DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Three weeks into an escalating war in the Middle East, Iran threatened Friday to expand its retaliatory attacks to include recreational and tourist sites worldwide, as the U.S. announced it will send more warships and Marines to the region.
Hours later, President Donald Trump said on social media Friday that his administration in fact is considering “winding down” military operations in the region. The mixed messages came after another climb in oil prices plunged the U.S. stock market, and was followed by a Trump administration announcement that it will lift sanctions on Iranian oil loaded on ships, a move aimed at wrangling soaring fuel prices.
The war, meanwhile, showed no signs of abating.
Israel said Iran fired a missile at it early Saturday, while Saudi Arabia said it downed 20 drones in just a couple of hours in the country's eastern region, which is home to major oil installations. The defense ministry said there were no injuries or damage.
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Those attacks came a day after Israeli airstrikes hit in Tehran as Iranians celebrated the Persian New Year, known as Nowruz, a normally festive holiday.
Iran escalated attacks on its Gulf neighbors since Israel bombed its massive South Pars offshore natural gas field, while keeping a stranglehold on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil and other critical goods are transported.
Iranians reach toward coffins Friday as they follow the funeral procession of Iran's intelligence minister Esmail Khatib, his wife and his daughter in Tehran, Iran.
With little information coming out of Iran, it was not clear how much damage its arms, nuclear or energy facilities sustained in the U.S. and Israeli strikes that began Feb. 28 — or even who is truly in charge of the country. Iran's attacks continue to choke off oil supplies and dent the global economy, raising food and fuel prices far beyond the Middle East.
The U.S. and Israel offered shifting rationales for the war, from hoping to foment an uprising that will topple Iran's leadership to eliminating its nuclear and missile programs.
There are no public signs of any such uprising and no end in sight to the war.
President Donald Trump speaks with reporters Friday before departing on Marine One from the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, as Secretary of State Marco Rubio, left, listens.
Trump claims end is near
In his social media post, the president said, "We are getting very close to meeting our objectives as we consider winding down our great Military efforts in the Middle East."
The post seemed at odds with his administration's move to bolster its firepower in the region and request another $200 billion from Congress to fund the war.
The U.S. will deploy three more amphibious assault ships and about 2,500 additional Marines to the Middle East, a U.S. official said. Two other U.S. officials confirmed that ships were deploying, without saying where they were headed. All three spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military operations.
News of the deployment came just days after the U.S. redirected another group of amphibious assault ships carrying another 2,500 Marines from the Pacific to the Middle East. The Marines will join more than 50,000 U.S. troops already in the region.
Trump claims he has no plans to send ground forces into Iran but also asserted he retains all options.
U.S. and Israeli leaders say weeks of strikes decimated Iran's military. In addition to Iran's supreme leader, airstrikes also killed the head of its Supreme National Security Council and a raft of other top-ranking military and political leaders.
Gen. Ali Mohammad Naeini, a spokesman for Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, was quoted by a state-run newspaper Friday saying Iran continues to manufacture missiles despite Israel's claim that it destroyed Iran's production capabilities. Iranian state television later said Naeini was killed in an airstrike.
Two women and a child holding an Iranian flag walk toward the Imam Khomeini Grand Mosque to attend Friday prayers in Tehran, Iran.
Threats
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei praised Iranians' steadfastness in the face of war in a written statement read on Iranian television. He said the U.S. and Israeli attacks were based on an illusion that killing Iran's top leaders could cause the overthrow of the government.
Iran's top military spokesman, Gen. Abolfazl Shekarchi, warned Friday that "parks, recreational areas and tourist destinations" worldwide won't be safe for the country's enemies. It renewed concerns that Iran may revert to using militant attacks beyond the Middle East as a pressure tactic.
Energy takes a hit
Iran's attacks on energy infrastructure in the Gulf combined with its stranglehold on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz raised concerns of a global energy crisis.
A man holds a picture of U.S. President Donald Trump upside down after Friday prayers at the Imam Khomeini Grand Mosque in Tehran, Iran.
Brent crude oil, the international standard, soared during the fighting and was at about $108 per barrel Friday, up from about $70 per barrel before the war began.
More than 1,300 people were killed in Iran during the war. Israeli strikes targeting Iran-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon displaced more than 1 million people, according to the Lebanese government, which says more than 1,000 people were killed. In Israel, 15 people were killed by Iranian missiles and four others were killed in the occupied West Bank. At least 13 U.S. military members were killed.
On Friday, Israel broadened its attacks to Syria, saying it hit infrastructure there in response to what it described as attacks on the Druze minority. Syria's foreign ministry said Israel acted under "flimsy pretexts and fabricated excuses."
