DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) \u2014 Iran urged people Saturday to evacuate the Middle East\u2019s busiest port and two others in the United Arab Emirates, openly threatening a neighboring country\u2019s non-U.S. assets for the first time as its war with the United States and Israel entered a third week.<\/p>\n
Tehran said the U.S. had used \u201cports, docks and hideouts\u201d in the UAE to launch strikes on Kharg Island, home to the main terminal handling Iran\u2019s oil exports, without providing evidence. It urged people to leave areas where it said U.S. forces were sheltering.<\/p>\n
Hours later, there was no sign of an attack on Dubai\u2019s Jebel Ali port \u2014 the Mideast\u2019s busiest \u2014 or the Khalifa port in Abu Dhabi. But debris from an intercepted Iranian drone hitting an oil facility sparked a fire at the third port, in Fujairah.<\/p>\n
Iran says the US attacked from close to Dubai<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, told MS NOW that the U.S. attacked Kharg Island and Abu Musa Island from two locations in the UAE, Ras Al-Khaimah and a place \u201cvery close to Dubai,\u201d calling that dangerous and saying Iran \u201cwill try to be careful not to attack any populated area\u201d there.<\/p>\n
U.S. Central Command said it had no response to Iran\u2019s claim. A diplomatic adviser to the UAE\u2019s president, Anwar Gargash, said on social media the country has the right to defend itself but \u201cstill prioritizes reason and logic, and continues exercising restraint.\u201d<\/p>\n
Iran has fired hundreds of missiles and drones at Arab Gulf neighbors during the war, but it has said it was targeting U.S. assets, even as hits or attempts were reported on civilian ones such as airports and oil fields.<\/p>\n
On Friday, U.S. President Donald Trump said the country \u201cobliterated\u201d military sites on Kharg Island and that oil infrastructure could be next if Tehran continues to interfere with ships\u2019 passage through the Strait of Hormuz, where one-fifth of global oil supplies usually transit.<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s parliamentary speaker has said strikes against the country\u2019s oil infrastructure would provoke a new level of retaliation.<\/p>\n
Araghchi told MS NOW that the strait was closed only to \u201cthose who are attacking us and their allies.\u201d<\/p>\n
As global anxiety soars over oil prices and supplies, Trump said Saturday that he hopes China, France, Japan, South Korea, the U.K. and others send warships to keep the Strait of Hormuz \u201copen and safe.\u201d Britain in response said it was discussing with allies a \u201crange of options\u201d to secure shipping.<\/p>\n
Araghchi, in a social media post, urged neighbors to \u201cexpel foreign aggressors\u201d and described Trump\u2019s call as \u201cbegging.\u201d<\/p>\n
Iran repeats threat against US-linked oil assets<\/p>\n
On Saturday, Iran\u2019s joint military command reiterated its threat to attack U.S.-linked \u201coil, economic and energy infrastructures\u201d in the region if the Islamic Republic\u2019s oil infrastructure is hit.<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s semiofficial Fars news agency said the Kharg Island strikes caused no damage to oil infrastructure. It said they targeted an air defense facility, a naval base, the airport control tower and an offshore oil company\u2019s helicopter hangar.<\/p>\n
U.S. Central Command said it destroyed naval mine storage facilities, missile storage bunkers and other military sites.<\/p>\n
Israel earlier announced another wave of strikes in Iran targeting infrastructure, and said its air force had hit more than 200 targets in the past 24 hours, including missile launchers, defense systems and weapons production sites.<\/p>\n
Another attack on the US Embassy in Baghdad<\/p>\n
A missile struck a helipad inside the U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad on Saturday. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. The embassy complex, one of the largest U.S. diplomatic facilities in the world, has been repeatedly targeted by rockets and drones fired by Iran-aligned militias.<\/p>\n
The State Department again warned citizens in Iraq to leave \u201cnow,\u201d and by land since commercial flights were not available. It noted that Iran and Iran-aligned militia groups \u201cmay continue to target\u201d U.S. citizens, interests and infrastructure.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Lebanon\u2019s humanitarian crisis deepened, with over 800 people killed and 850,000 displaced as Israel launched waves of strikes against Iran-backed Hezbollah militants.<\/p>\n
Marines and an assault ship will add to US forces<\/p>\n
A U.S. official said Friday that 2,500 more Marines with the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit and the amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli were being sent to the Middle East, adding to the military\u2019s largest buildup of warships and aircraft in the region in decades. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military plans.<\/p>\n
Marine Expeditionary Units can conduct amphibious landings but also specialize in bolstering security at embassies, evacuating civilians and providing disaster relief. The deployment doesn\u2019t necessarily indicate that a ground operation will take place. The Wall Street Journal first reported the Marine deployment.<\/p>\n
The Tripoli was spotted by commercial satellites sailing near Taiwan, putting it more than a week away from waters off Iran.<\/p>\n
Earlier in the week, the Navy had 12 ships, including the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and eight destroyers, in the Arabian Sea. The total number of U.S. service members on the ground in the Middle East is not clear.<\/p>\n
US identifies 6 killed in military aircraft crash<\/p>\n
The U.S. Department of Defense on Saturday identified six service members who died when the military refueling aircraft they were aboard crashed Thursday while supporting operations against Iran.<\/p>\n
The service members were Maj. John A. Klinner, 33; Capt. Ariana G. Savino, 31; Tech. Sgt. Ashley B. Pruitt, 34; Capt. Seth R. Koval, 38; Capt. Curtis J. Angst, 30; and Tech. Sgt. Tyler H. Simmons, 28, according to U.S. officials.<\/p>\n
The crash in western Iraq followed an unspecified incident involving two aircraft in \u201cfriendly airspace,\u201d according to U.S. Central Command. The other plane landed safety.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
Mednick reported from Tel Aviv, Israel, Magdy from Cairo and Toropin from Washington. Associated Press reporters Melanie Lidman in Jerusalem; Sally Abou AlJoud, Kareem Chehayeb and Bassem Mroue in Beirut; Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad; Will Weissert at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland; Tia Goldenberg in Washington and Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City contributed.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) \u2014 Iran urged people Saturday to evacuate the Middle East\u2019s busiest port and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19632,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[3355,7018,2616,6965,34,94,712,69,153],"class_list":{"0":"post-20830","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tehran","8":"tag-attacked","9":"tag-damage","10":"tag-embassy","11":"tag-hit","12":"tag-iran","13":"tag-iraq","14":"tag-missiles","15":"tag-tehran","16":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116235444541765331","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20830\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}