.<\/p>\n
With little information coming out of Iran, it was not clear how much damage its arms, nuclear or energy facilities have sustained since the war began Feb. 28 or even who\u00a0was truly in charge of the country. But Iran has showed it is still capable of attacks that are choking off oil supplies and denting the global economy,\u00a0raising food and fuel prices\u00a0far beyond the Middle East.<\/p>\n
The U.S. and Israel have offered shifting rationales for the war, from\u00a0hoping to foment an uprising\u00a0that topples Iran\u2019s leadership to eliminating its\u00a0nuclear and missile programs. There have been no public signs of any such uprising and no end in sight to the war.<\/p>\n
Iran threatens worldwide tourist sites<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s top military spokesman warned Friday that \u201cparks, recreational areas and tourist destinations\u201d worldwide won\u2019t be safe for Tehran\u2019s enemies.<\/p>\n
The threat from Gen. Abolfazl Shekarchi renewed concerns that Iran may revert to using militant attacks beyond the Middle East as a pressure tactic.<\/p>\n
U.S. and Israeli leaders have said that weeks of strikes have decimated Iran\u2019s military. Airstrikes have also killed its supreme leader, the head of its Supreme National Security Council and a\u00a0raft of other top-ranking\u00a0military and political leaders.<\/p>\n
The Israeli military said Friday that Esmail Ahmadi, head of intelligence for the Basij, and internal security force, had been killed by a strike earlier in the week that hit other Basij leaders.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed Iran\u2019s navy was sunk and its air force in tatters, while adding that its ability to produce ballistic missiles had been taken out. Iran\u2019s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard disputed the missile claim on Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are producing missiles even during war conditions, which is amazing, and there is no particular problem in stockpiling,\u201d spokesman Gen. Ali Mohammad Naeini was quoted as saying in Iran\u2019s state-run IRAN newspaper.<\/p>\n
A short time after the statement was released, Iranian state television said Naeini was killed in an airstrike.<\/p>\n
The country\u2019s new Supreme Leader Ayatollah\u00a0Mojtaba Khamenei\u00a0also released a rare statement, saying Iran\u2019s enemies need to have their \u201csecurity\u201d taken away.<\/p>\n
Khamenei hasn\u2019t been seen since he succeeded his father, the 86-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike on the first day of the war.<\/p>\n
A Kuwait refinery comes under attack and explosions shake Dubai<\/p>\n
Iran has stepped up its attacks on energy sites in Gulf Arab states after Israel bombed Iran\u2019s massive\u00a0South Pars offshore natural gas field\u00a0earlier in the week.<\/p>\n
Two waves of Iranian drones attacked a Kuwaiti oil refinery early Friday, sparking a fire. The Mina Al-Ahmadi refinery, which can process some 730,000 barrels of oil per day, is one of the largest in the Middle East. It was damaged Thursday in another Iranian attack.<\/p>\n
Bahrain said a fire broke out after shrapnel from an intercepted projectile landed on a warehouse, and Saudi Arabia reported shooting down multiple drones targeting its oil-rich Eastern Province.<\/p>\n
Heavy explosions shook Dubai as air defenses intercepted incoming fire over the city, where many were observing Eid al-Fitr, the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.<\/p>\n
In Iran, meanwhile, many were marking Nowruz even as Israel said it had launched new strikes, and explosions were heard over Tehran. The Persian New Year, which coincides with the spring equinox, is a tradition observed across southwestern Asia that dates back thousands of years.<\/p>\n
Loud explosions could also be heard in Jerusalem after the Israeli army warned of incoming Iranian missiles. First responders said they treated two people around 70 years old who were lightly wounded.<\/p>\n
In addition to steadily striking Iran, Israel\u00a0has regularly hit Lebanon, targeting Iran-backed Hezbollah militants who have been firing rockets and drones into Israel.<\/p>\n
On Friday, Israel broadened its attacks to Syria, saying it hit infrastructure there in response to what it described as\u00a0attacks on the Druze minority. Syria\u2019s state-run SANA news agency did not immediately acknowledge the attack.<\/p>\n
More than 1,300 people have been killed in Iran during the war. Israeli strikes in Lebanon have displaced more than 1 million people, according to the Lebanese government, which says more than 1,000 people have been killed. Israel says it has killed more than 500 Hezbollah militants.<\/p>\n
In Israel, 15 people have been killed by Iranian missile fire. Four people were also killed in the occupied West Bank by an Iranian missile strike.<\/p>\n
At least 13 U.S. military members have been killed.<\/p>\n
The war is raising risks to the world economy<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s attacks on energy infrastructure in the Gulf combined with its\u00a0stranglehold on shipping\u00a0in the\u00a0Strait of Hormuz, a\u00a0strategic waterway\u00a0through which a fifth of the world\u2019s oil and other critical goods are transported, has raised concerns of a global energy crisis.<\/p>\n
U.S. President Donald Trump lobbed fresh insults at NATO allies who have\u00a0spurned his call\u00a0for help protecting the strait. U.S. allies have refused to join the war, saying they weren\u2019t consulted before the U.S. and Israel launched it. Trump called NATO members \u201cCOWARDS\u201d in a social media post, saying: \u201cNATO IS A PAPER TIGER.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brent crude oil, the international standard, has soared during the fighting and was around $108 per barrel Friday, up from roughly $70 per barrel before the war began.<\/p>\n
Surging fuel prices come at a moment when many world leaders were already struggling to bring down high prices of food and many consumer goods. Asia is getting\u00a0hit hard\u00a0as most of the oil and gas exiting the Strait of Hormuz is transported there.<\/p>\n
But the price shocks\u00a0are reverberating throughout the world economy. Key raw materials \u2014 like helium used in making computer chips, and sulfur, a raw material in fertilizer \u2014 have been obstructed and could be in short supply soon, raising the prices of goods all the way down the supply chain.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
Mednick reported from Jerusalem and Rising from Bangkok. AP journalists Michelle Price in Washington and Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia, contributed.<\/p>\n
#Iran #threatens #attack #tourist #sites #world #Israel #U.S #kill #top #leaders<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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