Personnel work on a US Air Force B-1 Lancer bomber parked on the tarmac at RAF Fairford in south-west England on Thursday. Fairford is one of two bases, along with the Diego Garcia facility in the Indian Ocean, that the UK has given the US permission to use for "specific defensive operations into Iran" to destroy Iranian missiles at source. — AFP TEHRAN, Mar 12 (AFP): Iran warned it could wage a prolonged war with the United States and Israel that would "destroy" the world economy, even as US President Donald Trump said late Wednesday the Islamic republic was facing imminent defeat.
The defiance from Tehran came as fighting around the strategic Strait of Hormuz-the waterway carrying a fifth of the world's oil-sent shock waves through energy markets, prompting emergency releases from global reserves and a limited draw on US stockpiles.
Oil prices have surged since February 28, when the United States and Israel launched air strikes on Iran that killed its supreme leader and plunged the Middle East into conflict.
Retaliatory Iranian missile strikes and drone attacks have brought shipping through the strait almost to a halt, forcing governments to scramble to contain the fallout, while Trump said Iran was "pretty much at the end of the line."
"Doesn't mean we're going to end it immediately, but they are," Trump told reporters.
He said Iran's navy and air force had been destroyed, that it was close to running out of missiles and that US forces could knock out the electricity supply "within one hour"-leaving the country with a reconstruction that could take a generation.
Seven killed in Israeli
strike on Beirut
Lebanon said an Israeli strike along the seafront in central Beirut killed at least seven people early on Thursday, hours after another attack in the heart of the capital.
"The Israeli enemy strike on Ramlet al-Bayda in Beirut led to an initial toll of seven dead and 21 wounded," the health ministry said in a statement.
Local media published footage showing chaos and smoke along the seaside corniche after the strike on Thursday.
It was the third attack in the heart of the capital since the Middle East war began, after a raid on an apartment on Wednesday and a strike on a seafront hotel on Sunday.
Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group also said early Thursday that it launched missiles at an Israeli military intelligence base in the suburbs of Tel Aviv.
It was the Iran-backed group's latest attack in a major new operation against Israel, which said it had struck 10 Hezbollah targets in southern Beirut.
Bahrain says fuel
tanks attacked
Bahrain told residents to stay home after an Iranian attack on fuel tanks on Thursday as Tehran carries out a campaign in the Gulf to disrupt global energy markets.
"The blatant Iranian aggression targets fuel tanks at a facility in Muharraq Governorate," Bahrain's Ministry of Interior posted on X.
The ministry told residents in three parts of Muharraq to "remain in their homes, close windows and ventilation openings as precaution against potential effects of smokes from the fire currently being fought."
Middle East war displaces
three million inside Iran
Up to 3.2 million people have been displaced inside Iran since the Middle East war erupted nearly two weeks ago, the United Nations refugee agency said Thursday.
"Between 600,000 and one million Iranian households are now temporarily displaced inside Iran as a result of the ongoing conflict, according to preliminary assessments, representing up to 3.2 million people," said Ayaki Ito, who heads UNHCR's emergency support team and is refugee response coordinator for the Middle East emergency.
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