Dubai, 11 Mar

Iran attacked commercial ships on Wednesday across the Persian Gulf and targeted Dubai International Airport, escalating a campaign of squeezing the oil-rich region as global energy concerns mounted and American and Israeli airstrikes pounded the Islamic Republic.

Two Iranian drones hit near Dubai International Airport, home to the long-haul carrier Emirates and the world's busiest for international travel. Four people were wounded, but flights continued, the Dubai Media Office said.

Iran's joint military command announced it would start targeting banks and financial institutions in the Middle East, a threat that would put at risk, particularly Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, which is home to many international financial institutions, as well as Saudi Arabia and the island kingdom of Bahrain.

Earlier, a projectile hit a container ship off the coast of Oman in the Strait of Hormuz, setting it ablaze and forcing most of the crew to abandon the vessel, the British military said. Kuwait said its defences downed eight Iranian drones, and Saudi Arabia said it intercepted five drones heading toward the kingdom's Shaybah oil field.

Iran has effectively stopped cargo traffic in the narrow strait through which about a fifth of all oil is shipped from the Persian Gulf toward the Indian Ocean. It has also targeted oil fields and refineries in Gulf Arab nations, aiming at generating enough global economic pain to pressure the United States and Israel to end their strikes.

The UN Security Council was to vote later Wednesday on a resolution sponsored by the Gulf Cooperation Council demanding Iran stop attacking its Arab neighbours.

Israel said it renewed attacks on Tehran, Iran's capital, following multiple strikes Tuesday that residents described as some of the heaviest during the war. Explosions were also heard in Beirut and in southern Lebanon after Israel said it was hitting targets connected to the Iran-linked militant Hezbollah group.

Israel pounds Lebanon with new attacks

The attacks set a building ablaze in central Beirut's densely populated Aicha Bakkar area, engulfing the top two floors. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Other Israeli strikes on southern and eastern Lebanon killed 14 people, and a Red Cross worker also died Wednesday of wounds sustained Monday, when his team was hit by an Israeli strike while they were rescuing people from an earlier attack.

More than 500 people have been killed so far in Lebanon since Hezbollah triggered the latest round of fighting with Israel after the American and Israeli attacks on Iran started.

Iran launches multiple salvoes at Israel and Gulf Arab nations

Israel warned of three Iranian attacks early Wednesday, with sirens heard in Tel Aviv and elsewhere, but no immediate reports of casualties.

Saudi Arabia said it had destroyed six ballistic missiles launched toward Prince Sultan Air Base, a major US- and Saudi-operated facility and intercepted two drones over the eastern city of Hafar al-Batin.

In the Strait of Hormuz north of Oman, a cargo ship was hit with a projectile and set on fire, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations centre, run by the British military.

The centre also reported an attack on a container ship off the United Arab Emirates, saying the “extent of the damage is currently unknown but under investigation by the crew.” Another ship was hit by a projectile in the Persian Gulf, it said. The crew was reported safe.

The ship attacks follow intense American airstrikes targeting Iranian navy assets and the port city of Bandar Abbas on Tuesday.

Air defences in the UAE worked to intercept incoming Iranian fire since early Wednesday morning. Iranian attacks have killed six people and wounded 122 others there so far. Bahrain also reported incoming Iranian fire early in the morning.

The Iranian threat against financial institutions did not identify any specifically, and came after a Tehran location of Bank Sepah, the state-owned financial institution sanctioned by the US over funding its armed forces, came under attack early Wednesday, killing staffers there, the state-run IRNA news agency reported.

At the United Nations, the Security Council was to vote Wednesday afternoon on the Gulf Cooperation Council resolution, according to three diplomats speaking on condition of anonymity ahead of an official announcement.

The draft resolution, obtained by The Associated Press, condemns Iran's attacks on Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Jordan. The measure calls for an immediate end to all strikes and threats against neighbouring states, including through proxies.

It would be the first Security Council resolution considered since the start of the war on 28 Feb.

Oil prices stay high on fears of prolonged shipping disruption

Oil prices remained well below Monday's peaks, but the price of Brent crude, the international standard, was still up some 20 per cent Wednesday from when the war began, and consumers around the world are already feeling the pain at the pump.

The spike in oil prices has been rocking financial markets worldwide because of worries that the war could block the global flow of oil and natural gas for a long time.

The US military said Tuesday it had destroyed 16 Iranian minelayers near the Strait of Hormuz, though US President Donald Trump said in social media posts that there were no reports yet of Iran mining the passage, a prospect that experts warned of preceding the war.

If the strait is mined, it could take at least weeks to clean it up once the conflict is over.

Some tankers, believed linked to Iran, are continuing to get through the strait, making so-called “dark” transits -- meaning they aren't turning on their Automatic Identification System tracks, which show where vessels are. Vessels carrying sanctioned Iranian crude often turn off their AIS trackers.

The security firm Neptune P2P Group said Wednesday there had been seven ships passing through the strait since March 8. Of them, five were linked to Iranian-associated shipping, it said. In ordinary times, the strait typically sees 100 ships or more transit daily from the Persian Gulf into the Gulf of Oman.

Meanwhile, the commodity-tracking firm Kpler said Iran has restarted crude exports through its Jask oil terminal on the Gulf of Oman. A tanker loaded roughly 2 million barrels at Jask on 7 March, it said.

Speculation over the health of Iran's new supreme leader grows

Concerns are growing over the health of Iran's new Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, after comments about him “being injured.”

The 56-year-old Khamenei — the son of the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — has not been seen since becoming the supreme leader on Monday. His father and wife were both killed in an Israeli airstrike on the first day of the conflict.

Foreign nationals flee the region as death tolls rise 

In addition to the more than 500 killed in Lebanon, Iran has said that more than 1,300 people have been killed there, and Israel has reported 12 people dead.

The US has lost seven soldiers, while another eight have suffered severe injuries.

Many foreign nationals have been getting out of the Persian Gulf region since the war began, including over 45,000 UK citizens, the British Foreign Office said. Some 40,000 people returned to the United States, according to the State Department.