- Blasts heard over Jerusalem and in Dubai -

Blasts were heard over Jerusalem on Thursday, AFP journalists said, after the Israeli military reported missiles fired from Iran.

Explosions were also heard in downtown Dubai, one very loud, an AFP correspondent reported, as Iran continued its campaign against Gulf states in response to US-Israeli attacks.

- Oil prices back above $100 -

Oil prices rose back above $100 and stocks sank Thursday as Iran's attempts to hit supplies in the Middle East and bring down the global economy overshadowed a record release of strategic crude reserves by the International Energy Agency.

- Italian base attacked in Iraqi Kurdistan -

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said there had been an "attack" on an Italian base in the Iraqi Kurdish city of Erbil, but there were no injuries.

Italy has soldiers in Erbil training Kurdistan security forces as part of an international force. Drones were shot down on Wednesday over Erbil by US-led international forces based at Erbil airport, a Kurdish security source said.

- Strike on Beirut seafront kills seven -

The Lebanese health ministry said that seven people were killed and 21 injured in an Israeli strike on the seafront area of Beirut, where some displaced people have been sleeping out in the open, hours after another attack in the heart of the capital.

- Container ship hit near UAE -

A projectile struck a container ship off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, causing a small fire onboard, the UK maritime agency said, adding the ship's crew had been reported as safe.

Meanwhile, three crew believed trapped on a Thai bulk carrier hit by projectiles in the crucial Strait of Hormuz were yet to be rescued, the vessel's owner said.

Two oil tankers were attacked off Iraq's coast, government officials told the INA news agency. At least one crew member of a ship was killed and several were missing, while 38 people had been rescued, port authorities said.

- Gulf state attacks -

Saudi Arabia's defence ministry said it had intercepted and destroyed two drones headed toward the Shaybah oil field in the southeast of the country. Earlier, the ministry said it shot down one drone approaching a district housing foreign embassies, and another in the eastern region.

Kuwait's defence ministry also said it had intercepted several drones. State media reported a fire in a residential building, resulting in two injuries.

Bahrain told residents to stay home after an Iranian attack on fuel tanks on Thursday in Muharraq Governorate.

- Strike on Iraq kills two -

An air strike targeting a base in northern Iraq killed at least two fighters, several sources told AFP.

- Trump says Iran near defeat -

President Donald Trump reiterated his insistence that US strikes on Iran had already practically defeated the Islamic republic.

"They are pretty much at the end of the line," Trump told reporters, after delivering a speech to supporters in which he declared: "We've won... We won -- in the first hour it was over."

Meanwhile, Yahya Rahim Safavi, a senior military adviser to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, lashed out at Trump in remarks on state television. "Trump is the most corrupt and stupid American president," he said. "He is Satan himself."

- US to release 172 mn barrels of oil -

The US Department of Energy said it will release 172 million barrels of oil from its strategic petroleum reserve as part of an agreement among International Energy Agency (IEA) members to ease market turbulence.

The IEA's 32 members agreed to unlock 400 million barrels, its largest ever joint release. The US release will begin next week and be completed in approximately 120 days, the Energy Department said.

- US war costs hit $11.3 bn in six days -

The opening week of the war against Iran cost the United States military more than $11.3 billion, lawmakers were told in a Pentagon briefing, according to a New York Times report.

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THE NEW YORK TIMES COMPANY