outdated intelligence<\/a> probably led to the deadly U.S. missile strike on the elementary school. U.S. Central Command relied on target coordinates for the strike using outdated data provided by the Defense Intelligence Agency, according to a person familiar with the preliminary finding.<\/p>\nKhamenei indicated that Tehran would maintain its blockade in the Strait of Hormuz, a key choke point through which 20% of the world\u2019s oil supply is shipped. He also said that he believes in friendship with his country\u2019s neighbors, but that attacks on U.S. military installations in the region will continue. He described maintaining pressure on the waterway as a necessary part of Iran\u2019s war strategy.<\/p>\n
War threatens energy supply disaster<\/p>\n
His remarks came as attacks continued to disrupt shipping and energy infrastructure across the Persian Gulf. The war sent the price of oil up 10% Thursday as Iranian forces intensified strikes on vessels attempting to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, leaving hundreds of ships stranded at its entrances.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey will pay the price. We will destroy their facilities,\u201d Khamenei said. \u201cIt is necessary to continue our defensive activity, including continuing to close the Strait of Hormuz.\u201d<\/p>\n
Iranian strikes Thursday in the Persian Gulf destroyed a U.S.-owned tanker flying a Marshall Islands flag. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed responsibility for the attacks, which killed at least one crew member and set two vessels ablaze, according to the Associated Press.<\/p>\n
Early Thursday morning, a container ship was reported to have been struck by an \u201cunknown projectile\u201d near Dubai, causing a small fire, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations reported.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe war in the Middle East is creating the largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market,\u201d according to an International Energy Agency report released Thursday.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, the 32 member countries of the IEA unanimously agreed to release 400 million barrels of oil from emergency reserves to address the disruptions. The United States will contribute 172 million barrels toward that release over 120 days.<\/p>\n
The latest incidents follow drone strikes and explosions targeting fuel storage facilities across the gulf, including at energy sites in Bahrain and at the port of Salalah in Oman, an important hub for tankers seeking to bypass Hormuz. It\u2019s a relatively thrifty way to sow global chaos without using a lot of resources, according to Benjamin Radd, a UCLA expert on U.S. foreign relations with Iran. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey cannot match the United States and Israel on the ballistic, kinetic warfare front,\u201d he said. \u201cBut Iran has now seen the disproportionate effect that their maritime escalation has on the global economy and energy markets. Look at how much damage they can inflict by doing relatively little.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the intensity of the fighting, the Trump administration has not clearly defined the end goal of the campaign or how long it could last. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said the conflict could last seven more weeks, but President Trump was confident of a quicker resolution. \u201cIt\u2019s just a question of when, when do we stop?\u201d he said Wednesday during a trip to Hebron, Ky.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe United States is the largest Oil Producer in the World, by far,\u201d Trump wrote on his social media website. \u201cSo when oil prices go up, we make a lot of money. BUT, of far greater interest and importance to me, as President, is stoping an evil Empire, Iran.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gov. Gavin Newsom had a different spin for Californians as they saw prices at the pump tick to an average of more than $5.20 per gallon: \u201cYour gas prices are going up \u2014 but Trump is making lots of money. So it\u2019s ok.\u201d<\/p>\n
Humanitarian toll grows in Iran and Lebanon<\/p>\n
The war, about to enter its third week, shows little sign of slowing, and the human toll continues to mount.<\/p>\n
U.S. and Israeli forces have targeted missile sites, nuclear facilities and military bases across Iran in a campaign that has killed 1,348 Iranian civilians as of Thursday, according to Iran\u2019s representative to the United Nations, Amir Saeid Iravani. The U.N. refugee agency estimated about 3.2 million people have been displaced in the country. <\/p>\n
Seven U.S. service members have been killed and 140 injured in Iranian counterattacks, according to the Pentagon.<\/p>\n
In a Capitol Hill briefing Wednesday, defense officials told lawmakers that the first six days of war had cost more than $11.3 billion, or about $1.9 billion per day. These estimates excluded the steep toll of asset damage, and the cost of resupplying, according to analysts.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the Israeli military intensified its air campaign in Lebanon against the Iran-backed<\/a> militant group Hezbollah, launching a series of attacks across the country, including in Beirut, the capital.<\/p>\nShortly after 1 a.m. Thursday, Israeli warplanes struck a seafront area near Beirut\u2019s public beach, killing eight people and wounding 31, Lebanese authorities said. Later in the day, the Israeli military issued multiple evacuation orders for buildings less than a mile from the government\u2019s seat of power in downtown Beirut.<\/p>\n
Even as those attacks sowed panic, Israel pressed on with waves of strikes across southern Lebanon and the southern suburbs of the capital. Lebanese authorities say more than 687 people have been killed so far, including 98 children and 52 women.<\/p>\n
Khamenei reiterated Tehran\u2019s posture that it would continue to carry out a war of attrition amid the rising humanitarian and economic tolls. He cast the war as an enduring struggle against Iran\u2019s adversaries, saying the country would \u201ccontinue the path of resistance and the path that will lead us to defeat the enemy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Iran\u2019s new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, vowed retaliation Thursday against the United States and Israel and signaled…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":217656,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[1794,3409,99804,92583,19378,48,52,51,47,50,49,94543,99803,99805,99806,1284,37845,96358,86,435,2664],"class_list":["post-217655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-attack","tag-child","tag-first-public-statement","tag-hormuz","tag-iran","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-mojtaba-khamenei","tag-new-supreme-leader","tag-oil-supply","tag-oil-tanker","tag-port","tag-revenge","tag-strait","tag-strike","tag-united-states","tag-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217655\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}