President Donald Trump on Saturday urged countries to send ships to the Strait of Hormuz, in an attempt to force Iran to reopen it as oil prices surge.
Tehran has effectively closed the key choke point for the world’s oil amid sustained aerial attacks by the United States and Israel, which have sparked escalating Iranian retaliation across the region. Overnight, an attack damaged the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. The U.S. reiterated calls for Americans to leave Iraq immediately.
Trump wroteon Truth Social that “Many Countries” will send “War Ships” to the Strait of Hormuz to keep it “open and safe,” though he did not name any specific nations. He urged Britain, China, France, Japan and South Korea to join such an effort. The White House did not respond immediately to a request for more specifics.
Iran’s ability to threaten ships in the strait by use of low-cost drones and mines, regardless of how battered its defenses, has proved a frustration for Trump, who conceded in a post Saturday that Iran would retain such capabilities “no matter how badly defeated they are.”
Trump’s admonitions came the morning after he announced the U.S. had attacked military sites on Kharg Island — leaving intact Iran’s most critical oil terminal. The president threatened to reverse that decision if Iran would not reopen the strait.
The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad was attacked early Saturday, according to two senior Iraqi officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share sensitive information. They said the attack came from inside Iraq. Air raid sirens sounded, and large plumes of smoke could be seen rising from inside the compound, accompanied by a massive fireball. Wire photographs published Saturday showed apparent damage to a structure atop the embassy roof.
The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad issued a statement saying Iran-backed militias had repeatedly attacked the International Zone in central Baghdad and advised citizens not to approach the embassy in Baghdad or the consulate in Erbil for their safety.
Shiite militant groups aligned with Iran did not immediately claim responsibility for the attack. The State Department and the embassy did not respond immediately to requests for comment.
A blast earlier overnight destroyed much of a house in the upscale Arasat residential neighborhood in central Baghdad. Militia members in uniforms bearing the insignia of Kataib Hezbollah, an Iran-aligned Shiite paramilitary group, cordoned off the site Saturday. The group later announced that three of its members had died in an attack.
In the United Arab Emirates, plumes of smoke were seen rising from the port of Fujairah, the country’s only oil export hub outside the Strait of Hormuz. Local government authorities confirmed that a fire broke out due to falling debris after the successful interception of a drone by air defenses, with no injuries reported.
Tasnim, Iran’s semiofficial news agency, urged people on Saturday to immediately evacuate the Jebel Ali port in Dubai, Khalifa port in Abu Dhabi and the Fujairah port areas of the UAE.
“These areas have become legitimate targets due to the presence and concealment of U.S. military forces among civilian installations and will be targeted in the coming hours,” the agency reported.
In Lebanon, Israeli strikes continue in response to renewed rocket attacks by Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group and political party. More than 800 people in Lebanon have been killed, more than 2,000 injured and more than 800,000 displaced in the round of conflict rekindled after the U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran, according to Lebanese authorities.
The country’s Ministry of Health said 12 doctors, paramedics and nurses on duty were killed in an airstrike Friday on a primary health care center in the southern town of Burj Qalawiya. The Israel Defense Forces, in a statement, said it is aware of reports of the strike in southern Lebanon and that the incident was under review.
“Since March 2, WHO has verified 27 attacks on healthcare in Lebanon, resulting in 30 deaths and 35 injuries, including the horrifying events of Friday,” World Health Program head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement. “WHO condemns this tragic loss of life and emphasizes that health workers must always be protected.”
Suzy Haidamous and Lior Soroka contributed to this report.
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