Khamenei, who remains unseen, claims 'enemy has been defeated'

Iran threatens to target tourist, recreational sites worldwide as it keeps up attacks on Gulf

In first remarks of war, Iranian Quds Force chief hails Tehran-led ‘resistance front’ for fighting Israel and US; American military to deploy some 2,500 more Marines to the Mideast

Iran on Friday threatened to target recreational and tourist sites worldwide and insisted it was still building missiles, striking a defiant tone nearly three weeks after the start of US-Israeli strikes that have killed a slew of Tehran’s top leaders and hammered its weapons and energy industries.

Iran fired on Israel and energy sites in neighboring Gulf Arab states as many in the region marked one of the holiest days on the Muslim calendar. Iranians were also celebrating the Persian New Year, known as Nowruz, a normally festive holiday that is more subdued this year.

The US military was meanwhile deploying three more warships and roughly 2,500 more Marines to the Middle East, an official said. One US official confirmed Friday that the USS Boxer and two other amphibious assault ships, along with roughly 2,500 Marines of the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, have deployed from their home port of San Diego and are bound for the Middle East.

Two other US officials confirmed that the ships were deploying, without saying where they were headed. All three officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military operations.

With little information coming out of Iran, it was not clear how much damage its arms, nuclear, or energy facilities have sustained since the war began on February 28, or even who was truly in charge of the country. But Iran has shown it is still capable of attacks that are choking off oil supplies and denting the global economy, raising food and fuel prices far beyond the Middle East.

The US and Israel have offered shifting rationales for the war, from hoping to foment an uprising that topples Iran’s leadership to eliminating its nuclear and missile programs. There have been no public signs of any such uprising, and no end in sight to the war.

Iran threatens worldwide tourist sites

Iran’s top military spokesman warned Friday that “parks, recreational areas and tourist destinations” worldwide won’t be safe for Tehran’s enemies.

The threat from Gen. Abolfazl Shekarchi renewed concerns that Iran may revert to using terrorist attacks beyond the Middle East as a pressure tactic.

“We are watching your cowardly officials and commanders, pilots and wicked soldiers,” added Shekarchi.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force commander Esmail Qaani, meanwhile, praised Tehran’s “resistance front” regional allies for fighting the US and Israel in the current conflict, Iranian media reported on Friday, in his first remarks amid the war.

US and Israeli leaders have said that weeks of strikes have decimated Iran’s military. Airstrikes have also killed its supreme leader, the head of its Supreme National Security Council, and a raft of other top-ranking military and political leaders.

The Israeli military said Friday that Ismail Ahmadi, head of intelligence for the Basij, an internal security force, had been killed by a strike earlier in the week that hit other Basij leaders.

On Thursday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed Iran’s navy was sunk and its air force in tatters, while adding that its ability to produce ballistic missiles had been taken out. The IRGC disputed the missile claim on Friday.

“We are producing missiles even during war conditions, which is amazing, and there is no particular problem in stockpiling,” spokesman Gen. Ali Mohammad Naeini was quoted as saying in Iran’s state-run IRAN newspaper.

A short time after the statement was released, Iranian state television said Naeini was killed in an airstrike.

A rare statement for Nowruz attributed to the country’s new Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei was also released Friday, saying Iran’s enemies need to have their “security” taken away.

Khamenei hasn’t been seen since he succeeded his father, the 86-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike on the first day of the war.

“At the moment, due to the particular unity that has been created between you, our compatriots — despite all the differences in religious, intellectual, cultural and political origins — the enemy has been defeated,” declared the younger Khamenei in his statement.

He also named the Persian New Year as the year of a “resistance economy under national unity and national security,” while claiming attacks against Turkey and Oman were not carried out by Iran or its allied forces.

A Kuwait refinery comes under attack and explosions shake Dubai

Iran has stepped up its attacks on energy sites in Gulf Arab states after Israel bombed Iran’s massive South Pars offshore natural gas field earlier in the week.

Two waves of Iranian drones attacked a Kuwaiti oil refinery early Friday, sparking a fire. The Mina Al-Ahmadi refinery, which can process some 730,000 barrels of oil per day, is one of the largest in the Middle East. It was damaged Thursday in another Iranian attack.

Bahrain said a fire broke out after shrapnel from an intercepted projectile landed on a warehouse, and Saudi Arabia reported shooting down multiple drones targeting its oil-rich Eastern Province.

Heavy explosions shook Dubai as air defenses intercepted incoming fire over the city, where many were observing Eid al-Fitr, the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

In Iran, meanwhile, many were marking Nowruz even as Israel said it had launched new strikes, and explosions were heard over Tehran. The Persian New Year, which coincides with the spring equinox, is a tradition observed across southwestern Asia that dates back thousands of years.

Loud explosions could also be heard in Jerusalem after the Israel Defense Forces warned of incoming Iranian missiles. First responders said they treated two people around 70 years old who were lightly wounded.

In addition to steadily striking Iran, Israel has regularly hit Lebanon, targeting Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorists who have been firing rockets and drones into Israel.

On Friday, Israel broadened its attacks to Syria, saying it hit infrastructure there in response to what it described as attacks on the Druze minority. Syria’s state-run SANA news agency did not immediately acknowledge the attack.

More than 1,300 people have been killed in Iran during the war. Israeli strikes in Lebanon have displaced more than 1 million people, according to the Lebanese government, which says more than 1,000 people have been killed. Israel says it has killed more than 500 Hezbollah operatives.

In Israel, 15 people have been killed by Iranian missile fire. Four people were also killed in the West Bank by an Iranian missile strike.

At least 13 US military members have been killed.

The war is raising risks to the world economy

Iran’s attacks on energy infrastructure in the Gulf, combined with its stranglehold on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway through which a fifth of the world’s oil and other critical goods are transported, have raised concerns of a global energy crisis.

US President Donald Trump lobbed fresh insults at NATO allies who have spurned his call for help protecting the strait. US allies have refused to join the war, saying they weren’t consulted before the US and Israel launched it. Trump called NATO members “COWARDS” in a social media post, saying: “NATO IS A PAPER TIGER.”

Brent crude oil, the international standard, has soared during the fighting and was around $108 per barrel Friday, up from roughly $70 per barrel before the war began.

Surging fuel prices come at a moment when many world leaders were already struggling to bring down the high prices of food and many consumer goods. Asia is getting hit hard as most of the oil and gas exiting the Strait of Hormuz is transported there.

But the price shocks are reverberating throughout the world economy. Key raw materials — like helium used in making computer chips, and sulfur, a raw material in fertilizer — have been obstructed and could be in short supply soon, raising the prices of goods all the way down the supply chain.