By JULIA FRANKEL and STELLA MARTANY Associated Press
IRBIL, Iraq (AP) — Drones carrying explosives targeted a city in northern Iraq where U.S. forces are stationed and sirens rang out in Bahrain on Friday, hours after the American military said it finished its 13th night of strikes against Iran.
The conflict has flared again over the past week, as the U.S. pounded Iran while Tehran attacked ships in the Strait of Hormuz and targeted U.S. assets and allies in the region.
The strait, which is a crucial passage for the world’s energy supplies, is at the center of the latest fighting since Iranian attacks can effectively shut the waterway, sending fuel prices soaring worldwide and causing widespread economic turmoil. The Iranian-allied Houthi rebels added further pressure this week by targeting two Saudi tankers in the Red Sea, making good on a threat to cut off an alternative route for the region’s oil.
Despite the war’s unpopularity — and its widespread damage to Iran and the global economy — the latest round of fighting has no clear off-ramp. Iran’s Health Ministry said 55 people have been killed and over 600 wounded in strikes in recent weeks.
The U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28 and have offered shifting goals for the war, including toppling Tehran’s government and eliminating its nuclear program. But the conflict has devolved into a fight for control of the Strait of Hormuz — with Iran apparently hoping to win concessions by inflicting damage on the global economy and the U.S. trying to limit that damage.
US strikes sites across Iran and countries in the region are targeted
U.S.-led forces intercepted and shot down five explosive-laden drones over Irbil on Friday morning, according to security officials in northern Iraq. “Fortunately, the incident caused no casualties or damage,” they said.
An Associated Press journalist heard at least seven blasts in the city, the capital of Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region, and saw at least four plumes of black smoke rising from areas near or inside a base at the city’s airport that hosts U.S. forces. Flights continued as normal at the airport, the state-run Iraqi News Agency reported, citing the facility’s director.
U.S. military officials in Iraq did not respond to a request for comment.
In recent years, the U.S. maintained about 2,500 troops in Iraq for training and to conduct operations against the Islamic State group with Iraq’s military. Many of those have withdrawn, but a small contingent of military advisers and others remains — many of whom have moved to Irbil.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard urged people in neighboring countries to stay away from bases with American troops while asking people to report the places where they are stationed, according to a statement read out on state TV.
As the U.S. has bombed Iran, Tehran has targeted several countries in the region that host American troops.
Bahrain, which is home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th fleet, said it intercepted and shot down Iranian aerial attacks on Friday. It did not say if there were any casualties or damage.
U.S. strikes overnight hit a naval base for the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard in the north of Iran, the semiofficial news outlets Fars and ISNA reported Friday morning. Blasts from U.S. bombardment overnight were also reported on Iran’s Qeshm Island, a base for naval assets including drone boats that Iran can use to attack vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, as well as in Isfahan province, home to a major Iranian air base and one of Iran’s nuclear sites. More strikes reportedly hit Iran’s southwest Khuzestan province and southern Fars province.
U.S. Central Command said the latest barrage was designed to “further degrade Iran’s ability to threaten civilian mariners and commercial vessels transiting regional waters” as the Americans push to regain control over the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil and gas transited in peacetime.
Houthis open a new front in the war
Iran’s ability to effectively close the Strait of Hormuz — and thus cause economic chaos far beyond the Middle East — gives it tremendous leverage in any negotiations. Its Houthi allies only increased that leverage when they targeted two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea on Thursday — increasing the risks of shipping through another vital route for Middle Eastern oil.
Brent crude, the international standard, topped $100 a barrel in the wake of the attacks, though it has since come down.
The attacks made good on the Houthis’ threat to close the Bab el-Mandeb Strait to Saudi-linked shipping. The strait at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden, and around 12% of the world’s trade, including a fourth of global container traffic, passes through there.
That passage has become ever more crucial for Saudi Arabia, which has diverted millions of barrels of oil a day to its Red Sea port of Yanbu as a way of bypassing the Strait of Hormuz.
U.S. President Donald Trump threatened “major military punishment” against the Houthis if their attacks on ships continue.
Trump threatens to use Iranian funds to pay for fixing ships damaged in the war
Trump also warned Iran over its attacks on ships, saying on social media Thursday that sanctioned Iranian funds in U.S. possession will be used to pay for fixing boats damaged in the war.
“Please let this statement serve to represent, until further notice, that from this point forth, any and all damages done to Ships, Cargo, or anything related thereto, will be paid for by Iranian Money that the United States has in its possession, and controls,” Trump said.
It was unclear what legal mechanisms Trump would use to access and spend the funds.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi condemned the suggestion, writing on X that “once governments normalize confiscation, no one’s assets are safe. Ensuing chaos will not be pretty or peaceful.”
The International Maritime Organization says at least 6,000 mariners are stranded on about 400 vessels around the Strait of Hormuz.
The U.N. human rights chief, Volker Türk, called Friday for “urgent action” to help them. His office said the seafarers are exposed to the fighting and some have been abandoned by their ships’ owners, leaving them to “fend for themselves without food, water, fuel, medical care, electricity or means to communicate with their families.”
Iran says it has the right to manage traffic and potentially charge fees in the Strait of Hormuz, which was open to all toll-free before the war. It has attacked ships using a route through the strait that is overseen by U.S. forces and intended to be outside Tehran’s control.
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Frankel reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writers Bassem Mroue in Beirut and Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed.