Friday 13 Mar 2026
Iran launched multiple attacks early on Friday on Gulf Arab states as and US President Donald Trump threatened major new retaliation. (Photo/Reuters)
Tensions in the Middle East have reached a critical juncture as Iran initiated a series of drone and rocket attacks targeting Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Israel. This aggression follows warnings from Iran's new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, who demanded the closure of American military bases in the region. In response, President Donald Trump has declared a total military and economic offensive, asserting that the United States is actively decimating Iran's naval and air forces. The conflict, which began on February 28, continues to disrupt global energy markets, with oil prices remaining elevated as Iran persists in blockading the strategic Strait of Hormuz.
Iran launched multiple attacks early on Friday on Gulf Arab states, including dozens of drones at Saudi Arabia, following warnings from its new supreme leader about hosting American bases, and US President Donald Trump threatened major new retaliation.
“Watch what happens to these deranged scumbags today," Trump wrote in a social media post. “Iran’s Navy is gone, their Air Force is no longer, missiles, drones and everything else are being decimated, and their leaders have been wiped from the face of the earth.”
The comments came the day after Iran's Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei vowed to “not refrain from avenging the blood” of Iranians killed, and warned Gulf Arab nations to shut US bases, saying the notion of American protection was “nothing more than a lie.”
Intense air strikes hit early on Friday around Iran’s capital, Tehran, as well as outlying areas. It was not immediately clear what had been targeted.
The price of Brent crude oil, the international standard, remained stubbornly over $100 per barrel as Iran kept its stranglehold on shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic waterway through which a fifth of the world's oil transits on its way from the Gulf to the open seas.
Brent prices have spiked as high as about $120 per barrel and are currently some 40 percent higher than when Israel and the United States attacked Iran on February 28 to start the war.
Iran has been attacking ships that try to transit the strait, and Khamenei's comments — his first to the public since being named to replace his father, who was killed during the first day of the conflict — said Iran would continue to block the waterway.
In Iraq, recovery efforts were under way after an American KC-135 refuelling plane went down, according to US Central Command. And a French soldier who was stationed in the north of the country was killed in an attack, the French president said on Friday.
Iran launches new attacks on Gulf Arab countries
Iran has been attacking oil and other infrastructure around the Gulf region, and on Friday Saudi Arabia said that it had downed nearly 50 drones sent in multiple waves throughout the early morning hours.
Sirens also sounded in Bahrain warning of incoming fire from Dubai, and black smoke billowed from an industrial area after authorities said debris from an interception had sparked a blaze.
Nearly 60 people were wounded in northern Israel after Hezbollah said it had fired several rocket salvoes towards the area and at Israeli troops in southern Lebanon. Almost all the injuries were described as very minor.
One person was killed in southwestern Beirut in an Israeli strike, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry, and another attack hit an apartment in the capital, leaving it engulfed in flames. Following the attacks, the Israeli army claimed it had been targeting a member of Iran-linked Hezbollah.
More than 600 people have been killed in Lebanon since the fighting began, the Health Ministry has reported. and nearly 800,000 have been internally displaced, according to the UN refugee agency.
Iranian authorities say more than 1,300 people have been killed there, and Israel has reported 12 deaths. The US has lost at least seven soldiers while another eight have suffered severe injuries.
In his Friday morning post, Trump said that "we are totally destroying the terrorist regime of Iran, militarily, economically, and otherwise."
“They’ve been killing innocent people all over the world for 47 years, and now I, as the 47th President of the United States of America, am killing them,” Trump said. “What a great honor it is to do so!”
The US military said American forces have now struck more than 6,000 targets since the operation against Iran began, including more than 30 minelaying vessels.
France says a soldier was killed in Iraq
On Friday, French President Emmanuel Macron said a French soldier was killed in an attack targeting Erbil in Iraq. France earlier said six soldiers had been hurt in a drone strike in Erbil, where French troops are deployed as part of a multinational counterterrorism mission supporting Iraqi forces in their fight against Daesh terrorists.
In the same region, British officials said several US personnel suffered minor injuries on Wednesday when drone strikes hit a base in Erbil that houses both British and American troops.
Italy said that a base where it has troops in Erbil was also hit on Wednesday but that there were no injuries. Recovery efforts were under way in western Iraq on Friday after the American KC-135 refuelling aircraft crashed. It was not immediately clear whether there were any casualties, but the aircraft had five crew on board.
US Central Command said the crash was not related to friendly or hostile fire, and that two aircraft were involved, including one that landed safely.
The KC-135 is the fourth publicly acknowledged aircraft to crash as part of the US military’s assaults against Iran. Last week, three American fighter jets were mistakenly downed by friendly Kuwaiti fire.
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Source: TRT
