AMMAN, Jordan - The U.S.Friday continued airstrikes in Iran while Tehran launched retaliatory attacks on U.S.
targets in the Gulf as the region braced itself after President Trump said he was close to deciding whether to launch "a massive attack"."I am considering a massive attack.Bigger than ever before.
I am close to making a decision," Trump told the Axios news outlet.The U.S.military later said it conducted its 13th consecutive night of strikes against Iran in attacks aimed at degrading Iran's ability to threaten maritime traffic.Iran's control of the Strait of Hormuz – a vital waterway between Iran and Oman – on Thursday pushed global oil prices to over $100 per barrel – their highest level since May.
The price for benchmark crude oil eased to under $100 in trading Friday morning.Iranian state media reported explosions overnight including along the strait of Hormuz in Qeshm and Bandar Abbas.UN Secretary General António Guterres told the security council that the Middle East was being pushed to the "edge of the unimaginable"."The situation is getting out of control," Guterres said."The region is being pulled into an ever-widening circle of confrontation.
One crisis feeds another.One escalation triggers the next."The collapse of the ceasefire has brought Yemen's Houthi rebels, a key Iranian ally, further into the conflict.
The Houthis this week attacked Saudi tankers in the Red Sea near Bab el-Mandeb.The Houthis control that waterway, which connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and is vital to global container traffic moving through the Suez Canal.Trump threatened "major military punishment" against the Houthis if the attacks continue.
Saudi Arabia backs an internationally recognized Yemeni government that controls the north of Yemen.The Houthis blame Saudi Arabia for an attack on the airport in the Yemeni capital last week.In the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, security forces shot down explosive-laden drones near the capital Erbil's international air...