Here are the latest developments in the Middle East war:
Oil prices surged 10 percent after Qatar reported “extensive” damage to the world’s largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility following Iranian strikes, sparking fears for global energy supplies.
The price of European gas also jumped 35 percent after Tehran carried out attacks on Qatar’s huge Ras Laffan LNG facility.
Iran again threatened to destroy region’s energy infrastructure if its own facilities are attacked, and Iranian lawmakers proposed a plan to impose tolls and taxes on ships passing through the strategic Strait of Hormuz.
Traffic through the vital strait has been brought to a near-standstill since the start of the war.
Drones struck a Saudi oil refinery on the Red Sea and caused fires at two others in Kuwait as Iran stepped up attacks on Gulf energy infrastructure.
Saudi Arabia’s defence ministry said a drone crashed into the Samref refinery in the industrial zone of the Red Sea port of Yanbu, adding that damage assessment was underway.
Yanbu is the destination of Petroline, the overland oil pipeline that gives Saudi exports an alternative to the Strait of Hormuz -- currently choked off by Iran.
In Kuwait, drone attacks sparked blazes at the Mina Abdullah and Mina Al-Ahmadi refineries, which have a combined capacity of 800,000 barrels per day.
The state Kuwait National Petroleum Company later said the fires were contained.
China condemned as “unacceptable” the killing of Iranian national security chief Ali Larijani by an Israeli air strike.
“We have always opposed the use of force in international relations. The acts of killing Iranian state leaders and attacking civilian targets are even more unacceptable,” China’s foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian.
The former paramilitary coalition Hashed al-Shaabi in northern Iraq said two of its fighters were killed in the Nineveh region, where Mosul is located, and an airport in Salah al-Din province targeted in two strikes.
The Popular Mobilisation Forces blamed the attack on Israel and the United States.
Iran executed three people convicted of killing police officers and carrying out operations in favour of the United States and Israel during unrest earlier this year, the judiciary said.
Qatari civil defence teams have contained fires that erupted at a major gas facility following an Iranian attack, the interior ministry said.
“Civil Defence has fully brought all fires under control in the Ras Laffan Industrial Area without any reported injuries. Cooling and sites-securing operations are still ongoing,” it said.
Qatar’s state-run energy firm said the strikes hit several of its Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) facilities and caused “extensive” damage.
Saudi Arabia has not ruled out military action in response to repeated missile and drone attacks from Iran, Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said.
“The kingdom is not going to succumb to pressure, and on the contrary, this pressure will backfire... and certainly, as we have stated quite clearly, we have reserved the right to take military actions if deemed necessary,” he said.
Hong Kong aviation giant Cathay Pacific has suspended flights to and from Dubai and Riyadh until the end of April over the Middle East war.
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