Here's the latest
• Iran claims US jet downed: Iranian state media released photos of what it claimed is the wreckage of a US Air Force fighter jet downed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. CNN has asked US Central Command for comment.
• Trump threat: President Donald Trump issued a new a warning to Tehran, saying the US military “hasn’t even started destroying what’s left in Iran.” This came after a strike on a key bridge just outside Tehran killed at least eight people.
• US military movements: The Pentagon released photos of Marines conducting a simulated amphibious assault, even as Trump has said it will be up to other countries to open the Strait of Hormuz.
• War hits consumers’ wallets: The European Union’s energy chief cautioned that that energy prices will be higher “for a very long time.” Global food prices rose in March, driven largely by increasing energy costs.
Iran continues its strikes on neighboring Gulf states
Iran has continued its attacks on neighboring Gulf nations Friday. In addition to striking a desalination plant in Kuwait early this morning, fresh attacks have been reported by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.
The UAE’s defense ministry said Friday the country’s air defenses are engaging with missile and drone attacks fired from Iran.
In the UAE’s capital of Abu Dhabi, authorities said debris from an intercepted Iranian strike caused a fire to break out at the Habshan gas facility, suspending operations there.
Debris fell in the city’s Ajban area, with 12 people of foreign nationality sustaining injuries including one Nepali national suffering a major injury.
In Saudi Arabia, air defenses intercepted six drones over some hours on Friday morning, the country’s defense ministry said in a post on X.
Data released by Bahrain’s Defense Force showed that the country had intercepted 16 drones over the past 24 hours. Early Friday, Bahrain’s interior ministry warned that sirens had sounded and urged civilians to head to the nearest safe place.
"It broke our hearts." Iranians express mental toll of US-Israeli attacks on landmarks
Tangled pieces of barbed wire, reams of rubble and fallen concrete scarred the skyline in Karaj, western Iran, on Friday, after the US military bombed a major new bridge under construction.
Photos of the aftermath of the strike, which killed eight people and injured dozens of others, showed the B1 bridge just outside the Iranian capital severed in half.
US forces struck the bridge “eliminating a planned military supply route for sustaining Iran’s ballistic missile and attack drone force,” a senior defense official told CNN.
The bridge had been due to open in time for Nowruz, Persian New Year, but that was delayed by the war, a senior construction official told Reuters on Friday. “We will soon rebuild this bridge and dedicate it to our people,” said the CEO of Northern Freeway Construction Company, Mr. Rahmani, who did not give his first name.
US and Israeli forces have depleted cultural, health and medical landmarks in Iran in recent weeks - including the suspension bridge, a new orphanage complex and a UNESCO-listed palace – rendering them unusable for civilians. Several Iranian lawmakers and residents expressed the personal loss and psychological impact of such attacks on local communities, after US President Donald Trump threatened further destruction.
Another resident told CNN a recent attack on the Pasteur Institute of Iran, a decades-old medical research center, “broke our hearts.”
“We got all our vaccines there,” he said on Friday, speaking on condition of anonymity for his safety. “I remember every part of it clearly.”
French-owned vessel passes through choked Strait of Hormuz, tracking site reports
A French-owned container ship crossed the Strait of Hormuz late Thursday, according to marine traffic data, in what is thought to be the first Western-flagged vessel to pass through the key channel since the Iran war began.
The CMA CGM Kribi passed through Iranian waters to exit the strait around 7p UTC (2p ET), MarineTraffic, a ship tracking and maritime intelligence provider, reported Friday.
A trickle of boats have crossed through the Strait of Hormuz since Iran launched retaliatory strikes following US-Israeli attacks on Tehran – largely blocking off the crucial waterway where vessels carry around one fifth of global oil and natural gas supplies. Only a few ships with ties to China, Pakistan and India have traversed through after Iranian officials authorized vessels from non-hostile nations.
On Thursday, UN Secretary General António Guterres called on US, Israeli and Iranian forces to “stop the war that is inflicting immense human suffering” and economic struggles – citing rising food and energy costs propelled by the strangled Strait of Hormuz.
On Saturday, UN Security Council members will vote on a Bahraini proposal to “use all defensive measures necessary” to re-open the Strait. The resolution had initially been drafted to authorize the use of military force, a clause removed by Beijing and Moscow.
Image of jet Iranian media says was downed matches that of a US F-15
A little more now on the story we brought you earlier about claims on Iranian media that the Revolutionary Guards shot down a US fighter jet.
The Iranian reports said the jet was a F-35 stealth fighter, but our analysis of images published suggests it was more likely to be an F-15.
CNN has asked US Central Command (CENTCOM) for comment on the Iranian claim to have downed a jet.
Coalition of diplomats rule out military force against Iran, Norway foreign minister says
Diplomats across the world have ruled against military force to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and are instead opting for diplomatic measures, according to Norway’s Foreign Minister.
“We have to be realistic about what can be achieved militarily while the war is going on,” said Espen Barth Eide, who attended a virtual briefing with over 40 diplomats discussing the economic fallout from the strait’s closure. “This coalition … will act diplomatically to put pressure on Iran,” he told CNN’s Becky Anderson.
His comments echo French President Emmanuel Macron who favored negotiations with Iran and cited military intervention to reopen the trade artery as “unrealistic.”
Macron’s comments were in response to US President Donald Trump criticizing ally states for not partaking in the war and urging partner nations to “go to the Strait and just take it,” while also stating his desire to withdraw the US from NATO.
Eide questioned Trump’s decision making, outlining the difference between NATO’s strategic alliance with the war on Iran. “When a member starts a war somewhere else of their own choice, this is not something that obliges NATO to participate.”
He added: “When the US was attacked in 9/11, we all stood up for the US together because one of our members and there was no doubt that we would stand together.”
Images show aftermath of strike on key Iranian bridge
We’ve been getting in images showing the aftermath of an attack that left a key Iranian bridge split in two.
The attack, which Iran blamed on the US and Israel, killed eight people and injured 95 others, according to local media. The Fars news agency said locals had been gathering to celebrate Nature Day, which marks the end of the Persian New Year.
Many families spend Nature Day outdoors, often having picnics near rivers and natural beauty spots.
US President Donald Trump shared an image of the strike on social media, saying there was “much more to follow.”
In response to a CNN request for comment, a US defense official said US forces struck the B1 bridge, eliminating a planned military supply route for Iran’s ballistic missile and attack drone force.
Iran has condemned the targeting of civilian infrastructure, with the CEO of the construction company involved in the bridge saying it had “absolutely no military uses whatsoever.”
CNN’s Sophie Tanno, Adam Pourahmadi and Sana Noor Haq contributed reporting.
US gas prices rise to $4.09 a gallon
The average price of a gallon of US regular gas edged up by a penny, reaching $4.09 in the latest reading from AAA, an increase that means prices are now 37% higher than they were before the war in Iran.
Earlier this week, the average price crossed the $4-a-gallon mark for the first time since 2022. Prices have increased on all but three days since March 1, and those three declines were by fractions of a penny that left prices unchanged each day when rounded to the nearest cent.
Over the past month, gas prices have risen by 98 cents, marking a steeper one-month climb than those seen after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 or the introduction of sanctions on Russia after its invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The latter spike took gas prices to a record $5.02.
More increases could be on the way. Brent, the global oil benchmark, settled nearly 8% higher yesterday at $109 a barrel, while the US benchmark closed more than 11% up at $111.5 a barrel.
Those price increases are yet to feed through to AAA’s retail gas price estimates. Oil markets are closed today for the Good Friday holiday.
Trump issues warning on Iran's infrastructure after key bridge targeted: Catch up here
US President Donald Trump has issued a fresh, stark warning to Iran after a strike collapsed one of the country’s key suspension bridges.
Here’s what you need to know:
- Infrastructure threats: In a Truth Social post late Thursday, Trump suggested Iran’s infrastructure — including bridges and electric power plants — could next be targeted, as he warned that the US military “hasn’t even started destroying what’s left in Iran.”
- Bridge collapse: His comments came after a key Iranian suspension bridge was heavily damaged in a strike on Thursday, which Tehran has blamed on the US and Israel. Images on Friday showed the aftermath of the attack, with the bridge split in two.
- US jet: Meanwhile, Iranian state media on Friday released photos of what it claimed is the wreckage of a US Air Force fighter jet downed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. CNN has asked US Central Command for comment.
- Desalination plant: Tehran struck a power and water desalination plant in Kuwait early Friday, according to the Kuwaiti government, as rights advocates condemned attacks on key civilian infrastructure in the Gulf.
- Iran’s stockpiles: Roughly half of Iran’s missile launchers are still intact and thousands of one-way attack drones remain in Iran’s arsenal despite the ongoing conflict, according to recent US intelligence assessments, three sources familiar with the intel told CNN.
- Energy prices: The European Union’s energy chief has warned that that energy prices will be higher “for a very long time,” due to the war in the Middle East. “This will be a long crisis,” Dan Jørgensen said in an interview with the Financial Times. In Hong Kong, residents are confronted with the world’s costliest petroleum — at around US$15.6 per gallon.
Energy costs lift global food prices
Global food prices rose 2.4% in March from February, driven largely by higher energy costs, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations said today.
The increase in the FAO Food Price Index, which tracks international prices of a basket of food commodities, is more than double the rise seen in February, which followed months of falls in food prices.
Prices rose across all the commodity groups monitored by the organization – cereals, meat, dairy, vegetable oils and sugar, the FAO said, noting that the jump in the overall index was “driven mostly by energy‑related pressures on vegetable oil and sugar prices.”
Sugar prices reached their highest level since November last year, mainly as a result of higher global crude oil prices, but also lifted by concerns over the impact of the Middle East conflict on sugar trade flows, the FAO said.
Iranian strike hits desalination plant in Kuwait, ministry says
Tehran struck a power and water desalination plant in Kuwait early Friday, according to the Kuwaiti government, as rights advocates condemned attacks on key civilian infrastructure in the Gulf.
The strike caused “material damage” to some components of the plant, a spokesperson for the Kuwaiti Ministry of Electricity, Water and Renewable Energy, Fatima Abbas Jawhar Hayat, posted on X. No casualties were reported. That same day, falling debris from a missile interception damaged a gas facility in Abu Dhabi, the city’s media office said.
On Monday, an Iranian attack on a power and desalination plant had killed one worker in Kuwait, the energy ministry said.
Iranian missiles on US allies in the Gulf following the US-Israel assault on Tehran have damaged an array of critical facilities including ports, aluminium plants and desalination centers. Just last month, an Iranian drone damaged a desalination plant in Bahrain, local officials said.
Those attacks could have catastrophic consequences hundreds of thousands of civilians in a region where fresh water is scant. About 100 million people rely on desalination plants for clean drinking water in the Gulf.
Amnesty International has called on Iranian authorities to “end all unlawful attacks against energy infrastructure and desalination facilities” in the Gulf. “Desalination plants are critical for ensuring drinking water supply to millions of civilians in an arid region,” the international rights group said in a statement on March 24.
CNN’s Nadeen Ebrahim and Tim Lister contributed reporting.
Energy prices will be high "for a very long time,” EU's energy chief tells FT
The European Union is preparing for a long-lasting energy shock from the war in the Middle East, the bloc’s energy chief has told the Financial Times.
“This will be a long crisis. … Energy prices will be higher for a very long time,” Dan Jørgensen, in charge of energy and housing at the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, said in an interview published Friday.
The EU is “not in a security-of-supply crisis, yet” and is “not there yet” on needing to ration critical oil products such as jet fuel or diesel, Jørgensen said. But the bloc is “preparing for the worst scenarios” and assessing “all possibilities,” including fuel rationing and releasing more oil from emergency reserves.
Iran claims photos show downed US fighter jet
Iranian state media on Friday released photos of what it claimed is the wreckage of a US Air Force fighter jet downed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The series of photos shows only small pieces of an aircraft, the largest about as tall as a person, that the Iranian report claims is an F-35 stealth fighter.
But the wreckage photos appear to be from a US Air Force F-15 jet.
The photos show a partial logo for “US Air Forces in Europe” that appears on a F-15 tail fin and red-and-white striping from the top of the tail fin.
Another piece of wreckage – with the words “CAUTION USE ONLY NON-MAGNETIC FASTENERS” – appears to match a rear portion of an F-15 that extends between one of its two engines and its horizontal stabilizer.
“From the structure it certainly looks like an F-15, and from the tail flash stripe markings, from the 48th Fighter Wing, based at RAF Lakenheath in the United Kingdom,” Peter Layton, a fellow at the Griffith Asia Institute and former Royal Australian Air Force officer, told CNN.
Multiple Iranian state media outlets, including Press TV, published the images along with a statement from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) saying that Iranian forces had shot down an F-35 stealth fighter in central Iran.
CNN has asked US Central Command (CENTCOM) for comment on the Iranian claim.
Earlier, the IRGC claimed that a different “advanced enemy fighter jet” was shot down over the Strait of Hormuz, between Qeshm and Hengam islands. In that instance, no images were released of wreckage to support that claim.
In a “Fact Check” post on X published after that first claim, CENTCOM denied any US fighter jets were lost over Qeshm island and said Iran’s forces routinely make false claims.
“All US fighter aircraft are accounted for. Iran’s IRGC has made the same false claim at least half a dozen times,” CENTCOM said.
CENTCOM has yet to issue a “Fact Check” post on X on the latest shootdown claim by the Revolutionary Guards over central Iran.
Shocked by gas at $4 in America? It's $15 in Hong Kong
If you thought paying $4 for gasoline was bad, spare a thought for this international financial hub which currently has the highest gas prices in the world.
As average gas prices across the United States hit a record since 2022, residents of Hong Kong are confronted with the world’s costliest petroleum – at around US$15.6 per gallon.
Even before President Donald Trump launched a war against Iran – and plunged the world into a historic energy crisis – the semi-autonomous Chinese city had consistently faced the world’s highest gasoline prices, according to data from GlobalPetrolPrices.com, an energy price tracking website.
The conflict involving oil-producing Gulf states, and the effective closure of a critical oil and gas shipping route in the Strait of Hormuz, has sent oil prices surging globally over the past month. This is particularly painful for Hong Kong and other Asian economies, which depend heavily on energy sourced from the Middle East and transported through the strait.
While private car owners represent only about 8.4% of the city’s 7.5 million people, according to data calculated from Hong Kong’s Transport Department, economists said the sky-high gasoline prices could add to inflation and raise logistics costs, which will eventually ripple through other sectors.
City leader John Lee expressed concern about surging oil prices last month, and pledged to monitor price fluctuations closely. For now, energy supply in the city is secure as Hong Kong sources around 80% of its oil products from mainland China, according to the city’s government.
Pakistan hikes petrol, diesel prices by up to 55% in response to war
Pakistan’s government has hiked the price of petrol and diesel by 43% and 55% in response to the surge in global prices due to the Iran war.
The South Asian country of more than 240 million people imports most of its crude from the Gulf.
Speaking on Thursday, energy minister Ali Pervaiz Malik announced that the price hike would now make petrol around $6.25 per gallon and diesel around $7 per gallon.
Motorcycle users will receive a Rs100 (36 cents) subsidy per liter of fuel for a period of three months, capped at 20 liters per month.
A decision whether to restrict market operating hours will be announced next week, finance minister Muhammad Aurangzeb said, as authorities mull ways of reducing electricity consumption.
Pakistan has warm ties with both the US and Iran and has said it is willing to facilitate talks to end their conflict.
“There is nothing left,” says Iranian music school owner after strike hits building
The sounds of classical Persian music used to fill the rooms of the Honiak Music Academy in Tehran: the deft plucking of the setar, the ringing of the santur.
It was the pride and joy of Iranian musician Hamidreza Afarideh, who opened the school two years ago with his wife, Sheida Ebadatdoust. They had poured their hearts and money into creating a space that felt like a haven for their 250 students, who ranged in age from toddlers to the elderly.
Now, he says, it has all been “wiped out.”
An Israeli airstrike hit the building housing their music school, along with several other businesses including a maternity clinic, on March 23. The building was located on the east side of the Iranian capital, less than two kilometers (1.3 miles) from a military air base.
There was nobody in the music center at the time – Afarideh and Ebadatdoust closed the school not long after the US and Israel launched their joint attack on Iran, to protect their students and staff from relentless bombardment.
But the destruction cuts deep for the couple, who have devoted their lives to sharing the joy of music. And it reflects the devastating impact of the war on civilians – the loss of normalcy, security, livelihoods and passions – that goes far beyond the stark numbers of a death toll that rises every day.
How China is pushing for green energy as war roils global markets
China has been investing in green energy for decades, long believing its reliance on fossil fuels from the Middle East left it vulnerable.
As the Iran war shocks global oil supplies, CNN’s Mike Valerio learns more about the world’s largest wind energy generation system from a wind farm on the outskirts of Beijing.
Pentagon releases photos of Marines practicing amphibious assault
The US military on Thursday showed off photos of US Marines conducting a simulated amphibious assault, even as US President Donald Trump is saying it will be up to other countries to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
The set of eight photos released on a Defense Department website showed members of the Force Reconnaissance Platoon of the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) doing a mock recon last week, coming ashore at the US naval base on Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.
The 31st MEU is part of the USS Tripoli Amphibious Ready Group, which CNN has reported was being deployed to the Middle East with as many as 2,400 Marines.
The Marines would likely be an important part of any US assault on islands in the Persian Gulf, including those that oversee the approaches to the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20% of the world’s oil supply usually flows.
US Central Command has said that roughly 50,000 US troops, including Marines, are already in the Middle East as part of the war with Iran.
Trump has previously threatened Iranian islands in the gulf, including its main oil transfer point on Kharg Island, but in his televised address Wednesday night he did not mention the possibility of using ground troops against Iran.
Trump issues new warning to Iran after downed bridge
Hours after posting on social media about a strike which collapsed Iran’s B1 suspension bridge Thursday, US President Donald Trump issued a new threat to Tehran, warning the US military “hasn’t even started destroying what’s left in Iran” in a post to Truth Social late Thursday.
Videos show smoke rising from the bridge which links Tehran with the western city of Karaj, and it later collapses. Eight people were killed and 95 were injured in the US-Israeli strike, reported local media.
Human remains found on Thai vessel struck in Strait of Hormuz
Human remains have been found aboard the Thai-flagged vessel that was attacked in the Strait of Hormuz last month, Thailand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement Friday.
The vessel, called Mayuree Naree, was transiting the strait on the morning of March 11 when its stern was hit, causing a fire in the engine room, according to Thai authorities.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said the ship was fired upon after “disregarding warnings and insistently attempting to illegally pass through the Strait of Hormuz,” according to the state-affiliated news agency Fars.
Twenty crew members were rescued by the Omani Navy and evacuated to the city of Khasab, but three remained missing. The 20 sailors later returned to Bangkok.
The vessel’s owner Precious Shipping PLC hired a specialized search and rescue team who carried out a detailed inspection of accessible areas of the ship, which was damaged by fire and flooded, Thailand’s foreign ministry said Friday.
“The team found human remains in the damaged area on board, but has not been able to verify or identify those remains,” the statement said. The families of the missing sailors have been notified, it added.
Homes in Iran damaged by airstrikes
Nearly 140,000 residential and commercial units have been damaged in airstrikes on Iran since the war began, according to a Thursday tally by the Iranian Red Crescent.
At least 316 health, medical and EMS (emergency medical station) facilities, 763 schools and 18 Red Crescent centers have also been damaged by US-Israel attacks, the Red Crescent said.
Sniffer dogs have participated in 693 search and rescue missions since the war began, and they have found wounded people and bodies beneath the rubble in some of the operations, the Red Crescent added.
CNN cannot independently verify these figures.
Missile and drone attacks from Iran have also caused damage to airports, energy facilities and residential homes and killed people across the Gulf.
