Middle East crisis live: US has carried out strikes on ‘every military target’ on Iran’s Kharg island, Trump says

Thirty six years before Donald Trump ordered military strikes on Iran’s vital oil hub, Kharg island, he told the Guardian that he would attack the island if he ever became president and Iran fired even one bullet at an American.

In a 1988 interview with the Guardian, which Trump was reminded of during a Fox News interview on Friday morning, Polly Toynbee, now a Guardian columnist, asked the businessman what his platform would be if he ever did run for president.

“Respect,” Trump replied.

“We’re a second rate economic power, a debtor nation. We’re getting kicked around,” he added.

When Toynbee asked him what he would do about Iran, Trump replied:

I’d be harsh on Iran. They’ve been beating us psychologically, making us look a bunch of fools. One bullet shot at one of our men or ships and I’d do a number on Kharg Island. I’d go in and take it. Iran can’t even beat Iraq, yet they push the United States around. It’d be good for the world to take them on.

Seven years before that interview, the New York Times and other outlets reported that Pentagon invasion plans for Iran drawn up during the 1979 hostage crisis started with an attack on Kharg Island.

An explosion was heard in Iraq’s capital Baghdad on Saturday, hours after a missile struck a powerful Iran-backed group in the city, AFP reports.

Residents in the Zayouna district in eastern Baghdad told AFP that the force of the blast shook their houses.

Explosions were heard earlier in Baghdad, which appeared to be a missile strike on a house used by the powerful Iran-backed group Kataeb Hezbollah, killing “a key figure” and wounding two others, according to a security source.

Iran’s Armed Forces Unified Combatant has warned that any attack on Iran’s oil and energy infrastructure will lead to attacks on energy infrastructure owned by oil companies cooperating with the US in the region, Iranian media has reported.

The warning came after Trump said that the US had destroyed military targets on Iran’s main oil hub of Kharg Island. The island serves as the export terminal for 90% of Iran’s oil shipments.

In an earlier post on Truth Social, Trump said the US had “totally obliterated” every military target on Kharg Island.

Trump added he had chosen not to wipe out the oil infrastructure on the island, but said: “However, should Iran, or anyone else, do anything to interfere with the Free and Safe Passage of Ships through the Strait of Hormuz, I will immediately reconsider this decision.”

An Israeli strike in southern Lebanon has killed a dozen medical staff at a clinic, Lebanese health authorities said on Saturday, according to a report from AFP.

Lebanese health authorities said an Israeli strike killed 12 doctors, paramedics and nurses working at a healthcare centre in the town of Burj Qalawiya, following another strike on the town of Sawaneh that left two paramedics affiliated with Hezbollah and its ally Amal dead.

The US has told non-emergency US government employees in Oman and their family members to leave the country, AFP reports.

The state department updated its advisory to warn Americans of “safety risks,” noting “there has been an ongoing threat of drone and missile attacks from Iran and significant disruptions to commercial flights.”

Two people were killed by drone in northern Oman, state media reported Friday, as Iran continues its retaliatory attacks on neighbouring countries.

Two people were wounded after a projectile fell on a house in Iraq’s capital Baghdad on Saturday, reports AFP, citing two security sources.

AFP journalists heard loud bangs in the capital followed by ambulance sirens, with witnesses saying they saw smoke rising from an area in the city’s centre.

A security source said “a projectile fell on a house wounding two people,” in the neighbourhood of Arasat, where several Iran-backed groups are known to be present, without being able to determine the type of the projectile.

Another security source confirmed two people were injured.

The US energy department expects early deliveries of oil from its strategic petroleum reserve to begin moving to the market by the end of next week, it said in a statement.

This is part of a wider effort by the 32-nation International Energy Agency, announced earlier this week, to unlock 400m barrels of oil in an effort to bring down prices.

Qatari authorities evacuated parts of Doha’s Msheireb district, which includes government offices and a Google office, early on Saturday, witnesses said.

The witnesses also said authorities evacuated parts of Doha’s education city, which is home to branch campuses of six US universities.

The evacuation orders come after Qatar’s interior ministry said authorities were evacuating a “number of specified areas as a temporary precautionary measure,” without providing details on the areas.

It came about an hour before authorities reported missile interceptions in Qatar, Reuters reports.

Israeli strikes in Gaza killed four Palestinians, including two 17-year-olds, in two separate attacks, Palestinian medics said, with violence continuing in the West Bank and Gaza even as Israel expands its offensive across the region.

Israeli forces killed two in the West Bank city of Nablus on Thursday, according to Palestinian officials, while the death toll in Lebanon reached 773, its Health Ministry said on Friday.

The Israeli military told Reuters it was not aware of the earlier airstrike reported in Gaza, which paramedics said killed three people, including two 17-year-old males.

Separately, one Palestinian was killed and several other people were wounded in Israeli tank shelling near a police checkpoint in western Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, medics said.

Five US air force refueling planes were struck and damaged on the ground at Prince Sultan airbase in Saudi Arabia, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing two US officials.

The planes, which were hit during an Iranian missile strike on the Saudi base in recent days, were damaged but not fully destroyed and are being repaired, the Journal said, adding no one was killed in the strikes.

At least 12 medical personnel were killed in an Israeli strike on a healthcare center in the town of Borj Qalaouiya in southern Lebanon, the Lebanese state news agency reported, citing the health ministry.

The health ministry said the death toll was preliminary, with rescue operations underway to search for missing persons.

Donald Trump said the United States carried out strikes against “every military target” on Iran’s Kharg Island export hub.

“For reasons of decency, I have chosen NOT to wipe out the Oil Infrastructure on the Island,” the US president wrote on Truth Social.

“However, should Iran, or anyone else, do anything to interfere with the Free and Safe Passage of Ships through the strait of Hormuz, I will immediately reconsider this decision.”