Heaviest Day Of Strikes Yet On Iran Despite Market Bets That War Will End Soon

DUBAI/TEL AVIV/WASHINGTON, March 10 (Reuters) – The United States and Israel struck Iran on Tuesday with what the Pentagon and Iranians on the ground called the most intense airstrikes of the war, despite bets in global markets that President Donald Trump would seek to end the conflict soon.

Increasing risks for the global economy, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it would block oil shipments from the Gulf unless the US and Israeli attacks end.

The Revolutionary Guard also said Tuesday evening that Qatar fired missiles at the US-run Al Udeid base and the Al Harir base in Iraqi Kurdistan. These launches were followed by drone strikes targeting US troops gathered at Al Dhafra air base in the United Arab Emirates and Juffair naval base in Bahrain.

Early Wednesday, Iranian state media reported a new series of attacks on US military facilities in Bahrain.

Waves of Iranian missiles were also fired into central Israel early Wednesday. As air raid sirens blared and the Israelis advanced towards safe rooms and shelters, the sounds of explosions from air defense systems intercepting rockets punctuated the pre-dawn darkness. There is no statement yet on whether any of the missiles reached the ground.

The latest attacks from Iran roughly coincided with a new Israeli bombardment of Beirut, aimed at rooting out the Iran-backed Hezbollah group, which has been firing on Israel from Lebanon in solidarity with the Tehran government.

The White House on Tuesday reiterated Trump’s threat to hit Iran hard for its moves to halt the flow of energy supplies through the Strait of Hormuz, where the war has effectively halted a fifth of world shipments of oil and liquefied natural gas, and reiterated his offer for the US Navy to escort the tankers safely.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said at a Pentagon briefing: “Today will again be our most intense strike day in Iran: most fighters, most bombers, most strikes, intelligence more refined and better than ever before.”

In a message posted to the Truth Social platform later in the day, Trump said, “Over the last few hours, we have struck and completely destroyed 10 of Iran’s ‘inactive’ minelayers.” He did not disclose where the attacks took place.

Tehran residents reached by Reuters described the most intense night of bombardment of the war.

“It was like hell. They were bombing every part of Tehran,” said a local resident who spoke on the phone on condition of anonymity for security reasons. “My children are afraid of sleeping now.”

The crash of two five-story residential buildings in eastern Tehran on Monday blew away floors and walls, leaving behind a rickety concrete frame. In the footage recorded by the Iranian Red Crescent, rescuers are seen carrying a victim in a body bag. Workers were still in the area trying to collect bodies when a missile hit a nearby road junction on Tuesday.

But with Trump describing the war as “pretty much done” on Monday, investors appeared convinced that he would quickly end the war before the disruption to global energy supplies sparks a worldwide economic meltdown.

The historic rise in crude oil prices, which reached nearly $120 per barrel on Monday, was reversed as Brent crude oil fell back below $90 on Tuesday. Asian and European stock prices have made a partial recovery from earlier sharp declines, and Wall Street has recovered to around its pre-war levels in late February.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Tuesday that once the goals of the joint Israel-US air war are fully achieved, the American public will see oil and gas prices plummet.

A source familiar with Israel’s war plans told Reuters that the Israeli military wants to inflict as much damage as possible before the window for further attacks closes, assuming Trump could end the war at any time.

Israeli foreign minister Gideon Saar said the war would continue until his country and the United States decided it was time to cease hostilities, but that Israel was not seeking an “endless war”.

“We and our partners will continue until we deem it appropriate to stop,” he said.

Iran refused to bow to Trump’s demand that the United States allow it to choose its new leadership, choosing hardline leader Mojtaba Khamenei as its supreme leader to replace his father, who was killed on the first day of the war.

But Trump’s at times contradictory statements at Monday’s news conference appeared to reassure markets that he would stop the war before it provokes an economic crisis similar to those that followed the Middle East oil shocks of the 1970s. He said the United States had already inflicted significant damage and predicted the conflict would end sooner than the four weeks it originally set out to.

Trump did not define what victory would look like, but did not repeat his comments on Monday that Iran should allow Iran to choose its leader.

Some congressional aides have said they expect the White House to soon request as much as $50 billion in additional funds for the war.

The United States used $5.6 billion in munitions in the first two days of attacks against Iran, a source familiar with the information said Tuesday.

Several senior Iranian officials voiced opposition to it on Tuesday.

Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammed Baqer Qalibaf said in his post on X: “Of course we do not want a ceasefire; we believe that the attacker should be shot in the mouth so that he can learn a lesson.”

Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi told PBS Tehran is unlikely to resume negotiations with the US

A spokesman for the Revolutionary Guard also said Tehran would not allow “one liter” of Middle Eastern oil to reach the United States or its allies while US and Israeli attacks continue.

“We are the ones who will determine the end of the war,” the spokesman said.

A quick end to the war is likely to prevent the overthrow of Iran’s leadership, which held large-scale rallies in support of the new supreme leader on Monday.

Many Iranians want change, and some openly celebrated the death of the elder Khamenei weeks after security forces killed thousands of people to suppress anti-government protests. However, there were few signs of protest during the war.

Fearing a resurgence of anti-government demonstrations, Iranian police chief Ahmadreza Radan warned that “anyone who takes to the streets at the request of the enemy will face them not as protesters but as enemies.”

“All our security forces’ fingers are on the trigger,” Radan said in his statement to state television.

According to Iran’s UN Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani, more than 1,300 Iranian civilians have been killed since US and Israeli airstrikes began on February 28. About 8,000 homes, 1,600 “commercial and service centres” and dozens of medical, educational and energy supply facilities were destroyed, he said.

The aim of the US and Israeli attacks, the ambassador said, was to “terrorise civilians, slaughter innocent people and cause maximum destruction and suffering”.

While many people were killed in Israel’s attacks on Lebanon, 12 people lost their lives in Iran’s attacks on Israel.

Iran struck US military bases and diplomatic missions in the Arab Gulf states, but also hit hotels, closed airports and damaged oil infrastructure.

In addition to the six U.S. soldiers killed at the start of the conflict, the Pentagon estimated Tuesday that about 140 American soldiers were injured. The Department of Defense had previously announced that eight US military personnel were seriously injured.

(Reporting by Reuters bureaus, Writing by Peter Graff, Charlie Devereux, Matt Spetalnick and Steve Gorman, Editing by William Maclean, Timothy Heritage, Cynthia Osterman and Michael Perry)