Iran targets airport and commercial ships in huge US blow | World | News
Iran targeted the world’s busiest international airport on Wednesday and attacked commercial ships in an escalation aimed at creating global economic pain to pressure the United States and Israel to end the war.
Among the latest attacks, four people were injured when two Iranian drones crashed near Dubai International Airport in the United Arab Emirates, but flights continued, Dubai Media Office said.
Firefighters also extinguished a fire at a luxury apartment tower in Dubai Creek Harbor early Thursday following an Iranian drone strike.
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An Iranian attack in the early hours of Thursday also sparked a massive fire on Bahrain’s Muharraq Island, home to the island kingdom’s international airport.
Authorities warned 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.
Another attack on the Iraqi port of Basra killed at least one person and halted operations at all of the country’s oil terminals.
Farhan al-Fartousi, Director General of Iraqi Ports General Company, said that the attack targeted a ship in the ship-to-ship transfer zone at the port in the Persian Gulf.
Iraq’s commercial ports remained open although oil terminals were closed, according to a statement by the state-run Iraqi News Agency.
The first week of the war with Iran cost the US $11.3bn (£8.47bn), according to the Pentagon, which presented the estimate in a briefing to Congress earlier this week, according to a person familiar with the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private meeting.
Each side has mobilized in hopes of outlasting the other as the conflict has wreaked havoc on trade routes, blocked supplies of fuel and fertilizer from the Gulf and threatened air traffic in one of the world’s most traveled regions.
Iran has targeted oil fields and refineries in Gulf Arab states and effectively halted cargo traffic in the narrow Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of oil trade passes.
In response, the International Energy Agency agreed to release 400 million barrels of oil, the largest volume of emergency oil reserves in its history, in an effort to counter the war’s effects on energy markets.
The United States planned to remove 172 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve next week to combat high prices.
