Unrelenting Iranian attacks on shipping traffic and energy infrastructure pushed oil above USD 100 a barrel on Thursday, as American and Israeli strikes pounded the Islamic Republic with no sign of an end to the war in sight.
Iran hit a container ship off the coast of Dubai, caused a blaze near Bahrain's international airport, targeted a major Saudi oil field with a drone attack, and forced Iraq to halt operations at all the country's oil terminals after an attack on its port of Basra on the Persian Gulf.
Iran flouted a United Nations Security Council resolution from the previous day demanding that it halt strikes on its Gulf neighbours, with new attacks also reported in Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.
Sirens wailed before dawn in Jerusalem after Israel said it was working to intercept missiles launched from Iran. The country also announced it had begun a “wide-scale wave of strikes” on Tehran.
In Lebanon, where Israel says it is targeting Iran-linked Hezbollah militants, 11 people were killed in two early morning strikes.
As the day began on Thursday, a container ship in the Persian Gulf was hit with a projectile off the coast of Dubai, sparking a small fire, according to the British military's United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Centre. It said the crew of the vessel was safe.
In Bahrain, an early Iranian attack sparked a major fire on Muharraq Island, home to the country's international airport. Authorities urged people to stay indoors and close windows to avoid smoke. The airport has jet fuel tanks, and other tanks in the area serve the kingdom's oil industry.
Kuwait's Defence Ministry said an Iranian drone smashed into a residential building, wounding two people. The UAE said it had activated air defences twice to protect Dubai from attacks, and firefighters extinguished a blaze at a tower in Dubai Creek Harbour after a drone hit.
Saudi Arabia said it had shot down a drone targeting the diplomatic quarter of the capital, Riyadh, and also reported downing drones in the kingdom's east, including at least one trying to target its Shaybah oil field in the Empty Quarter desert.
Following an attack on Iraq's Basra port that killed at least one person, officials said Thursday that it had been forced to halt operations at all the country's oil terminals. Farhan al-Fartousi, the director-general of the General Company for Ports of Iraq, said the attack targeted a vessel in a ship-to-ship transfer area of the Persian Gulf port.
An Israeli strike hit a car Thursday in Ramlet al-Bayda, a major seaside tourist area of Beirut, where dozens of displaced people have been sheltering. Eight people were killed, and 31 others were wounded, the Lebanese Health Ministry said. The Israeli military press office told The Associated Press it was “not aware” of a strike at that location.
In Aramoun, a town about 10 kilometres south of Beirut, another three people were killed and a child was wounded in another early Israeli attack.
Since the United States and Israel sparked a war with a February 28 attack on Iran, Tehran has embarked on a campaign aimed at inflicting enough global economic pain to pressure them to relent in their attacks.
In addition to attacking energy infrastructure around the region, Iran has a stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic waterway leading from the Persian Gulf toward the Indian Ocean through which a fifth of the world's oil is transported. With traffic in the Strait effectively stopped, the price of Brent crude oil, the international standard, rose another 9 per cent on Thursday to more than USD 100 a barrel, up some 38 per cent over what it cost when the war started.
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