Iran launched a wave of attacks against Israel and several Gulf countries Wednesday, including a strike targeting a Saudi oilfield, as global leaders moved to contain the economic fallout from the expanding conflict.
The war — sparked by joint strikes by the United States and Israel on Iran — has spread across the region, driving up energy costs, prompting fuel rationing in some countries and forcing school closures.
Leaders of the Group of Seven are scheduled to hold a virtual meeting later Wednesday to discuss the war’s economic consequences, particularly the global energy situation, according to the French presidency.
The International Energy Agency is also considering a proposal to release oil from strategic reserves in what could be the largest such move on record, according to media reports. The move helped calm markets after crude prices surged about 5% late Tuesday before easing Wednesday.
The United States said Tuesday it had targeted Iranian vessels capable of laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz, a key shipping lane through which about one-fifth of the world’s oil supply passes. Iran has threatened to block the waterway amid the conflict.
The U.S. military released video showing Iranian boats being destroyed, saying it had eliminated 16 minelaying vessels near the strait.
Donald Trump warned of severe consequences if mines were deployed.
“If for any reason mines were placed, and they are not removed forthwith, the military consequences to Iran will be at a level never seen before,” Trump wrote on social media.
Trump is facing increasing political pressure over rising oil prices ahead of upcoming U.S. elections.
Early Wednesday, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations reported that a container ship off the coast of the United Arab Emirates had been struck by an “unknown projectile,” highlighting the continued risks to shipping in the region.
Iran intensified its attacks across the region, launching what officials described as its “most intense and heaviest” missile barrage, firing missiles for about three hours at cities across Israel.
Air raid sirens and explosions were heard in Jerusalem, while Israeli media reported several injuries in Tel Aviv.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps also said it targeted sites in Bahrain and Iraqi Kurdistan — both home to U.S. military facilities — and struck a U.S. air base in Kuwait, according to Iranian state media.
Kuwait said its air defenses intercepted eight drones.
Saudi Arabia’s defense ministry also said it intercepted drones and ballistic missiles, including several heading toward the Shaybah oilfield.
Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said Tehran was not seeking a ceasefire.
“We believe the aggressor must be punished and taught a lesson that will deter them from attacking Iran again,” he wrote on social media.
The Pentagon said seven U.S. service members have been killed and about 140 wounded since the conflict began.
The war began Feb. 28 when U.S. and Israeli forces launched strikes that killed Iran’s longtime supreme leader, Ali Khamenei. His son, Mojtaba Khamenei, has been named his successor but has not appeared publicly.
In Tehran, residents described fear as airstrikes continued.
“The noise of the bombings is extremely disturbing,” said a woman in her 40s who asked not to be identified, adding that she believed the strikes were not targeting residential buildings.
Iran’s health ministry said March 8 that more than 1,200 people had been killed and over 10,000 civilians injured since the start of the conflict.
The fighting has also spread to other regions.
In Sri Lanka, U.S. forces torpedoed an Iranian ship, while Australia said it had granted asylum to two members of Iran’s women’s national football team.
Iraq and Lebanon have become proxy battlegrounds in the war.
Iran-linked groups in Iraq said five of their fighters were killed in strikes they blamed on the United States.
In Lebanon, hundreds have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced following Israeli airstrikes and ground operations targeting the Iran-backed Hezbollah.
Lebanon’s health ministry reported that Israeli strikes Wednesday killed five people in the southern town of Qana, while additional strikes were reported in the southern suburbs of Beirut and a central Beirut neighborhood.
Iran also told the United Nations that four of its diplomats were killed in an Israeli strike Sunday on a seafront hotel in Beirut that Israel said targeted senior commanders from the Revolutionary Guards.
The conflict’s global economic effects are already being felt. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development warned that rising fuel and food prices could hit vulnerable populations worldwide.
In Egypt, where fuel prices recently rose by up to 30%, residents expressed concern about the future.
“We were barely getting by as it is. I don’t know how people will manage,” said Om Mohamed, a mother of six, at a market in Cairo.
