The war between the United States and Israel against Iran entered its fifteenth day and third week today (Saturday).
Strikes are intensifying, casualties rising, with the majority of them in Iran. More than 1,400 people have been confirmed dead in the war.
PREMIUM TIMES brings you major updates on the war on its fourteenth day.
Trump on Iran’s Kharg Island
US President Donald Trump, on Friday, said the US “totally obliterated every military target” on Kharg Island.
Kharg Island is a small Iranian island in the Persian Gulf that is believed to handle about 90 per cent of Iran’s crude exports.
Mr Trump, in a post on Truth Social, said the US will attack the oil infrastructure next if Tehran continues blocking ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
He stated that the strikes did not touch oil infrastructure on the island. Still, he noted that “should Iran, or anyone else, do anything to interfere with the Free and Safe Passage of Ships through the Strait of Hormuz,” he would “reconsider this decision.”
Iran threatens retaliation
However, Iran, in response to this, has threatened to hit oil infrastructure owned by companies linked to the US, should its energy infrastructure be attacked.
CNN quoted the Iranian state media, which reported that Iran’s Armed Forces Unified Combatant said that oil and energy infrastructure belonging to firms that cooperated with the US would “immediately be destroyed and turned into a pile of ashes.”
Earlier, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Ali Larijani, warned the US against escalating the war by attacking the country’s energy system.
His statement was in response to US President Donald Trump’s threat to take out Iran’s electricity “within one hour.”
Mr Larijani said Iran would retaliate by plunging the entire region into darkness should this happen.
Attack on US embassy in Iraq
Iraq reported on Thursday that a missile struck a US helipad in Baghdad.
The attacks came after the US issued a level 4 security alert, warning employees that the embassy is susceptible to attack from Iran-aligned militias.
Al Jazeera reported that smoke was rising from the building in Baghdad’s Green Zone.
100 children killed in Lebanon
The Lebanese health ministry said Israeli strikes have killed more than 103 children in Lebanon.
The ministry also reported that a total of 773 people have been killed since Israel began to attack the country as a response to Hezbollah’s missile attack on 2 March.
About 1,933 people have also been wounded, with 326 of them being children.
Casualties in Iran rose to at least 1,444 on Friday.
The victims range in age from eight months to 88 years old.
France, Italy, China in talks with Iran over oil passage
France and Italy have initiated talks with Tehran to ensure the safe passage of their ships through the Strait of Hormuz, according to a report by the Financial Times.
Separately, Reuters reported that France is also working to assemble an international coalition to help secure the Strait of Hormuz once the security situation stabilises. The report cited two French officials familiar with the plan.
China is also in talks with Iran to allow crude oil and Qatari liquefied natural gas vessels safe passage.
CNN also reported that Iran is weighing a plan to allow a limited number of oil tankers to transit the Strait of Hormuz if the cargo is traded in Chinese yuan.
The strait remains one of the world’s most critical energy chokepoints. In 2024, about 6.2 per cent of crude oil and 8.7 per cent of liquefied natural gas imported from non-EU countries passed through the passage, according to the Germany-based CESifo research network.
READ ALSO: UPDATED: US/Israel-Iran War: All six US soldiers in crashed plane confirmed dead
Six US soldiers dead
Six American soldiers were killed on Friday after an aircraft crashed in Iraq.
PREMIUM TIMES reported that the aircraft is a refuelling aircraft used to refuel fighter jets mid-air.
“All six crew members aboard a US KC-135 refuelling aircraft that went down in western Iraq are now confirmed deceased. The aircraft was lost while flying over friendly airspace on March 12 during Operation Epic Fury,” the US Central Command wrote on X.
This adds to the seven soldiers earlier killed by Iranian strikes in Kuwait, raising the number to 13.
The US insisted that the aircraft was not brought down, but an Iran-linked Iraqi militant group has claimed responsibility for shooting down the plane on Thursday.
“The circumstances of the incident are under investigation. However, the aircraft was not lost to hostile or friendly fire,” CENTCOM said.