Iran-US war latest: Rescue mission underway after US military plane crash in Iraq as Trump says conflict ‘moving rapidly’

US Energy Secretary Chris Wright has said he does not expect oil prices to reach $200 a barrel but stopped short of ruling it out entirely. “I would say unlikely, but we are focused on the military operation and solving a problem,” Mr Wright told CNN yesterday

Iran’s military spokesperson had earlier said the world should prepare for oil at $200 a barrel as the Strait of Hormuz remains effectively shut.

A drone has struck a residential apartment in Beirut’s Burj Hammoud district on the northern outskirts of the Lebanese capital, Lebanon’s state media is reporting, the first time the area has been targeted.

President Donald Trump says he believes Iran’s new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei is alive but “damaged”. Khamenei has not been seen publicly since his selection on Sunday.

“I think he probably is (alive). I think he is damaged, but I think he’s probably alive in some form, you know,” Trump told Fox News.

Khamenei’s first comments as supreme leader were read out by a television presenter yesterday rather than delivered in person, and an Iranian official told Reuters on Wednesday that he had been lightly injured but was continuing to operate.

Khamenei’s father, the former supreme leader, was killed on the first day of the US-Israeli strikes on Iran on 28 February.

US lawmakers have reacted in disgust to the White House splicing clips of strikes on Iran with the Nintendo Wii sports video game series.

The video making light of the Iran war has generated more than 48 million as of early Friday morning.

Senator Tammy Duckworth, an Illinois Democrat and Iraq War veteran, wrote on X in response to the video, “War is not a f***ing video game”, adding, “Seven Americans are dead”.

Representative Jason Crow, a Colorado Democrat who is an Iraq War and Afghanistan War veteran, wrote, “This is sick and morally bankrupt. Our servicemembers deserve so much better than this”.

Iran’s new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei has vowed to keep the Strait of Hormuz shut and avenge “the blood of your martyrs,” as Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a veiled threat to kill him, with both sides striking each other overnight.

Netanyahu, holding his first news conference since strikes on Iran began on 28 February, said Israel was “creating the optimal conditions for toppling the regime” without ruling out killing Khamenei directly.

Overnight, a US refuelling aircraft went down in Iraq in an incident involving another aircraft, with the Iran-backed Islamic Resistance in Iraq claiming responsibility. France said one soldier was killed and several wounded in an attack in northern Iraq, hours after an Italian base in Erbil was also struck.

The death toll has now risen to more than 2,000 people, most in Iran. Nearly 700 have died in Lebanon, where Israel has targeted central Beirut and ordered residents out of a swathe of the south in its offensive against Hezbollah. Drones have been reported flying into Kuwait, Iraq, the UAE, Bahrain and Oman.

A rescue mission was underway after a US military refuelling aircraft crashed in Iraq, US Central Command said.

The KC-135 refuelling aircraft went down in western Iraq after an “incident” involving another US aircraft. The second aircraft landed safely at the Ben Gurion Airport in Israel on Thursday evening, Centcom said, claiming the incident was “not due to hostile fire or friendly fire”.

“The incident occurred in friendly airspace during Operation Epic Fury,” it said in a statement, using the military name of the US operation against Iran.

The United States has issued a 30-day waiver for countries to buy sanctioned Russian oil and petroleum products currently stranded at sea, without any repercussions of US tariffs, as part of the latest attempt by the Trump administration to calm energy markets jolted by the Iran war.

Oil prices eased in Asia on Friday morning following the announcement.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the measure was “narrowly tailored” and “short-term” and would not significantly benefit the Russian government.

“The temporary increase in oil prices is a short-term and temporary disruption that will result in a massive benefit to our nation and economy in the long-term,” he said.

The licence covers Russian crude loaded on vessels as of 12 March and is valid through 11 April. The US had previously issued a similar 30-day waiver specifically for India, which had been buying Russian oil after its supplies from the Gulf got stuck.

The IEA said on Thursday the Iran war was creating the biggest oil supply disruption in history. European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen cautioned that now was not the time to relax sanctions on Russia.

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller has said, “There has never in history been a more total asymmetric one-sided annihilation of the enemy than what is unfolding right now in Iran”.

“The United States, under President Trump’s leadership, has annihilated their Navy, has annihilated their missile capabilities, has dealt devastating strikes to the IRGC and their command structure, has taken out in collaboration and coordination with Israel, their nation’s sinister leadership and command structure”, Miller told Fox News early Friday morning.

US Representative Jim Jordan, an Ohio Republican, told CNN Thursday Americans “can live with” higher gas prices amid the Iran war.

“I think the American people have common sense, and I think they understand that to stop this regime that for 47 years has killed Americans, killed Israelis, killed others and killed a number of their own people — to stop them from getting a nuclear weapon is a worthwhile objective,” Jordan told CNN host Kasie Hunt.

“And, President Trump is committed to achieving that goal, and if that means prices go up for a short time, I think Americans understand, we can live with that. But in the end, we want all that to happen, and we want it all to happen in as quick a time as it possibly can”, the congressman added.

Oil jumped to $100 per barrel Thursday as Iran has effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway that carries about a fifth of the world’s oil.