Iran's unrelenting attacks on Mideast shipping and energy infrastructure send oil prices soaring

Iran's unrelenting attacks on Mideast shipping and energy infrastructure send oil prices soaring Unrelenting Iranian attacks on shipping traffic and energy infrastructure again pushed oil above $100 a barrel By JON GAMBRELL Associated Press , DAVID RISING Associated Press , and SALLY ABOU ALJOUD Associated Press March 12, 2026, 1:44 AM DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- Unrelenting Iranian attacks on shipping traffic and energy infrastructure pushed oil above $100 a barrel on Thursday, as American and Israeli strikes pounded the Islamic Republic with no sign of an end to the war in sight. Iran hit a container ship off the coast of Dubai, caused a blaze near Bahrain's international airport, targeted a major Saudi oil field with a drone attack and forced Iraq to halt operations at all the country's oil terminals after an attack on its port of Basra on the Persian Gulf. Iran flouted a United Nations Security Council resolution from the previous day demanding that it halt strikes on its Gulf neighbors with new attacks also reported in Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. Sirens wailed before dawn in Jerusalem after Israel said it was working to intercept missiles launched from Iran. The country also announced it had begun a “wide-scale wave of strikes” on Tehran. In Lebanon, where Israel says it is targeting Iran-linked Hezbollah militants, 11 people were killed in two early morning strikes. Since the United States and Israel sparked with war with a Feb. 28 attack on Iran, Tehran has embarked on a campaign generated at inflicting enough global economic pain to pressure them to relent in their attacks. In addition to attacking energy infrastructure around the region, Iran has a stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic waterway leading from the Persian Gulf toward the Indian Ocean through which a fifth of the world's oil is transported. With traffic in the Strait effectively stopped, the price of Brent crude oil, the international standard, rose another 9% on Thurs...