The Latest: US hits Iran with intense strikes as Iranian air campaign drives oil prices higher
Mar 12, 2026, 8:54 PM | Updated: Mar 13, 2026, 10:38 am
A woman sits on rubble across from a residential building damaged last Sunday during the U.S.-Israeli air campaign in Tehran, Iran, Thursday, March 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS
(AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
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, oil prices have soared back above $100 a barrel.
Intense strikes hit Tehran and areas surrounding Iran’s capital, as Iran continued striking at neighboring Arab Gulf States.
U.S. President Donald Trump promised to “finish the job,” even as Iran is “virtually destroyed.” 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.
Here’s the latest:
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.
An Associated Press journalist saw the fire in Dubai’s Al Quoz neighborhood. Bystanders gathered to watch the smoke from the blaze.
Police stopped an AP journalist from going closer to the site of the blaze, which was in a cul de sac.
The Dubai Media Office, which issues statements for its government, said “debris from a successful interception caused a minor incident on the façade of a building in central Dubai.” It said there had been no injuries, though the black smoke curled over the skyline as far as the sail-shaped Burj al-Arab luxury hotel.
An Israeli strike early Friday hit a car in Jnah, a coastal neighborhood in southwestern Beirut, and killed one person, the Lebanese health ministry said.
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.
It was the first time such an area has been struck in this conflict or during the 2024 war between Hezbollah and Israel.
Following the strikes, the Israeli army said it had targeted a Hezbollah member in Beirut. Both neighborhoods are far from the southern suburbs of Beirut, which the Israeli military has declared unsafe and issued evacuation notices for.
Israel’s Magen David Adom ambulance service said some 30 people were hurt in a missile attack on Zarzir, a city around 100 kilometers (60 miles) north of Jerusalem near the border with Lebanon. It described most of the wounds as coming from glass broken in the attack.
Hezbollah said early Friday it had fired several rocket salvos toward Israel.
The defense ministry said early Friday that they were headed toward the kingdom’s Eastern Province. It was a larger than usual number of aerial threats for the country.
Sites in Saudi Arabia including the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh, oil infrastructure and a military base hosting U.S. troops have been targeted as the Iran war rages on.
The attack targeted Irbil in Iraq’s northern Kurdish region, President Emmanuel Macron said Friday on the social platform X.
Macron identified the soldier as Chief Warrant Officer Arnaud Frion of the 7th Battalion of Chasseurs Alpins from Varces.
“To his family, to his brothers in arms, I want to express all the affection and solidarity of the nation,” Macron said. “Several of our soldiers have been wounded. France stands by their side and with their loved ones.”
France said earlier that six soldiers were hurt in a drone attack in Irbil. French troops are in Iraq as part of a multinational counterterrorism mission supporting local forces in their fight against Islamic State militants.
