DUBAI/HEBRON, Kentucky, March 12 (Reuters) – Two tankers were ablaze in an Iraqi port on Thursday after a hit by suspected Iranian explosive-laden boats, a step up in attacks that have cut off oil from the Middle East and defied Donald Trump’s claim to have won the war he launched two weeks ago.
Images verified by Reuters as having been filmed from the shore of the port of Basra showed ships engulfed in massive orange fireballs that lit up the night sky, after the attacks which Iraqi authorities blamed on Iranian boats. At least one crew member was killed.
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Hours earlier, three other ships had been struck in the Gulf. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards claimed responsibility for at least one of those attacks, on a Thai bulk carrier that was set ablaze, which the Guards said had disobeyed their orders. Another container vessel reported being struck by an unknown projectile near the United Arab Emirates on Thursday.
The war that began with a U.S.-Israeli bombing campaign at the end of February has so far killed around 2,000 people and caused what the International Energy Agency describes as the biggest disruption to global energy supplies in history.
GLOBAL ENERGY SUPPLIES DISRUPTED
Undermining U.S. and Israeli claims to have knocked out much of Iran’s stock of long-range weapons, more drones were reported on Thursday flying into Kuwait, Iraq, the UAE, Bahrain and Oman. Lebanon’s Iran-backed militia Hezbollah fired its biggest volley of rockets into Israel of the war, prompting fresh Israeli strikes on Beirut.
Oil prices soared back above $100 a barrel , having come down earlier in the week when Trump said the war would be over soon. Iran has said it will not let oil through the world’s most important energy trade route – the Strait of Hormuz that runs along its coast – until U.S. and Israeli attacks cease.
Citibank announced on Thursday it would temporarily shut its branches in the UAE, a day after Iran said it considered banks to be legitimate targets and warned Middle East residents to stay 1,000 metres from them. HSBC has shut branches in Qatar.
TRUMP SAYS ‘WE WON’
U.S. President Trump, whose Republican Party is trying to hold on to Congress in an election later this year, has repeatedly tried to calm energy markets this week by saying the surge in oil prices will be short-lived.
But he has not explained how the war will end, or presented a plan to reopen the blockaded strait. U.S. and Israeli officials say the aim is to destroy Iran’s missile and nuclear programmes, but Trump has also demanded Iran’s “unconditional surrender” and the power to determine its leaders.
“You never like to say too early you won. We won,” Trump told a campaign-style rally in Hebron, Kentucky, on Wednesday. “In the first hour it was over.”
The United States had “virtually destroyed Iran”, he said. But he added: “We don’t want to leave early, do we? We got to finish the job.”
