US-Iran war as it happened: Trump says US bombed Iran’s Kharg Island; 2500 Marines, US warship sent to Middle East; Fresh airstrikes hit Beirut

Thank you for following our rolling coverage of the conflict in the Middle East. We will resume our live reporting here.

Here’s a wrap of what we covered in the last 24 hours.

• The US military has bombed Iran’s Kharg Island, home to the terminal handling 90 per cent of the country’s oil exports. President Donald Trump said the US had “obliterated” every military target on the island.
• Trump said the US had not targeted the island’s oil infrastructure. However, he warned he would reconsider this if “Iran, or anyone else, [should] do anything to interfere with the free and safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz”.
• Iran threatened to retaliate if its energy facilities are hit. “All oil, economic, and energy facilities belonging to oil companies in the region that are partly owned by the United States or that cooperate with the United States will be immediately destroyed and reduced to ashes” if Iran’s energy assets are attacked, the Iranian Fars News Agency reported the military’s Al-Anbiya Central Headquarters has said.
• Iraqi officials say a helipad at the US embassy in Iraq’s capital of Baghdad was hit by a missile. Footage shows smoke rising from the embassy.
• Shortly before he announced the American bombing of Kharg Island, Trump told reporters the war would last for “as long as it’s necessary” . But he’s also said recently that the war will end “when I feel it … in my bones.”

Iranian media has said no oil infrastructure was damaged in US strikes on Kharg Island, AFP reports.

The Fars News Agency reported that the US military “tried to damage the army’s defences, the Joshan naval base, the airport control tower and the helicopter hangar of the Iran Continental Shelf Oil Company”.

US President Donald Trump has claimed the bombing “obliterated” every military target on the island, variously described as Iran’s “crown jewel” and “Achilles heel” because its oil terminal handles around 90 per cent of Iran’s crude oil exports.

Lebanon is caught in the crossfire between Hezbollah and Israel after Hezbollah fighters launched strikes on Israel last Monday.

This is the moment a commercial and residential building in Bachoura District in central Beirut was hit by one of three Israeli air strikes. An evacuation warning was given by the Israeli military one hour beforehand.

Good evening and thank you for following our rolling coverage of the conflict in the Middle East. If you’re just joining us now, here’s what you need to know:

• US President Donald Trump says the American military has bombed the critical Iranian base of Kharg Island, but has not targeted its oil infrastructure. The island is economically and strategically important for Iran, Australian National University Expert Amin Saikal told the ABC.
• A day before the bombing, the speaker of the Iranian parliament said such a strike would provoke retaliation.
• In a Pentagon press conference, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said that Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is wounded and “likely disfigured.”
• Iraqi officials say a helipad at the US embassy in Iraq’s capital of Baghdad was hit by a missile, according to multiple news agencies.
• The humanitarian crisis in Lebanon is growing. The death toll now stands at 687, at least, according to the latest statement from the Lebanese government about the deaths since March 2. This includes 98 children and 52 women. In all the conflict across the region, from drone strikes on Dubai to the attacks on ships and the closure of airports, the one in Lebanon now has the grim status of being the deadliest outside Iran itself.

• In an interview with Fox News, Trump said the war would end “when I feel it in my bones”. He also observed that Russian President Vladimir Putin may be helping Iran a “little bit”.

Ali Hussein, 20, is a Syrian who sought a life in a rural area of Lebanon with others from his home country. He is one of about a dozen Syrian workers who were targeted by the Israel Defence Forces while unloading poultry from a truck at a chicken farm in southern Lebanon on Sunday.

“We were working when the jets struck. It was at six in the evening,” he says from his hospital bed. “Two of my friends were martyred, the rest are still alive. And I don’t know why we were targeted.”

One feature of this war is beyond dispute: the attacks are intensifying by the day. Whatever is said in the White House about the purpose of the war on Iran, and whatever Trump claims about how soon the strikes on Tehran will end, the battle between Israel and Hezbollah is a lasting enmity that will not end soon.

Read the full article here.

Shortly before he announced the American bombing of the critical Iranian base of Kharg Island, US President Donald Trump told reporters the war would last for “as long as it’s necessary”.

“I mean, I have my own idea. But what good does it do [speculating]? It’ll be as long as it’s necessary,” he said before boarding Air Force One.

He also said his objectives “might be a little different” to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but did not elaborate.

Amin Saikal, Emeritus Professor of Middle Eastern, Central Asian and Islamic Studies at the Australian National University, told the ABC Iran’s Kharg Island, which was bombed by the US, was “both economically and strategically important” for Iran.

“Something like 80 to 90 per cent of Iranian crude oil is exported from that island to the outside world,” Saikal said.

“It is a lifeline to [the] economic life of Iran and a major source of revenue for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard.”

The island was bombed by the American military, US President Donald Trump says.

He said the island’s oil infrastructure had not been targeted. However, he warned he would reconsider this if “Iran, or anyone else, [should] do anything to interfere with the free and safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz”.