Intense strikes hit Tehran

Washington, Mar. 14: As American and Israeli strikes pound the Islamic Republic and Iran attacks Persian Gulf shipping and energy infrastructure with no sign of an end to the war, U.S. President Donald Trump posted a new threat to Iran's leaders on his Truth Social website.

"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 wrote. "What a great honor it is to do so!"

Intense strikes hit Tehran and areas surrounding Iran's capital, as Iran continued striking at neighboring Arab Gulf States, helping to drive oil prices back above $100 a barrel.

The first week of war cost the United States $11.3 billion, according to the Pentagon. The U.N. refugee agency says up to 3.2 million people in Iran have been displaced, and authorities in Lebanon say 800,000 have been forced from their homes as Israel's military destroys buildings linked to Iran-backed Hezbollah militants.

More than 600 have been killed in Lebanon, as well as more than 1,300 in Iran and a dozen in Israel. At least seven U.S. soldiers have died during the fighting.

The Red Cross Society of China will provide $200,000 to offer condolences and support to the parents of students killed in a missile strike that hit an elementary school in Iran, the Chinese government said.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Russian President Vladimir Putin might be helping Iran.

His comments come after U.S. intelligence indicated Russia has provided Iran with information that could help Tehran strike American warships, aircraft and other assets in the region.

Israel said Friday afternoon it had identified missiles launched from Iran toward Israel. United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said Friday he hopes Israel and Hezbollah end their conflict through a ceasefire.

Guterres added that he hopes to visit Lebanon in the future when the country is at peace and "where the state has a monopoly for the use for force."

The Israeli military says an academic who was killed in a drone strike Thursday in Beirut was a Hezbollah operative. Prof. Mortada Srour was an expert in the field of weapons manufacturing within the organization, the military said Friday.

Srour, one of two academics killed in the strike, was employed as a chemistry lecturer at the Lebanese University campus just south of Beirut.

The military said Srour was the brother of Mohammad Srour, commander of Hezbollah's aerial unit, who was killed in an Israeli strike in 2024.

The military said Hezbollah's weapons manufacturing operatives operate from various locations in Lebanon to increase the group's ability to supplying its own weapons.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Friday criticized the U.S. decision to ease sanctions on Russian oil.

"Six members of the G7 expressed a very clear view that this is not the right signal to send," Merz said during a press conference with his Norwegian counterpart in Andenes, Norway.

Merz said there was "a price problem, but not a supply problem," adding that he wished to know what additional motives led to the U.S. decision.

The hard-liner who leads Iran's judiciary, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejehi, was giving an interview to a state television reporter at a demonstration when a strike hit in the area of Tehran's Ferdowsi Square.

The secretary-general of the United Nations began a visit to Beirut on Friday during the Israel-Hezbollah war. The U.N. chief added that he will spare no effort in striving for the peaceful future that Lebanon and this region "so richly deserve."

Britain is accusing Russia and Iran of working together to inflict military and economic pain on the West.

Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said Friday during a trip to Saudi Arabia that Moscow and Tehran are trying "to support each other and try to benefit together from attempting to hijack the global economy."

The U.S. has eased Russian oil sanctions as oil prices climb following Iran's attacks on vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, saying it will temporarily allow countries to buy Russian oil already loaded on vessels at sea.

Britain says it won't follow suit but has declined to criticize the American decision. U.K. Defense Secretary John Healey has said Moscow and Tehran are collaborating on drone technology and tactics.

The British military is investigating whether a drone that struck a U.K. air base on Cyprus at the start of the conflict contained Russian components.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov says the U.S. decision to allow purchases of Russian oil currently stranded at sea will help stabilize global energy markets.

Peskov told reporters Friday that the world was facing a growing energy crisis. "It's impossible to stabilize the market without significant volumes of the Russian oil," he said.

NATO defenses on Friday intercepted a ballistic missile fired from Iran over Turkey, the third such incident since the start of the war. Turkey's Defense Ministry said the missile was destroyed by NATO air defenses deployed in the eastern Mediterranean.

NATO deployed an additional Patriot air defense system this week in the southeastern province of Malatya, where the Kurecik radar station is based.

Iranian security official Ali Larijani called the suspected Israeli attack in the area of Tehran's Ferdowsi Square on Friday a "sign of its desperation."

Four of six crew members aboard a U.S. KC-135 refueling aircraft that crashed in Iraq have been confirmed dead, the U.S. military said. France says a drone attack Thursday killed one of its soldiers and wounded six others.

The attack targeted a Kurdish military base where French soldiers were training Iraqi units.

France's ministry of armed forces said in a statement Friday that a drone struck the center of the Mala Qara base in the Irbil region.

The ministry says Chief Warrant Officer Arnaud Frion was treated by medical teams on site and later died of his wounds at a hospital. Frion had been deployed to Iraq since Jan. 24 as a member of the 7th Alpine Chasseurs Battalion.

A large explosion struck Iran's capital Tehran on Friday at a square filled with demonstrators, Iranian state television reported.

The explosion hit Ferdowsi Square, just down Enghelab Street from Tehran University, the epicenter of ongoing Quds, or Jerusalem, Day demonstrations. The area is home to many government buildings.

The cause of the blast was not immediately known. The Israeli military declined to immediately discuss the strike when reached for comment. Israel had warned it could strike in the area just before the blast.

Authorities in Tehran offered no immediate details about what happened. However, the site of the blast appeared near where Israel said it would strike.

Just before the Tehran strike, an explosion shook the city of Qazvin, which Israel also had warned it would target.

Residents in the northern Israeli village of Zarzir heard loud explosions as they ran into a shelter early Friday morning and emerged to find much of the area in ruins.

Authorities say nearly 60 people were injured in the missile strike on the Arab-Israeli village near the Lebanese border.

Hezbollah said early Friday that it fired several rockets toward northern Israel and Israeli troops in southern Lebanon. Israel issued a strike warning Friday for an area near Tehran University that was hosting the annual Quds Day demonstrations.

The warning showed a strike being possible along Enghelab Street near the university. The area is filled with demonstrators at the moment.

Tehran University is the site of Friday prayers in the city, where demonstrators will gather later at noon.

The warning in Farsi said the Israeli military "will conduct operations in this area in the coming hours."

Sri Lanka's foreign ministry says the remains of 84 Iranian sailors killed in a U.S submarine attack on March 4 have been handed over to Iranian representatives to be repatriated.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Thushara Rodrigo said the ministry completed the procedure for repatriating the remains of foreigners and handed over the bodies of the crew members from Iranian warship IRIS Dena.

More than 200 Iranian sailors also were brought ashore by Sri Lanka's navy from a second Iranian warship. The vessels were returning from a naval exercise in India.

Demonstrators chanted "Death to Israel" and "Death to America" while carrying Iranian flags in support of the military forces fighting against the U.S. and Israel.

People joined the rallies in Tehran despite ongoing American-Israeli strikes taking place during the commemoration.

Iran has been marking Quds Day on the last Friday of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan since its 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Israel's military said Friday it began a wave of strikes targeting infrastructure across Iran. An Israeli strike in eastern Lebanon that was targeting an Islamic Group official killed two people.

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said the early Friday strike on an apartment in the eastern village of Bar Elias wounded Youssef Dahouk, a local official with al-Jamaa al-Islamiya, or the Islamic Group, and two others.

A building at the Dubai International Financial Center sustained damage Friday after what authorities described as a "successful interception."

The building, known as the DIFC Innovation Hub, bore fire damage Friday morning, with pieces of its facade torn away.

The Dubai Media Office earlier described the incident as "a successful interception." It did not elaborate on what had been intercepted, nor did it acknowledge the damage done to DIFC.

The Oman News Agency said a drone crashed Friday in an industrial area in the region of Sohar, killing two foreigners and wounding other people. They were the first deaths reported on land in the sultanate during the Iran war. There was one previous death reported at sea off Oman's coast.

Israel's military issued a warning Friday morning that Iranian missiles were inbound to the country, with air defenses actively targeting the fire.

Trump issues new threat to Iran's leaders, calling them 'deranged scumbags'

U.S. President Donald Trump issued a new threat online to Iran, writing: "Watch what happens to these deranged scumbags today."

Trump made the post Friday on his Truth Social website, saying that "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."

"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 wrote. "What a great honor it is to do so!"

A missile alert sounded on mobile phones in Dubai on Friday morning as authorities said air defenses were targeting incoming Iranian fire.

Saudi Arabia's Defense Ministry said early Friday that its air defenses downed 10 more drones headed toward the kingdom's Eastern and Central Provinces, bringing the total to nearly 50 drones entering Saudi airspace over the span of a few hours.

The barrage represents a higher-than-usual number of aerial threats for the kingdom, which has seen sites including the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh, oil infrastructure, and a military base hosting U.S. troops targeted as the war involving Iran has intensified.

Thick black smoke rose over Dubai's skyline early Friday after what authorities described as a fire in an industrial area of the city-state.

Separately, an Israeli strike hit an apartment in the Nabaa neighborhood, leaving it engulfed in flames, local media reported. Nabaa, on Beirut's northern outskirts within the densely populated Burj Hammoud district, is home to a sizable Armenian community. No casualties were immediately reported.

Hezbollah said early Friday that it had fired several rocket salvos toward northern Israel and Israeli troops in southern Lebanon. (AP)