The US president said America could strike the country “twenty times harder” if it stops the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz
Source: X/Iranian_RCS
A new wave of US-Israeli strikes has killed at least 40 people in Tehran, with the overall civilian death toll in the conflict on the Iranian side exceeding 1,300, according to local media and officials.
US President Donald Trump has threatened to strike Iran “twenty times harder” if it continues to block the strategic Strait of Hormuz in retaliation for the strikes.
He also said Iran “made a big mistake” in selecting Mojtaba Khamenei as supreme leader following the killing of his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has threatened to assassinate anyone who takes the post.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who held a phone call with Trump on Monday, said the escalating conflict risks entirely choking off the region’s oil exports through the now “de-facto closed” Strait of Hormuz. But will the Iran war make Russia richer?
• The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps continues to block the Strait of Hormuz – but has reportedly promised full freedom of passage to any Arab or European country that expels US and Israeli ambassadors.
• Global oil prices briefly surged to nearly $120 per barrel on Monday before slipping back below the $100 mark. Trump has dismissed the spike as “a very small price to pay” for the war against Iran.
• As of Tuesday, the US-Israeli attacks have killed over 1,300 Iranian civilians, according to official data from Iran.
• The deadliest attack yet was a strike on a girls’ school in Minab in southern Iran that killed 168 children, with horrific footage emerging from the scene.
• US media outlets have said, citing available footage and analysis, that the school was hit by a US Tomahawk missile. Trump has dismissed the reports, insisting that Tehran is to blame.
• The US-Israeli strikes on oil facilities near Tehran have produced a “black rain” of toxic oil and soot, with residents reporting breathing difficulties. Online images and footage show thick smog over the capital, as Iran’s Red Crescent Society warns that the rain could be “highly dangerous and acidic.”
• US Central Command says eight service members have died in operations linked to the attacks on Iran, which has put its death toll in the hundreds.
• At least 13 Israelis have been killed in the crossfire so far. Iran’s retaliatory strikes on US bases in the region have killed at least four in the UAE, one in Bahrain, six in Kuwait, and two in Saudi Arabia.
Follow our live coverage for continuous updates. You can also read our previous updates here and here.
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10 March 2026
10:23 GMT
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei has blasted EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who stated that the Iranian people “deserve freedom [and] dignity… even if we know this will be fraught with danger and instability during and after the war.”
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US-Israeli massacre of schoolgirls a human sacrifice to ‘Epstein cult’ – Iranian envoy“Please spare the hypocrisy,” Baghaei said, accusing her of making her career on “standing on the wrong side of history – green-lighting occupation, genocide, and atrocities.”
According to the spokesman, von der Leyen is “laundering US/Israeli crime of aggression and war crimes against Iranians.”
“Where was your voice when more than 165 innocent IRANIAN little angels were massacred in the city of Minab?” he said.
Senior EU officials have been conspicuously silent on the strike on a girls’ school, which US media outlets suggest was hit by a US Tomahawk missile.
- 10:17 GMT
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has reiterated that Moscow is ready to provide assistance in settling the Middle East conflict.
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Moscow condemns Israeli strike on Russian cultural centerHe added that even before the current escalation, President Vladimir Putin had proposed “various variants of our mediation and our services that could have contributed to defusing tensions.”
- 09:16 GMT
Some of Trump’s aides are urging him to prepare an “Iran exit ramp” to stop the hostilities that have sent ripples through the oil markets and carry the risk of a major domestic political backlash, the Wall Street Journal has reported, citing sources.
US President Donald Trump, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles at Mar-a-Lago on February 28, 2026 in Palm Beach, Florida. © Daniel Torok/White House via Getty Images
- 09:16 GMT
Gulf oil giants are cutting production as the Strait of Hormuz remains de facto closed, Bloomberg has reported, citing sources. Previous media reports suggested that fuel storages in the region are filling fast while the options for transportation grow thin.
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Gulf oil production could stop in weeks – PutinSources told Bloomberg that Saudi Arabia had lowered output by 2 million to 2.5 million barrels a day, while the UAE reduced production by 500,000 to 800,000 barrels a day. Kuwait is said to have cut its output by about half a million barrels a day, and Iraq by about 2.9 million a day.
- 09:02 GMT
RT’s Steve Sweeney is reporting from the Lebanese village of Bir al Garbieh, where locals are preparing to bury 17 people killed in Israeli strikes.
“Even in death, there is no respite, fighter jets and drones overhead. There is an outpouring of grief, naturally, but there is also a sense of anger and defiance,” he said.
- 08:52 GMT
Israeli strikes on Lebanon have killed 486 people and injured 1,313 since the start of the conflict, the Lebanese Health Ministry has said.
- 08:49 GMT
Saudi Arabia’s Aramco, the world’s top oil exporter and fourth-largest company, has sounded the alarm over potential “catastrophic consequences” caused by disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz.
- 08:29 GMT
The Pentagon spent $5.6 billion worth of munitions during the first two days of the war with Iran, the Washington Post reports, citing sources, adding that the figures underscore concerns of the conflict chipping away at combat readiness.
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The previous large-scale US military involvement in the Middle East – the invasion of Iraq in 2003 – cost an estimated $3 trillion.
- 08:12 GMT
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, held a phone call on Monday, following reports of an Iranian missile falling in Türkiye. According to Tehran’s readout of the call, Pezeshkian said the reports are aimed at “creating discord” between Iran and the “friendly and brotherly country of Türkiye.”
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“Iran has always declared its readiness to reduce tension in the region, provided that the airspace, land, and waters of our neighbors are not used to attack the people of Iran,” the statement read.
The Turkish readout of the call stated that Erdogan does not approve of “unlawful interventions” against Iran or “Iran’s targeting of the brotherly countries in the region,” adding that the strikes benefit no one.
- 07:50 GMT
Israeli hospitals have taken a total of 2,339 injured people since the start of the conflict, the Health Ministry has said, adding that 95 are now undergoing treatment.
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10 March 2026
07:11 GMT
A US-Israeli attack has hit residential blocks in Resalat Square in Tehran, killing at least 40 people, Tasnim and Al Jazeera have reported. According to Tasnim, Iranian rescue forces are continuing to search the area.
- 07:11 GMT
Fars news agency has released a clip purporting to show first responders pulling a dead one-year-old girl from the rubble in Tehran.
- 07:11 GMT
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has told PBS News that talks with the US on settling the conflict may be off the table. He also suggested that disruptions in the oil flow through the Strait of Hormuz are not Iran’s fault.
“The transportation of oil has been slowed down or stopped not because of us, because of the attacks and aggression made by Israelis and Americans against us,” he said. “They have made the whole region insecure.”
- 07:11 GMT
US-Israeli strikes have damaged another Iranian school in Khomein, central Iran, Fars reports, adding that several surrounding residential buildings were also affected. The outlet did not report any casualties.
- 07:12 GMT
The Iranian Red Crescent has released a video of first responders extricating victims of the strike on Resalat Square in Tehran.
در این ویدیو #امدادگران#هلال_احمر جان چند نفر از هموطنان را که در یک طبقه از ساختمان #مسکونی به دنبال حملات امروز رژیم صهیونیستی و آمریکایی در میدان رسالت گرفتار و محروح شده بودند، #نجات می دهند. pic.twitter.com/EG9QeDn58Y
— جمعیت هلالاحمر ایران (@Iranian_RCS) March 9, 2026
- 07:39 GMT
Trump has not ruled out the prospect of the US seizing Iranian oil. Speaking to NBC News, the US president declined to answer a question on the matter, but noted that “certainly people have talked about it.”
- 07:50 GMT
Israeli hospitals have taken a total of 2,339 injured people since the start of the conflict, the Health Ministry has said, adding that 95 are now undergoing treatment.
- 08:12 GMT
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, held a phone call on Monday, following reports of an Iranian missile falling in Türkiye. According to Tehran’s readout of the call, Pezeshkian said the reports are aimed at “creating discord” between Iran and the “friendly and brotherly country of Türkiye.”
Read more
“Iran has always declared its readiness to reduce tension in the region, provided that the airspace, land, and waters of our neighbors are not used to attack the people of Iran,” the statement read.
The Turkish readout of the call stated that Erdogan does not approve of “unlawful interventions” against Iran or “Iran’s targeting of the brotherly countries in the region,” adding that the strikes benefit no one.
- 08:29 GMT
The Pentagon spent $5.6 billion worth of munitions during the first two days of the war with Iran, the Washington Post reports, citing sources, adding that the figures underscore concerns of the conflict chipping away at combat readiness.
Read more
The previous large-scale US military involvement in the Middle East – the invasion of Iraq in 2003 – cost an estimated $3 trillion.
- 08:49 GMT
Saudi Arabia’s Aramco, the world’s top oil exporter and fourth-largest company, has sounded the alarm over potential “catastrophic consequences” caused by disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz.
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