Iran-US conflict newest: Trump says strikes have ‘obliterated’ navy targets on important oil hub island

A missile struck a helipad inside the US Embassy compound in Baghdad, two Iraqi security officials said.

Footage seen by AP showed a column of smoke rising Saturday morning over the embassy compound.

The sprawling embassy complex, one of the largest US diplomatic facilities in the world, has been repeatedly targeted by rockets and drones fired by Iran-aligned militias.

There was no immediate comment from the US Embassy in Baghdad.

On Friday, the embassy renewed its Level 4 security alert for Iraq, warning that Iran and Iran-aligned militia groups have previously carried out attacks against US citizens, interests and infrastructure, and “may continue to target them.”

Former US Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican, has said Americans didn’t vote for the Iran war in President Donald Trump’s 2024 election victory.

When asked by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, Friday night local time, about the 13 US service members who have been killed so far in the US-Israeli military effort against Iran, Greene said it was “absolutely heartbreaking”.

“These are 13 lives that I believe should not have been lost. This war is not something that Americans voted for in 2024. As a matter of fact, we voted for the opposite. We voted for no more foreign wars, no more regime change”, the Trump supporter-turned-critic said.

“This was an unprovoked war and Israel pulled us into it, pulled America into it, and so those are 13 lives that should not have been lost”, she added.

When Trump won the 2024 election, he said in his victory speech, “I’m not going to start a war. I’m going to stop wars”.

Trump has claimed the US needed to attack Iran because the Middle Eastern country posed an “imminent” threat to the American people due to its “nuclear ambitions” and pursuit of “developing the long range missiles”.

He has insisted Israel did not force America’s hand to launch military strikes, which began nearly two weeks ago, telling reporters, “I might of forced their hand”.

The Israeli military on Saturday issued an evacuation warning for a designated industrial area in Iran’s northwestern city of Tabriz, urging civilians to leave the area immediately.

US President Donald Trump told reporters Friday evening local time the Iran war is “going very well”.

“The situation in Iran is going very well. A lot of big hits today, a lot of big wins today, as you probably have heard, militarily, and I think it’s going very well and very good control. We’ll see what’s happening with the straits”, Trump said, referring to the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has effectively closed.

“They continue to try and sabotage their own country in the Middle East, but it’s been very, very strong militarily”, the president said at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, before departing to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

President Donald Trump was asked about seizing Kharg Island a day before he announced the US military “totally obliterated” the Iranian oil export port.

Speaking to Fox News Radio in an interview taped Thursday night local time and aired the next morning, Trump said seizing the island was “not high on the list”.

He said the island was “one of so many different things, and I can change my mind in seconds”.

Friday night, Trump wrote on Truth Social, “Moments ago, at my direction, the United States Central Command executed one of the most powerful bombing raids in the History of the Middle East, and totally obliterated every MILITARY target in Iran’s crown jewel, Kharg Island.”

US Vice President JD Vance has shared his prayers for the six American service members killed in a plane crash over Iraq.

“Please join me in praying for the six service members who lost their lives in a plane crash over the skies of Iraq”, Vance wrote on X Friday night local time. “Three were Ohioans serving with the 121st Air Refueling Wing, a unit I was honored to visit as a senator. A grateful nation mourns their loss”.

US Central Command announced Thursday evening local time that a KC-135 refueling aircraft went down in western Iraq.

“The incident occurred in friendly airspace during Operation Epic Fury, and rescue efforts are ongoing”, the military wrote on X, referring to the name of the US military campaign against Iran.

Iran’s Shi’ite allies in Lebanon and Iraq have joined the war in the region unleashed ​by US and Israeli strikes on Tehran.

But Yemen’s Houthi rebels, heavily armed and capable of striking Gulf neighbours and causing major disruption to maritime navigation around the Arabian Peninsula, have not yet entered the fray.

Here is a look at why that might be:

On March 5, Houthi leader Abdul Malik Al-Houthi said his group was ready to strike at any moment.

“Regarding military escalation and action, our fingers are on the trigger at any moment should developments warrant it,” he said in a televised speech. But unlike Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Iraqi armed groups, they have not made any formal announcement of joining the war.

Houthi religious doctrine does not adhere to Iran’s supreme leader in the same way Hezbollah and the Iraqi groups do.

While Iran champions the Houthis as part of its regional “Axis of Resistance”, Yemen experts say the movement is motivated primarily by a domestic agenda though they share a political affinity with Iran and Hezbollah.

The US says Iran has armed, funded and trained the Houthis with help from Hezbollah.

The Houthis deny being an Iranian proxy and say they develop their own weapons.

The US has ordered non-emergency government workers and families of government workers to leave Oman due to “safety risks”.

Oman is one of several Gulf countries Iran has attacked amid the growing conflict in the Middle East, according to the United Nations.

Five US Air Force refueling planes were struck while on the ground at Prince Sultan air base in Saudi Arabia by an Iranian missile in recent days, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday night, citing US officials.

There were no casualties, and damage to the planes is being repaired, per the WSJ.