Name: US targets Kharg Island and Iran threatens US-linked oil facilities | BBC News
Uploaded: 2026-03-14T16:35:25.000Z
Duration: 9 min 49 s
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President Trump says that US Forces have totally obliterated every military target on Iran's Hague island, the country's main export terminal for oil in the Gulf.

In response, Iran threatened to reduce U.

S linked oil facilities to a pile of ashes as the war enters its third week.

Iranian media reported that 15 explosions had been heard on the island.

US Central Command said it struck more than 90 military targets on the island.

In the latest development, an intercepted drone strike has hit one of the largest oil storage facilities in the Middle East, suspending some operations.

The attack in the port of Fujairah in the UAE caused huge clouds of smoke across the complex.

Further across the Middle East, evacuation orders have been issued in several areas of Qatar, and

one of the region's largest oil storage facilities in the UAE has been targeted by Iranian drones.

This follows the news that the US expected to send more ships and Marines to the Middle East.

The reinforcements are expected to come from an amphibious ready group led by the USS Tripoli, which is currently in Japan or has moved on from Japan.

President Trump marked the occasion by posting these pictures on social media.

He described strikes on military targets on Hag Island, Iran's main export terminal for oil, as one of the most powerful bombing raids in the history of the Middle East.

Tehran, he claimed, was totally defeated and wanted a deal.

But he wouldn't say for how long the war will continue.

I mean, I have my own idea, but what good does it do?

They've been decimated, the countries, their country's in bad shape.

Tehran, in response, warned that oil and energy infrastructure belonging to firms that cooperate with the US would be turned into a pile of ashes if Iran's energy facilities are attacked.

The US President hasn't ruled out further strikes on Hag Island should Iran continue to interfere with shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, the vital passage for oil supplies from the region, there are reports the US will send additional forces, including the USS Tripoli amphibious assault ship, along with thousands of Marines to the Gulf.

The Pentagon declined to comment, citing operational security.

Despite President Trump's claim that Iran is finished militarily, Tehran and its allies continue to target their neighbors.

The US Embassy in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, has been struck by a missile.

In the United Arab Emirates, a fire broke out at this port used to store oil.

Officials said it was caused by falling debris from a destroyed drone.

And Iranian state media says the Islamic Revolutionary Guards have launched further attacks against northern Israel.

In another front in the war, Israel has hit targets in Lebanon.

That's where the Iranian backed armed group Hezbollah is based.

This was the aftermath of a strike on Beirut.

The Lebanese Health Ministry said that at least 12 medics died in a town in the south of the country when a health care center was hit.

Hezbollah is warning it is ready for a long confrontation and Israel says it is too.

The global and regional struggle against Iran, led by the US President Donald Trump and the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is ramping up and entering the decisive stretch that will continue as long as necessary under Tehran.

While some residents say they are scared to leave their homes and others insist they won't be intimidated, we are living under normal conditions.

We haven't left Tehran and will never abandon it.

We are here and until our last breath, we'll fight for our country and our nation.

Despite such defiance, the US is insisting its mission in the Middle East is ahead of schedule.

Well, joining me now from Riyadh in Saudi Arabia is our security correspondent, Frank Gardner.

Frank, how significant is it that we're seeing these US strikes on Haag Island?

It's a definite escalation, there's no question about that, because Kharga is the economic jugular vein, it's the beating heart.

Sorry about all these cliches, but it really is vital to Iran's oil industry.

It's the terminal, the export terminal through which 90% of Iran's oil exports go mostly to China.

The Gulf is a pretty shallow waterway and most tankers can't pull up next to the Iranian main mainland coastline.

Now what the US has done is to hit the military facilities guarding the oil facilities.

It hasn't yet hit those oil facilities, which is a complex network of pipes and various bits of machinery that all connected to that industry.

It's threatened to do that if Iran doesn't unblock the Strait of Hormuz.

it is effectively blocked because Iran is targeting any tankers going through that, which is putting a chokehold on the world economy by choking off the oil and gas exports, making it too dangerous and too expensive for exporters to get their product through there.

So this is a bit of a standoff really with both between Iran on the one hand and the US and Israel on the other hand, but

mainly the US here and of course, you mentioned there, or Simon Jones mentioned in his piece about this amphibious ready group that is coming from Japan, this U.S.

assault ship that is basically prompting speculation what is America's next move?

Are they planning to invade Khark island and land troops on it and capture it?

You know, this is exactly what President Trump was voted into office not to do, which is to embroil the US into yet more involvement in lengthy Middle East wars and commitments.

On that point, Frank, how prepared is the US to have troops on the ground to fight a sustainable, sustained campaign on Hog island if that happens?

I mean, look, the US is the foremost military power in the world, there's no question about that.

But what Iran is very good at is asymmetric warfare is finding different ways of trying to somehow bridge the gap in capability.

And it knows that it's only got to survive this war, this so called Operation Epic Fury, to win.

If at the end of all of this and President Trump declares victory, it's not about how many targets you've hit, it's not about saying it's the biggest, most dramatic military strike in the history of the Middle east or whatever it is.

If at the end of all of this, the Islamic Republic regime is still standing, is still a threat to its neighbors, this campaign will have failed.

And they've also got this almost inexhaustible supply of Shahid drones, which are very cheap and easy to manufacture.

They can churn out up to 500 a month of these things.

they've got so many of them that some of them get through Bahrain, up the road from here is getting hit nightly by these things.

One of them landed two weeks ago, two days ago rather than and set fire to the storage tanks at Bahrain Airport.

The commercial aircraft, the Gulf air aircraft had flown out, but

there was a large number of gallons of fuel left in these things and it's been set ablaze.

So Iran is still capable of wreaking a lot of economic damage on its Gulf Arab neighbors.

And on this side of the Gulf, on the Arab side of the Gulf, people are not impressed by these statistics as to how many targets are being hit in Iran.

They, they want this to end and they want the threat to their own economies to end as well.

And Frank, we've seen oil prices around the world going up since this war began.

Could the US Military action on Cog island actually force Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and allow oil exports to resume?

Well, it could, but Iran showing no sign of that.

I mean, I think one of the miscalculations in this war is, is the belief in Washington and the Pentagon, perhaps, certainly in the White House, that the massive military advantage that the US has, it's unquestioned over Iran, will somehow intimidate the Iranians into desperately seeking a deal.

I mean, yeah, they probably would like a deal, but on their terms as well.

They're not going to just give up just like that.

And if you remember, just cast your mind back to two weeks ago, the talks in Geneva.

There were three things the Americans wanted to talk about, the nucleophile.

Iran was prepared to make some concessions, but there were two other areas that they wouldn't compromise.

One was ballistic missiles, because Israel is telling America, you've got to make the Iranians give up their ballistic missile program.

And the other was Iran's support for its proxy militias around the region.