US-Iran war highlights: Parts of Doha ‘evacuated’; Iran hits 5 US Air Force planes on Saudi base

The spokesperson for Saudi Arabia’s Defence Ministry said that air defences have shot down eight more drones, in the central and eastern regions of the country, as well as the Al-Kharj Governorate, and west of the capital Riyadh.

Russian presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev said on Thursday that U.S. waiver for countries to buy sanctioned Russian oil would affect 100 million barrels of the Russian crude.

"Against the backdrop of the growing energy crisis, further easing of restrictions on Russian energy supplies appears increasingly inevitable, despite resistance from some Brussels bureaucrats," Dmitriev wrote in a post on the Telegram messaging app.

The United States issued a 30-day waiver for countries to buy sanctioned Russian oil and petroleum products currently stranded at sea, in what Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said was a step to stabilize global energy markets roiled by the Iran war.

US President Donald Trump issued a new threat to Iran, writing in a social media post: “Watch what happens to these deranged scumbags today.”

“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,” Trump said on Truth Social.

“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. What a great honor it is to do so!” he said.

Sirens have been heard at Incirlik air base, a key NATO facility in southern Turkey, state media has reported.

South Korea is considering plans to provide energy vouchers to vulnerable households amid the energy crunch in the Middle East, the country’s industry minister has announced.

Kim Jung-kwan said on Friday that the government would “take all necessary measures” to minimise the burden of rising energy prices.

Kim added the government would also limit exports of the crude oil derivative naphtha, which is used to make raw materials used in manufacturing plastics and for industrial cleaning.

US Senator Lindsey Graham has played down the possibility of US troops being deployed to Iran, but suggested the war will continue for weeks.

“I don’t see this conflict ending today,” the Republican Senator told reporters in Washington, DC.

“I think the mission is to make sure they cannot regenerate, that they’re going to be beyond capable of building missiles to hit us, and they’ll never go back to the nuclear business,” he said.

“There are weeks more of this coming, then we’ll make an assessment,” added Graham, who is known for his hawkish foreign policy views.

Air freight rates have risen by as much as 70% on some routes since the start of the US-Israeli war on Iran, data shows, as the conflict limits flights, blocks some ocean shipments and pushes up jet fuel costs.

Rates on routes between South Asia and Europe have been the most affected by West Asian airspace closures and security issues, industry experts said, after the conflict has stranded more than 100 container ships in the area around the critical Strait of Hormuz oil export corridor.

Israel’s military said it struck the Lebanese capital, Beirut, a short time ago in an attack targeting a Hezbollah “operative”.

The military did not say if its attack was successful or in which part of the city it was launched.

Speaker of the Iranian Parliament, MB Ghalibaf, has said that American families deserve to know why Trump “is sacrificing their sons and daughters” to advance what he called Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu's “expansionist delusions”.

The spokesperson for Saudi Arabia’s Defence Ministry said that air defences have shot down four more drones over its eastern and central regions.

US President Donald Trump said on Friday he believes Iran’s newly appointed Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, is still alive “in some form,” despite not being seen publicly since taking office after the war in Iran began.

Trump's remarks come after the new Iranian supreme leader's first public remarks were run by news portals, in which he resolved to keep fighting, promising more pain for Gulf Arab states and threatening to open “other fronts” in a war that has already disrupted world energy supplies, the global economy and international travel.

“I think he probably is. I think he is damaged, but I think he’s probably alive in some form, you know,” Fox News quoted Trump as saying in an interview on “The Brian Kilmeade Show” scheduled to air Friday at 10:06 am ET.

Addressing the difficulties vessels seeking to sail through the key Strait of Hormuz are facing, Trump suggested the ships should show some “guts” and continue their journey.

"They should go through the Strait of Hormuz and show some guts."

"There's nothing to be afraid of. They have no Navy and we sunk all their ships," the president was quoted as saying. Read more here.

As UAE airlines gradually resume operations amid ongoing regional airspace restrictions, passengers are urged to stay informed about flight schedules, booking options, and potential scams.

Emirates, Etihad, flydubai, and Air Arabia are all operating limited flights, with updated timetables and safety guidance in place. Travellers are advised to verify all flight details through official channels and avoid sharing personal information online.

News agency AFP reported that several blasts were heard in central Dubai, with smoke also seen rising over the area.

Panama Canal Administrator Ricaurte Vásquez said Thursday that the conflict in the Middle East and rising fuel costs could ultimately benefit the interoceanic waterway as global shippers adjust routes.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Vásquez said that higher energy, fuel and navigation costs could make the Panama Canal a more attractive option for commercial traffic.

“When costs increase, in general when the price of marine fuel rises, the Panama Canal becomes a more attractive route,” Vásquez said.

Al Jazeera Arabic reported that a woman and a child were killed overnight during an Israeli air strike targeting a residential building in the city of Arak, western Iran.

The city’s deputy governor said that 35 other people were also injured in the attack.

US Senator Raphael Warnock has said that the killing of more than 170 schoolchildren in Iran “should shock our conscience and cause us to recoil in horror”.

The senator, who is also a Pastor and a member of the Democratic Party, called for accountability and lessons learned from the tragedy, which has been blamed by Iran on US-Israeli forces.

“A nation whose leaders can so easily shrug off the death of children, no matter the cause, is in need of moral repair,” Warnock said in a post on social media.

“We must never forget that Iranian children, too, are children of God,” he added.

Iran’s Red Crescent Society said three of its aid workers were wounded in an attack at the Tehran-Qom toll station early Friday.

The toll station is a major freeway exit point from the capital, leading to the city of Qom.

The attack damaged one of the organisation’s relief posts, and the three wounded aid workers were transferred to the hospital, the Red Crescent said.

Russia's economic envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, said Friday that the global energy market "cannot remain stable" without Russia's oil.

His comments came after the United States said it would temporarily allow the sale of Russian oil that is at sea, as energy prices soared after US-Israeli strikes on Iran plunged the oil-rich Middle East into war.

"The United States is effectively acknowledging the obvious: without Russian oil, the global energy market cannot remain stable," Dmitriev posted on Telegram.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has announced its 44th wave of attacks against Israeli and US forces in the region, according to Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency.

The IRGC said it had targeted with “a multitude of missiles” locations in the “north of the occupied territories”, including the Israeli cities of Kiryat, Shmona, Hadera and Haifa, as well as US bases in the region and the US Fifth Fleet, Fars reports.

The Iranian state media is reporting several explosions in the country's capital, Tehran, as the US-Israeli war on Iran continues to intensify.

The Trump administration denounced CNN on Thursday for airing a portion of the new Iranian supreme leader's public statement, the second time in three days that it targeted the network for reporting on how the regime is responding to the American attacks.

The attack illustrated the care news outlets must take when reporting during wartime, and the responsibilities of American journalists to report the perspectives of countries whose governments they view as enemies. It also exposed inconsistencies.

The message of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei during his first public statement since he succeeded his father, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike, was widely available elsewhere.

The White House said on social media that "fake news CNN just aired four straight minutes of uninterrupted Iranian state TV, run by the same psychotic and murderous regime that prided itself on brutally slaughtering Americans for 47 years."

US officials told lawmakers that the first six days of the war with Iran cost more than $11.3 billion, a person familiar with the matter said, providing the most detailed assessment yet of the expense of President Donald Trump’s military campaign.

Pentagon officials gave the estimate in a closed-door briefing with Senate appropriations staff this week, according to the person, who asked not to be identified discussing private deliberations. The actual cost is likely much higher because the number doesn’t include the expense of operating ships and maintaining personnel deployed in the region.

The figure — nearly $1.9 billion a day — is far higher than unofficial numbers floated by outside groups, including the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, which had released a paper last week estimating the first four days of the operation, which began on February 28, had cost $3.7 billion, or $890 million a day.

(Bloomberg)

Iraqi militant group Saraya Awliya al-Dam claimed responsibility for six coordinated attacks on US military bases across Iraq, according to a statement released on their official Telegram channel.

Israeli public broadcaster Kan News has reported that 30 people were injured in a strike on a building in Israel’s northern Zarzir city.

Quoting emergency services, Kan said two people were injured by shrapnel, and others were lightly injured by broken glass.

Six of those injured have been sent to the hospital, including two children aged 12 and 13, according to Kan.

The spokesperson for Saudi Arabia’s Defence Ministry has said that the country’s air defences have intercepted and shot down 10 more drones over the eastern region.