A U.S. military refueling aircraft crashed in western Iraq on Thursday, in an incident U.S. Central Command said involved another aircraft but was not the result of hostile or friendly fire.
In a statement, U.S. Central Command said it was carrying out rescue efforts after the U.S. KC-135 refueling aircraft went down. The second aircraft landed safely.
The news comes after Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, promised revenge for Iran’s “martyrs,” including the many children killed in an apparent U.S. strike on a school, and said the critical Strait of Hormuz would remain closed, as gas prices rose and the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran reached its 13th day.
“We will not overlook the vengeance for the blood of your martyrs,” his address to the Iranian people said.
Khamenei’s message, read aloud by an announcer on state TV, came as oil prices again topped $100 a barrel and two tankers burned in Iraqi waters after an overnight attack.
President Donald Trump addressed concerns over gas prices in a social media post Thursday morning, writing that “of far greater interest and importance to me, as President, is stopping an evil Empire, Iran, from having Nuclear Weapons, and destroying the Middle East and, indeed, the World.”
Michael Loria
French President Emmanuel Macron announced Thursday evening that the country suffered its first casualty amid the war on Iran.
Chief Warrant Officer Arnaud Frion of the 7th Battalion of Chasseurs Alpins was killed during a strike on troops stationed in Iraq, Macron said. Several French soldiers were wounded. He was from Varces in southeastern France, near Grenoble.
French troops have been stationed in the area since 2015, the French president said. They are part of a U.S.-led coalition aimed at fighting ISIS.
“To his family, to his brothers in arms, I want to express all the affection and solidarity of the Nation,” Macron said in a statement. “Their presence in Iraq is part of the strict framework of the fight against terrorism. The war in Iran cannot justify such attacks.”
Michael Loria
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security confirmed Thursday evening that the suspect behind an attack on a synagogue in Michigan was born in Lebanon.
The suspect drove his vehicle into Temple Israel, one of the nation’s largest synagogues in suburban Detroit. The head of temple security was injured during the crash, authorities said. According to local police, temple security fatally shot the suspect.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson identified the suspect as Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, a 41-year-old born in Lebanon who became a naturalized U.S. citizen in February 2016.
Ghazali entered the U.S. at the Detroit Metropolitan International Airport in 2011 on an immigrant visa as the spouse of a U.S. citizen.
Local authorities declined to get into Ghazali’s specific motives but said, “obviously, what happens around the world sometimes affects us.”
Michael Loria
A group of around 250 organizations led by the American Civil Liberties Union is calling on Congressional lawmakers to ensure the government does not fund the war on Iran.
“By launching a war against Iran, Trump has violated the Constitution, defied international law, flouted the will of the American people, and has put millions of lives across the region at risk,” the group wrote in a letter, apparently referencing the Congressional war powers dictated by Article I, Section 8, Clause 11 of the Constitution. “The Constitution assigns responsibility for authorizing war solely to Congress to ensure that the president does not unilaterally impose the costs and tradeoffs of armed conflict.”
According to Pentagon estimates, the first six days of the war cost around $11.3 billion. The military used about $5.6 billion in munitions in the first two days of the conflict, a person with knowledge of the estimate previously told USA TODAY.
Among the signatories of the letter are Oxfam America, September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows and Veterans for Peace.
Michael Loria
The Trump administration is moving to allow countries to buy Russian oil amid the burgeoning oil crisis brought on by the war on Iran, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced Thursday evening.
“To increase the global reach of existing supply, @USTreasury is providing a temporary authorization to permit countries to purchase Russian oil currently stranded at sea,” Bessent said in a statement. “This narrowly tailored, short-term measure applies only to oil already in transit and will not provide significant financial benefit to the Russian government, which derives the majority of its energy revenue from taxes assessed at the point of extraction.”
Russian oil has faced strict embargoes since the country’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. President Joe Biden banned its importation into the U.S. in March of that year and prohibited Americans from doing business with Russian oil.
According to a Treasury Department license document, the authorization applies until April 11 and applies to Russian oil that was loaded onto vessels before March 12.
Bart Jansen
A U.S. KC-135 aircraft refueling tanker was lost in the war on Iran and it was not the result of hostile or friendly fire, the U.S. Central Command announced March 12.
“The incident occurred in friendly airspace during Operation Epic Fury, and rescue efforts are ongoing,” the command said in a statement.
“Two aircraft were involved in the incident,” the command added. “One of the aircraft went down in western Iraq, and the second landed safely.”
Hours earlier, the military had released pictures of a KC-135 refueling a Navy F/A-18F Super Hornet, to illustrate how it works.
Bart Jansen
President Donald Trump offered his prayers to Michigan’s Jewish community while opening a celebration of Women’s History Month at the White House.
“I want to send our love to the Michigan Jewish community and all of the people in the Detroit area following the attack on the Jewish synagogue early today,” Trump said. “I’ve been briefed – fully briefed – and it’s a terrible thing, but it goes on. We’re going to be right down to the bottom of it. It’s absolutely incredible that things like this happen.”
Andrea Riquier
Brent crude oil prices pressed higher on March 12, sending stocks tumbling and Wall Street’s “fear gauge” up sharply.
At 4:30 p.m. ET, a barrel of crude, the global benchmark, was up 9% for the day, near $97. The S&P 500 was down 1.5% for the day, but the tech-heavy Nasdaq slid 1.8%. The CBOE Volatility Index jumped 13% during the day, and bonds sold off as investors continued to price in a higher-inflation environment.
The market movements come one day after IEA member countries pledged to release 400 million barrels of reserves to help mitigate the oil being blocked from transiting through the Strait of Hormuz.
But that process “can take weeks or months to fully work its way through the system,” said Greg Upton, a professor and the executive director of the Center for Energy Studies at Louisiana State University.
“In theory, increasing supply should put downward pressure on prices, holding demand constant,” Upton told USA TODAY in an email conversation. “In practice, however, the volumes released from reserves are typically not large enough relative to the global oil market to materially move global prices. Instead, strategic reserve releases are best understood as a short-term stabilization tool.”
One bright spot for American consumers is that national gas prices haven’t yet caught up to Thursday’s big jump in the oil price. The national average was $3.608, according to GasBuddy – unchanged for the day.
Zachary Schermele
In the halls of the Senate on Thursday, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, doubted that early estimates of the war’s price tag have accurately captured its full cost so far.
Citing the six-day $11.3 billion munitions figure that USA TODAY reported Pentagon officials gave Congress this week, she said the “level of activity has stepped up” in the region.
“I don’t know if that means a higher price tag,” she said. “I think it’s hard to say what’s the price per day right now, as we are still very much in the thick of it.”
Bart Jansen
Trump said the war in Iran “is moving along very rapidly” and that the strikes had to be done.
“They really are a nation of terror and hate, and they’re paying a big price right now,” Trump said at a White House event honoring Women’s History Month.
Terry Collins
President Trump took a jab at embattled Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell in a March 12 Truth Social post, asking why the central bank leader isn’t lowering interest rates.
“Where is the Federal Reserve Chairman, Jerome “Too Late” Powell, today?” Trump wrote. “He should be dropping Interest Rates, IMMEDIATELY, not waiting for the next meeting!”
The president’s post comes less than a week before the Fed’s next rate decision on March 18. Oil prices have surged nearly 40% since the war in Iran began, as prices have soared across the economic spectrum, reducing the likelihood of a Fed interest rate cut. Despite a disappointing March 6 jobs report showing a 92,000-job loss in February, traders expectpolicymakers to hold rates steady at next week’s meeting.
Trump’s Truth Social post also comes two months after federal prosecutors began investigating Powell, a pivotal moment in their longstanding feud. Trump picked Powell to run the Fed during his first presidential term.
Bart Jansen
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned against betting on the longevity of Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khameneik and Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem.
“I wouldn’t issue life insurance policies on any of the leaders of the terrorist organization,” Netanyahu said, according to Reuters. “I don’t intend to give an exact message here about what we are planning or what we are going to do.”
Iran’s previous supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, was killed Feb. 28 in the initial strikes of the U.S-Israeli war on Iran.
Christopher Cann
A suspect who rammed a vehicle into a Michigan synagogue is dead, authorities say.
Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard told reporters a man drove into Temple Israel, a Reform Jewish synagogue in West Bloomfield Township, a Detroit suburb. Security staff at the synagogue opened fire and authorities found the man dead inside the vehicle.
Jewish sites across the country have been on high alert since the United States and Israel launched their joint war on Iran on Feb. 28.
Reuters
The U.S. and Western allies clashed with Russia and China on Thursday over Iran’s nuclear intentions, as Washington sought at the United Nations to further justify the war it launched on Iran two weeks ago.
At a meeting of the 15-member U.N. Security Council, which is chaired this month by the U.S., Russia and China moved unsuccessfully to block a discussion about a committee established to oversee and enforce U.N. sanctions on Iran. They were overruled 11-2 with two abstentions.
Addressing the council, U.S. envoy to the United Nations Mike Waltz accused Moscow and Beijing of seeking to protect Tehran by blocking the work of the so-called 1737 Committee.
“All member states of the United Nations should be implementing an arms embargo against Iran, banning the transfer and trade of missile technology, and freezing relevant financial assets,” Waltz said.
Waltz charged that both China and Russia did not want a functional sanctions committee “because they want to protect their partner, Iran, and continue to maintain defense cooperation that is now once again prohibited.”
Bart Jansen
Delta Air Lines has extended its suspension of flights to Tel Aviv, Israel, because of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.
Delta flights from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport are suspended through March 31, the airline said. Customers with flights scheduled through April 30 are eligible including a refund for flights that were not flown.
Delta also postponed the restart of flights from Atlanta’s Hartfield-Jackson International Airport to Tel Aviv until at least Aug. 4.
Reuters
An FBI alert to law enforcement agencies last month warning of the possibility that Tehran might try to retaliate for any U.S. strikes on Iran by launching drone attacks in California was based on a single unverified tip, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Thursday, adding that there has never been such a threat to the U.S. from Iran.
The confidential alert, issued by the FBI through the multi-agency Los Angeles Joint Regional Intelligence Center, surfaced publicly on Wednesday as the war that began on February 28 with massive U.S. and Israeli bombardments of Iran stretched on.
The alert cited FBI information that, as of early February, Iran “allegedly aspired to conduct a surprise attack using unmanned aerial vehicles” launched from a sea vessel against targets in California “in the event that the U.S. conducted strikes against Iran.”
Leavitt in a post on X on Thursday said that the alert was based on one email sent to local law enforcement in California containing a single, unverified tip. “TO BE CLEAR: No such threat from Iran to our homeland exists, and it never did,” Leavitt wrote.
Bart Jansen
In response to Trump saying he wants to win the war quickly, Iran’s top security official, Ali Larijani, said starting a war is easy “but ending it won’t happen with a few tweets.”
“We won’t let you off the hook until you admit your mistake and pay the price for it,” Larijani said on social media.
Terry Collins
The first public comments from Iran’s new supreme leader could prompt the U.S. and its allies to consider sending troops on the ground in Iran, according to one geopolitical expert.
The threats of revenge by Mojtaba Khamenei are enough cause for concern, Alp Sevimlisoy, a defense policy specialist and Atlantic Council Millennium Fellow, told USA TODAY on March 12.
“His presence is irrelevant,” said Sevimlisoy, believing that Khemeni’s message was likely coming from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, echoing similar theories from other Iranian political experts.
“Mojtaba Khemeni’s words have likely sparked contingency plans for the ground invasion for the U.S. and its allies,” Sevimlisoy added. “His statements illustrate that the IRGC will continue their machinations for the regime that the U.S. has to remove.”
Bart Jansen
In another reflection of rising fuel costs from the Iran war, Cathay Pacific airlines announced March 12 it would double the fuel surcharge it applies to international flights.
For example, the fuel surcharge is rising to $149 from $73 for flights between the United States and either Hong Kong, Japan or South America, the airline said.
Cathay Pacific is largely an Asia-based airline, with flights to Hong Kong from Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Boston, Chicago, Seattle and Dallas.
Bart Jansen
President Trump said it wouldn’t be appropriate for Iran’s national soccer team to participate in the World Cup soccer tournament, “for their own life and safety,” although he said the team would be welcome.
The United States is hosting the World Cup this year and Trump has repeatedly promoted the tournament to be held in June and July. Iran was slated for matches in Los Angeles and Seattle.
“The Iran National Soccer Team is welcome to The World Cup, but I really don’t believe it is appropriate that they be there, for their own life and safety,” Trump said on social media on March 12.
Iran’s sports minister said March 11 that Iran cannot participate in the World Cup after the U.S. launched airstrikes alongside Israel against Tehran.
Bart Jansen
Tom Fletcher, the under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator for the United Nations, called for additional humanitarian aid to help Lebanon cope with airstrikes between Israel and Hezbollah.
Fletcher told the UN Security Council that 750,000 Lebanese have registered with their government as being on the move. More than 84,000 Syrians and 8,000 refugees have crossed into Syria, he said. About 120,000 people are in 580 overcrowded shelters with inadequate sanitation.
Fletcher said he would spend $15 million from a rapid response fund. But he encouraged countries to contribute more at a time when an estimated $1 billion a day is spent on destruction.
“This is a moment of grave peril for Lebanon and for the region,” Fletcher said. “Lebanon’s particular place on the map and in history means that tremors in geopolitics ricochet through it like earthquakes.”
Bart Jansen
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, accused Trump of poor planning for the war by not anticipating Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a key shipping channel for oil.
“How did Donald Trump not see this coming?” Schumer asked on the Senate floor. “This is one bit of leverage Iran has. Of course we knew they were going to use it. They’ve used it in the past.”
“There is not a single strategic decision that Trump has made in this war that was not born from chaos, confusion, misinformation and lies,” Schumer added.
In a message broadcast on Thursday, Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said “the leverage of closing the Strait of Hormuz must certainly continue to be used.”
Andrea Riquier
On March 11, the International Energy Agency announced a record release of crude from its emergency reserves, but oil markets seemed unimpressed. That may be because it takes a long time for crude to move through supply chains to its eventual end users, analysts say.
“Every country has a different ‘max flow rate,’” independent analyst Patrick De Haan told USA TODAY on March 12. The best-case scenario for the US, when it releases oil from its Strategic Petroleum Reserve, is roughly 4 million barrels a day, he said.
“That’s why oil markets aren’t really reacting” to the announcement, De Haan said. While the IEA’s 400 million barrels sounds like a lot, “it doesn’t do much to plug the 20 million barrel per day hole” caused by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
Another skeptic is Jeff Currie, chief strategy officer of Energy Pathways at Carlyle Group, who on March 11 told Bloomberg News that “There is no policy response that can stop this ascent in crude – none.”
Currie reckons that the maximum flow rate for oil leaving the IEA’s reserves is 2 million barrels a day, so it would take 200 days for the full amount to hit the market.
At about 11 AM Eastern, a barrel of crude was trading at about $95, up 9% on the day, and the nationwide average price of gas was $3.602 a gallon, according to GasBuddy.
Bart Jansen
The United Nations Security Council met March 12 to discuss how the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran has left Lebanon in the crossfire, as Hezbollah and Israel exchanged strikes.
“Amid an already devastating escalation in the Middle East, the decision by Hezbollah to attack Israel on March 2 has drawn Lebanon into a conflict it neither sought nor can afford,” said Rosemary DiCarlo, the undersecretary-general for political and peacebuilding affairs at the United Nations.
More than 570 people have been killed, 1,400 injured and 500,000 displaced in “yet another acute humanitarian emergency,” she said.
Cybele Mayes-Osterman
Terry Collins
President Donald Trump took to Truth Social on March 12 to reinforce that his objective is “stopping an evil Empire” as oil and gas prices continue to climb in the U.S. as a byproduct of the escalating war with Iran.
“The United States is the largest Oil Producer in the World, by far, so when oil prices go up, we make a lot of money,” the president posted. “BUT, of far greater interest and importance to me, as President, is stopping an evil Empire, Iran, from having Nuclear Weapons, and destroying the Middle East and, indeed, the World. I won’t ever let that happen!”
The president’s comments camearound the same time Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, released his first message through state media.
Bart Jansen
Alireza Tangsiri, the head of Iran’s navy, kept up the pressure on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, threatening the “harshest blows” to keep the key channel for oil shipments closed.
At least 16 tankers and other vessels have come under attack from Iran since the U.S.-Israeli war on the country began Feb. 28.
“In response to the order of the Commander-in-Chief, while maintaining the strategy of keeping the #StraitofHormuz closed, we will deliver the harshest blows to the aggressor enemy,” Tangsiri said on social media.
Dan Morrison
In his message to Iranians on Thursday, Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said he would avenge the deaths of scores of children in an airstrike that destroyed a school in southern Iran on Feb. 28.
According to reporting by The New York Times, CBS News, Reuters and other news outlets, U.S. military investigators believe the school was struck by a Tomahawk missile due to a targeting error.
“The revenge we envision is not limited to the martyrdom of the great leader of the Revolution,” Khamenei said in reference to his father and predecessor as supreme leader, Ali Khamenei. “Every member of the nation who is martyred by the enemy constitutes an independent case for retribution.” Mojtaba Khamenei’s mother, wife and son were also reportedly killed in the airstrikes that killed Ali Khamenei. He reportedly was wounded in those same attacks.
“A limited portion of this retribution has already taken concrete form, but until its full measure is realized, this case will remain open among the other cases − especially with regard to the blood of our children, toward which we will show even greater sensitivity,” Khamenei’s message said, according to a transcript posted by the state controlled West Asia News Agency. “Therefore, the crime deliberately committed by the enemy against the Shajareh Tayyebe School in Minab, and similar cases, will receive particular attention in this process.”
Jeanine Santucci
Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, released his first message through state media on Thursday.
Mojtaba Khamenei said the closure of the Strait of Hormuz would continue as a means of pressuring the enemy, while also calling for unity among Iranians.
He called for U.S. bases in the region to be closed and said they would continue to be attacked.
Bart Jansen
United States Secretary of Energy Chris Wright told CNN News Central that the Strait of Hormuz “will be opened” but “you’ve got to go through short-term pain to solve a long-term problem” by “defanging Iran.”
Wright said Navy escorts will begin after the ships are no longer needed for military purposes.
“All of our military assets right now are focused on destroying Iran’s ability to wage war and terrorize the neighborhood,” Wright said. “When we can afford some additional assets to move tankers through the Straits of Hormuz, we will do that. That’s coming.”
As the price of oil tops $100 per barrel on Thursday, Wright said it was “unlikely” to reach $200 per barrel.
“I’m not going to guess on short-term trading that’s based on psychology more than flows of oil,” Wright said. “The world is very well-supplied with oil right now.”
Ignacio Calderon and Suhail Bhat
Americans are paying more at the pump as gas prices have jumped in every state following the U.S.-Israeli airstrikes on Iran that began on Feb. 28. Iran retaliated by closing the Strait of Hormuz, disrupting global oil trade.
As of Wednesday, every U.S. state recorded higher prices for regular gasoline compared to one month earlier, according to AAA data, ranging from 30 cents higher in Hawaii to 87 cents higher in Arizona.
See the breakdown by state here.
Jeanine Santucci
Up to 3.2 million Iranians have been temporarily displaced from their homes since the start of the war on Feb. 28, according to the United Nations’ refugee agency. Between 600,000 and 1 million households have been displaced within the country, most of which have fled from Tehran and other urban areas and gone to the north or to rural areas, the agency said.
“This figure is likely to continue rising as hostilities persist, marking a worrying escalation in humanitarian needs,” the agency’s Ayaki Ito, UNHCR director of emergency and programme support and cross-regional refugee response coordinator for the region, said in a statement Thursday.
Refugee families living inside Iran, mostly from Afghanistan, are especially vulnerable to being displaced, the agency said.
Andrea Riquier
Gas prices rose across the country, and the price of oil was moving higher on Thursday. The national average for a gallon of gas was $3.611, according to GasBuddy – and topping $5 in some states, like California and Nevada.
Brent crude oil, the global benchmark, was trading near $93.45 a barrel, up about 4.5% for the day, after retreating from a high near $100 overnight.
On Wednesday, oil took center stage in the widening war, as an Iranian military spokesman said the U.S. should “get ready for oil to be $200 a barrel,” an Iranian spokesperson said. Later in the day, U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright announced that the U.S. will release 172 million barrels from its reserve over the next several weeks.
At $3.611 nationally, gas prices are at a tipping point for American consumers, according to some analysts.
Reuters
U.S. stock index futures fell on Thursday as oil prices soared to around $100 a barrel, fanning inflation worries and forcing traders to dial back expectations of U.S. interest rate cuts.
Crude prices jumped following reports that two tankers were set ablaze in Iraqi waters after apparent Iranian strikes, part of a broader wave of attacks on oil and transport facilities across the Middle East. Iran warned oil prices could surge as high as $200 a barrel.
Global markets have been roiled this month as the U.S. and Israel’s war with Iran disrupted oil supplies and sent crude prices sharply higher, complicating global central banks’ plans to ease monetary policy.
S&P 500 airline stocks, which are sensitive to crude oil prices, are on track for their biggest monthly losses in a year. Read more.
Reuters
A strike on an Iranian girls’ school that killed scores of children may be the result of U.S. use of outdated targeting data, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters, providing new details about what would rank among the worst cases of civilian casualties in decades of U.S. conflicts.
Reuters first reported that an ongoing, internal U.S. military investigation showed U.S. forces were likely responsible for the strike on the girls’ school in Minab. The strike, during the first day of U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran, killed 150 students, according to Iran’s ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, Ali Bahreini.
Video surfaced that experts say appears to show a U.S. Tomahawk missile striking the area. But exactly how the tragedy unfolded has remained unclear and the Pentagon has declined comment, saying the investigation remains ongoing.
One of the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said officials responsible for creating targeting packages appeared to have used out-of-date intelligence. The second source confirmed that out-of-date intelligence appears to have been used.
Thao Nguyen
Iran stepped up its attacks on oil and transport facilities across the Middle East, setting two fuel tankers on fire in Iraqi waters, Reuters reported. The attack occurred after projectiles struck four other vessels in Gulf waters, according to port, maritime security and risk firms.
At least 16 ships have been struck in the region since the war began. Shipping around the Strait of Hormuz, which carries around a fifth of the world’s oil, has come to a halt since the United States and Israel launched coordinated strikes on Iran on Feb. 28.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have said that if attacks on Iran continued, they would not allow “one liter of oil” to be shipped from the Middle East to the United States, Israel or their partners.
Contributing: Reuters
Thao Nguyen
After returning to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Wednesday, Trump told reporters that he had been briefed on possible Iranian “sleeper cells” in the United States and claimed that they entered the country through former President Joe Biden’s “open border” policies.
“We know where most of them are,” Trump said after returning from his trip to Ohio and Kentucky. “We’ve got our eye on all of them, I think.”
The president’s comments come after he said at a news conference earlier this week that his administration is “on top of” possible Iranian sleeper cells operating inside the United States, but did not provide further details on their existence and level of potential threat.