Strikes target Gulf as French soldier killed in Iraq

New waves of attacks struck Iran and Gulf nations on Friday after Tehran renewed its threats on oil facilities, while France announced its first soldier killed during the Mideast war. The latest strikes on Iran hit over 200 targets in the past day, Israel’s military said well into the second week of the US-Israeli campaign that has grown into a deadly regional fight causing economic chaos. Washington has moved to try to calm markets by announcing the easing of restrictions on Russian oil sales, though US President Donald Trump said defeating Iran’s “evil empire” was more important than soaring crude prices.

Oil remained above the benchmark $100 a barrel on Friday despite a record release of crude reserves and the International Energy Agency warned the war could create “the largest supply disruption” in the industry’s history. The conflict, which began February 28 with US-Israeli strikes that killed Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, will head into its third week on Saturday. Though France is not taking part in the US-Israeli bombing campaign against Israel, Paris has troops in the Middle East.

French President Emmanuel Macron announced Friday his nation’s first soldier was killed during the war, in an attack in the Erbil region of Iraq that also wounded other soldiers. Macron did not give details on the attack, or who was behind it, but France’s military said earlier that drones hit a base where troops were taking part in counter-terrorism training with Iraqi counterparts. France has said its stance in the war is “strictly defensive.” Earlier, a pro-Iranian group in Iraq, Ashab al-Kahf, warned French interests in the region were a target after the arrival of a French aircraft carrier, but there was no claim of responsibility for the attack. Elsewhere in Iraq, a US refueling aircraft crashed, though the US military said it was “not due to hostile fire or friendly fire.”