U.S. President Donald Trump posted a new threat to Iran’s leaders Friday on his Truth Social website, saying: “They’ve been killing innocent people all over the world for 47 years, and now I, as the 47th President of the United States of America, am killing them,” Trump wrote. “What a great honor it is to do so!”
A large explosion struck Iran’s capital in an area filled with demonstrators for the annual Quds Day event in support of the Palestinians, Iranian state television reported. Thousands of people took to the streets in Tehran on Friday, chanting “death to Israel” and “death to America.” U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said more than 15,000 enemy targets have been struck.
All six crew members were killed when a U.S. military KC-135 refueling aircraft crashed in western Iraq, the American military said.
Concerns are growing that the war's stranglehold on Gulf oil exports is destabilizing the global economy. Brent crude oil, the international standard, remained over $100 per barrel as Iran kept its stranglehold on shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
Regarding the strait, Hegseth told reporters Friday “we’re dealing with it and don’t need to worry about it.”
Here is the latest:
Trump says Iran war will be over ‘when I feel it in my bones’
Hinting at voter anxieties in the U.S. as the conflict in the Middle East continues, the president said the economy and American life will soon return to what it was before he launched strikes on Iran.
“This will bounce right back when it’s over, and I don’t think it’s going to be long,” Trump said in his interview with Fox News personality Brian Kilmeade.
Asked when the war will be over, Trump responded: “When I feel it — when I feel it in my bones.”
German chancellor wants a ‘convincing plan’ for ending the war
Friedrich Merz spoke Friday alongside Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney at military exercises in Norway.
Merz said the world is witnessing “a dangerous escalation,” and said Iran is “indiscriminately” carrying out attacks on countries across the Gulf region.
“With every day this war lasts, more questions are coming up, more than can be answered yet,” Merz said. “And one thing becomes increasingly clear, we need a convincing plan on how this war can come to an end.”
Trump dismisses question about US interest in seizing crucial Iranian island
The president, in an interview on Fox News Radio that aired Friday, was asked if he’s thinking about taking Kharg Island. The small island in the Persian Gulf is the primary terminal through which all of Iran’s oil exports pass.
“I can’t answer a question like that,” Trump said calling it a “foolish” question. “It’s one of so many different things, it’s not high on the list.”
He added that “I can change my mind in seconds.”
Iran’s parliament speaker warned on Thursday that any attack on Iran’s southern islands would provoke a new level of retaliation.
▶ Read more about Iran’s strategic islands
At least 13 US service members killed so far in Iran war
The crash of a U.S. aircraft over Iraq, and the deaths of all six of its airmen, brings the U.S. death toll in Operation Epic Fury to at least 13 service members. Seven of them were killed in combat.
About 140 U.S. service members have been injured, including eight severely, the Pentagon said earlier this week.
Trump says no operation is in place to seize Iran’s enriched uranium, but that could change
The president said, “No, not at all,” when asked if the U.S. would attempt to retrieve the material, which is believed to be buried underground in Iran.
“We’re not focused on that,” Trump said. “But at some point, we might be.”
Trump again suggests the US is holding off from escorting ships through Strait of Hormuz
Trump, in an interview on Fox News Radio that aired Friday, said that when it comes to the U.S. Navy escorting ships through the shipping lane, “We would do it if we need to.”
“Hopefully things are going to go very well,” Trump said.
All 6 crew aboard US KC-135 refueling aircraft that crashed in Iraq are dead, US military says
The military says the circumstances of the incident are being investigated.
Earlier, U.S. Central Command, which oversees the Middle East, said the crash followed an unspecified incident involving two aircraft in “friendly airspace,” and that the other plane landed safely.
The military said the loss of the aircraft was “not due to hostile or friendly fire.”
Hegseth, on Gulf oil supply, says ‘we’re dealing with it and don’t need to worry about it’
The defense secretary told reporters that Iran is “exercising sheer desperation” in the Strait of Hormuz, which the Iran war has closed, blocking a significant portion of the world’s oil.
“And as the world is seeing, they are exercising sheer desperation in the Straits of Hormuz, something we’re dealing with. We have been dealing with it and don’t need to worry about it. We’re on plan to defeat, destroy, disable all of their meaningful military capabilities at a pace the world has never seen before.”
Hegseth did not give details. But Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, added that the U.S. military has “made it a priority to target Iran’s minelaying enterprise” impacting the strategic waterway.
Summit of Muslim-majority countries is postponed due to Iran war
The summit of the Developing Eight group of nations in Jakarta, scheduled for April 13-15, was delayed because of security concerns linked to the fighting, said Tri Tharyat, director general of multilateral cooperation at Indonesia’s foreign affairs ministry. No new date has been set.
Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation and Southeast Asia’s largest economy, was set to host leaders from Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkey. The group meets to boost economic cooperation among Muslim‑majority nations across Asia and Africa.
UAE says it ‘engaged’ with 7 ballistic missiles and 27 drones from Iran
The United Arab Emirates said the strikes were launched from Iran on Friday amid continuous air attacks targeting U.S. bases in the Gulf.
The UAE’s Defense Ministry said on X that since “blatant Iranian aggression” began in the ongoing war with the U.S. and Israel, its defense systems have “engaged” with 285 ballistic missiles, 15 cruise missiles and 1,567 drones.
Explosion rocked area of mass demonstration in Tehran
There were no immediate reports of casualties after the midday explosion rocked the Ferdowsi Square area as thousands chanted “death to Israel” and “death to America.”
At least two of the Iranian leaders at the scene survived the blast:
US Navy destroyers intercept Iranian missiles over Turkey
The U.S. Navy destroyer USS Oscar Austin shot down the Iranian ballistic missile that was intercepted over Turkey on Friday, a U.S. official confirmed to The Associated Press.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss ongoing military operations, said it was the third time in the last two weeks that a US Navy destroyer in the Eastern Mediterranean intercepted an Iranian missile in Turkish airspace.
— By Konstantin Toropin
Michigan synagogue attacker lost family members in Israeli airstrike in Lebanon, official says
The man with a rifle who deliberately crashed into a Michigan synagogue had lost four family members in an Israeli airstrike in his native Lebanon, an official said Friday.
Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, 41, a naturalized U.S. citizen, was killed by security after ramming into Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township and driving down a hallway in a vehicle that then caught fire, according to authorities.
The official, who requested anonymity because he could not publicly discuss details of the airstrike, told the AP that Kassim and Ibrahim Ghazali were killed in their home, along with Ibrahim Ghazali’s children, Ali and Fatima. Kassim was a soccer coach and Ibrahim a bus driver in their village.
The FBI described the attack on one of the nation’s largest Reform synagogues as an act of violence targeting the Jewish community. No one among the staff, teachers and 140 children inside was injured, the Oakland County sheriff said.
— By Alanna Durkin Richer and Corey Williams
