NATIONAL NEWS

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.-Israe...

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:

Debris from interception causes fire in Dubai

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.

Israeli strikes hit new areas in Beirut, killing one

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.

Missile attack on Israel injures 30

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.

Saudi Arabia says its air defenses downed 38 drones in just a few hours

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.

French president says a French soldier has been killed in attack in Iraq

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.

Please follow our Community Guidelines

National News

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi walks from the podium after speaking to the media during the...

Associated Press

Where things stand after Iran’s new pitch for a deal to open the Strait of Hormuz

It’s been a busy week for Iranian diplomacy that may have come to nothing. Iran’s president and foreign minister visited New York for the U.N. gathering of world leaders and proposed a deal with the Trump administration that would end the fighting and open the Strait of Hormuz in seven days. That’s if the U.S. […]

34 minutes ago

FILE - Piles of coal sit near a chemical plant in Datong, China, March 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Ng Han G...

Associated Press

China has kept its promise to stop funding overseas coal, but loopholes are helping coal expand

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Addressing the U.N. General Assembly in 2021, Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged to stop funding overseas coal power plants in an effort to help curb climate change. Five years later, as the assembly meets this week, the world’s climate commitments are dangerously offtrack, and the phase down of coal is inching […]

5 hours ago

FILE - The OpenAI logo is displayed on a cell phone in front of an image generated by ChatGPT's Dal...

Associated Press

OpenAI says its models engaged with US government websites in new model misbehavior disclosure

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — OpenAI disclosed Friday that its artificial intelligence agents had interacted with several U.S. government websites in unexpected ways, discovered as part of an ongoing review into the company’s models’ unanticipated behavior. The AI giant’s models accessed publicly available information on two websites operated by the Securities and Exchange Commission as well […]

6 hours ago

FILE - A TikTok sign is displayed on top of their building in Culver City, Calif., on Dec. 3, 2024....

Associated Press

TikTok settles lawsuit with Alabama for at least $100 million, will implement safety features

TikTok will pay the state of Alabama at least $100 million and must implement a slew of safety features for teens in the state as part of a settlement agreement reached just before the case was set to go to trial. Alabama sued the social media company in 2025 claiming that the platform had negative […]

10 hours ago

FILE - People protest outside a federal immigration enforcement building in Broadview, Ill. on Sept...

Associated Press

Prosecutor accused of misconduct in ‘Broadview Six’ case resigns, says US attorney ‘scapegoated’ her

CHICAGO (AP) — A prosecutor who has been accused of misconduct over a failed attempt to bring felony charges against six protesters of the federal immigration crackdown in Chicago has resigned, saying she was being treated as a scapegoat after the case fell apart. In a scathing letter Thursday to Andrew Boutros, the U.S. Attorney […]

10 hours ago

President Donald Trump speaks during an arrival ceremony with China's President Xi Jinping in the G...

Associated Press

Trump administration uses rare authority to claw back nearly $1B in spending approved by Congress

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is canceling nearly $1 billion in spending approved by Congress, the White House announced on Friday, using a rare and contested power to axe funding for immigrant services and diversity-focused initiatives.

10 hours ago

The Latest: US hits Iran with intense strikes as Iranian air campaign drives oil prices higher