The Latest: US hits pro-government demonstration in Iran as war threatens global economy

U.S. President Donald Trump posted a new threat to Iran’s leaders Friday on his Truth Social website, saying: “They’ve been killing innocent people all over the world for 47 years, and now I, as the 47th President of the United States of America, am killing them,” Trump wrote. “What a great honor it is to do so!”

A large explosion struck Iran’s capital in an area filled with demonstrators for the annual Quds Day event in support of the Palestinians, Iranian state television reported. Thousands of people took to the streets in Tehran on Friday, chanting “death to Israel” and “death to America.” U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said more than 15,000 enemy targets have been struck.

All six crew members were killed when a U.S. military KC-135 refueling aircraft crashed in western Iraq, the American military said.

Concerns are growing that the war’s stranglehold on Gulf oil exports is destabilizing the global economy. Brent crude oil, the international standard, remained over $100 per barrel as Iran kept its stranglehold on shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

Regarding the strait, Hegseth told reporters Friday “we’re dealing with it and don’t need to worry about it.”

Here is the latest:

Hinting at voter anxieties in the U.S. as the conflict in the Middle East continues, the president said the economy and American life will soon return to what it was before he launched strikes on Iran.

“This will bounce right back when it’s over, and I don’t think it’s going to be long,” Trump said in his interview with Fox News personality Brian Kilmeade.

Asked when the war will be over, Trump responded: “When I feel it — when I feel it in my bones.”

Friedrich Merz spoke Friday alongside Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney at military exercises in Norway.

Merz said the world is witnessing “a dangerous escalation,” and said Iran is “indiscriminately” carrying out attacks on countries across the Gulf region.

“With every day this war lasts, more questions are coming up, more than can be answered yet,” Merz said. “And one thing becomes increasingly clear, we need a convincing plan on how this war can come to an end.”

The president, in an interview on Fox News Radio that aired Friday, was asked if he’s thinking about taking Kharg Island. The small island in the Persian Gulf is the primary terminal through which all of Iran’s oil exports pass.

“I can’t answer a question like that,” Trump said calling it a “foolish” question. “It’s one of so many different things, it’s not high on the list.”

He added that “I can change my mind in seconds.”

Iran’s parliament speaker warned on Thursday that any attack on Iran’s southern islands would provoke a new level of retaliation.

▶ Read more about Iran’s strategic islands

The crash of a U.S. aircraft over Iraq, and the deaths of all six of its airmen, brings the U.S. death toll in Operation Epic Fury to at least 13 service members. Seven of them were killed in combat.

About 140 U.S. service members have been injured, including eight severely, the Pentagon said earlier this week.

The president said, “No, not at all,” when asked if the U.S. would attempt to retrieve the material, which is believed to be buried underground in Iran.

“We’re not focused on that,” Trump said. “But at some point, we might be.”

Trump, in an interview on Fox News Radio that aired Friday, said that when it comes to the U.S. Navy escorting ships through the shipping lane, “We would do it if we need to.”

“Hopefully things are going to go very well,” Trump said.

The military says the circumstances of the incident are being investigated.

Earlier, U.S. Central Command, which oversees the Middle East, said the crash followed an unspecified incident involving two aircraft in “friendly airspace,” and that the other plane landed safely.

The military said the loss of the aircraft was “not due to hostile or friendly fire.”

The defense secretary told reporters that Iran is “exercising sheer desperation” in the Strait of Hormuz, which the Iran war has closed, blocking a significant portion of the world’s oil.

“And as the world is seeing, they are exercising sheer desperation in the Straits of Hormuz, something we’re dealing with. We have been dealing with it and don’t need to worry about it. We’re on plan to defeat, destroy, disable all of their meaningful military capabilities at a pace the world has never seen before.”

Hegseth did not give details. But Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, added that the U.S. military has “made it a priority to target Iran’s minelaying enterprise” impacting the strategic waterway.

The summit of the Developing Eight group of nations in Jakarta, scheduled for April 13-15, was delayed because of security concerns linked to the fighting, said Tri Tharyat, director general of multilateral cooperation at Indonesia’s foreign affairs ministry. No new date has been set.

Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation and Southeast Asia’s largest economy, was set to host leaders from Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkey. The group meets to boost economic cooperation among Muslim‑majority nations across Asia and Africa.

The United Arab Emirates said the strikes were launched from Iran on Friday amid continuous air attacks targeting U.S. bases in the Gulf.

The UAE’s Defense Ministry said on X that since “blatant Iranian aggression” began in the ongoing war with the U.S. and Israel, its defense systems have “engaged” with 285 ballistic missiles, 15 cruise missiles and 1,567 drones.

There were no immediate reports of casualties after the midday explosion rocked the Ferdowsi Square area as thousands chanted “death to Israel” and “death to America.”

At least two of the Iranian leaders at the scene survived the blast:

1. The hard-liner who leads Iran’s judiciary, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, had been giving an interview to a state television reporter when the strike hit. His bodyguards encircled him as he raised his fist and said Iran will never withdraw “under this rain” of missiles.

2. Senior security official Ali Larijani also was there, and told Iranian media covering the event that the suspected Israeli attack was a “sign of its desperation.”

The U.S. Navy destroyer USS Oscar Austin shot down the Iranian ballistic missile that was intercepted over Turkey on Friday, a U.S. official confirmed to The Associated Press.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss ongoing military operations, said it was the third time in the last two weeks that a US Navy destroyer in the Eastern Mediterranean intercepted an Iranian missile in Turkish airspace.

— By Konstantin Toropin

The man with a rifle who deliberately crashed into a Michigan synagogue had lost four family members in an Israeli airstrike in his native Lebanon, an official said Friday.

Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, 41, a naturalized U.S. citizen, was killed by security after ramming into Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township and driving down a hallway in a vehicle that then caught fire, according to authorities.

The official, who requested anonymity because he could not publicly discuss details of the airstrike, told the AP that Kassim and Ibrahim Ghazali were killed in their home, along with Ibrahim Ghazali’s children, Ali and Fatima. Kassim was a soccer coach and Ibrahim a bus driver in their village.

The FBI described the attack on one of the nation’s largest Reform synagogues as an act of violence targeting the Jewish community. No one among the staff, teachers and 140 children inside was injured, the Oakland County sheriff said.

— By Alanna Durkin Richer and Corey Williams

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Hegseth says U.S. Central Command has designated an officer to lead the investigation into a deadly strike on an elementary school in Iran.

The investigating officer was chosen from outside Central Command, which oversees the Middle East.

The strike on the school in the opening hours of the U.S. war in Iran killed more than 165 people, many of them children.

The Associated Press has reported that outdated intelligence likely led the U.S. to carry out the missile strike on the school.

Speaking at media briefing Friday, Hegseth wouldn’t answer questions about what led to the strike, but said the U.S. does not target civilians. He said the investigation will take “as long as necessary.”

“We’ll get to the truth and we’ll share it when we have it,” Hegseth said.

An airstrike hit near the Quds, or Jerusalem, Day parade after the Israeli military put out a warning in Farsi on X the area could be struck. Now Israeli military has posted a second message in Farsi, noting the head of Iran’s judiciary was there at the time.

“The leaders of the terrorist and bloodthirsty regime have for 47 years shown disregard for the lives of Iran’s citizens, placing people in danger for the sake of the ‘liberation of Jerusalem’ and turning them into human shields to advance their own objectives,” the message said.

The Israeli military also criticized Iran for cutting off the internet, blocking many from seeing their warning.

The French president was speaking after a French soldier was killed during a drone attack on a Kurdish military base in Iraq’s Irbil region.

Macron said that France supports its allies in the Middle East and that “nothing could ever justify attacks against us.”

“France will continue to show composure, calm and determination, remain reliable toward our partners, protect our citizens, and defend our interests and our security,” Macron added.

People sat on prayer mats surrounded by rubble in central Gaza, where more than two years of war has damaged mosques, along with everything else.

“We pray in the streets or in small prayer rooms, there are no mosques,” said Bakr Al-Sahhar, a resident. Palestinians say that despite the five-month long ceasefire, Israeli airstrikes across the Gaza Strip continue.

Responding to a shouted question at Friday’s briefing about new Iranian mines impacting the Strait of Hormuz, Hegseth said “we’ve heard them talk about it, just like you’ve reported recklessly and wildly about it, but we have no clear evidence.”

On Tuesday, the U.S. said it took out more than a dozen mine-laying Iranian vessels. Iran has vowed to block the region’s oil exports, with one official saying Iran’s enemies won’t get “even a single liter.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says ending Iran’s nuclear weapons program remains a “core mission” as U.S. and Israeli strikes on the country continue.

Speaking at a media briefing at the Pentagon, Hegseth said President Donald Trump is focused on ending Iran’s ability to manufacture nuclear weapons for good.

Hegseth would not say whether ground forces will be needed to secure Iran’s supply of enriched uranium or its nuclear facilities, but said the U.S. is considering a range of options. He said he would welcome a decision by Iran’s leaders to voluntarily give up their program.

“We’ve said from the beginning: deny Iran nuclear weapons,” Hegseth said.

Hegseth has applauded the U.S. Vice President JD Vance as a “key voice” on Iran, calling him “an incredible member, leader of this team.”

Trump said while dismissing the notion of a disagreement this week that Vance was “philosophically a little bit different than me” at the war’s outset.

Vance, a former Marine, has often reinforced Trump’s vision of an America more focused on solving problems at home than intervening in conflicts abroad. In a 2023 op-ed in The Wall Street Journal getting renewed attention, Vance wrote that Trump had his support because “I know he won’t recklessly send Americans to fight overseas.”

On the eve of the strikes, Vance told The Washington Post there was “ no chance ” the U.S. would become involved in a drawn-out war as it did in Iraq.

Hegseth has said that “war is chaos” and that the sacrifice of those killed “will only recommit us to the resolve of this mission” as he acknowledged the crash of an American KC-135 military refueling plane taking part in the operation against Iran.

Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that four airmen had been recovered in what he described as an incident “over friendly territory in western Iraq” that was not the result of hostile or friendly fire.

U.S. Central Command, which oversees the Middle East, said Thursday that two aircraft had been involved, and one landed safely while the other went down.

Israel Katz said Friday that the army destroyed a significant bridge over the Litany River used by Hezbollah to transfer weapons.

The defense minister warned the strike was just the beginning, and that Lebanon would pay a price until Hezbollah was disarmed.

Hegseth offered new details on the operation against Iran at a Friday news conference from the Pentagon, noting the impact of U.S. and Israeli air strikes on the Islamic Republic.

Hegseth said that over 15,000 enemy targets have been struck, which is more than 1000 a day since the war began on Feb. 28.

Iran’s drone attacks in retaliation of the operation have been deadly and include a fatal attack in Kuwait that killed six American soldiers.

Hegseth has said that Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is wounded and “likely disfigured.”

Khamenei took over Iran’s leadership following his father’s death. The younger Khamenei has not been seen or heard from publicly since the war started, leading to speculation about his whereabouts and health condition.

On Thursday he made his first public statements, resolving to keep fighting, promising more pain for Gulf Arab states and threatening to open “other fronts” in a war that has already disrupted world energy supplies, the global economy and international travel.

Hegseth did not elaborate on or give evidence about Khamenei’s condition.

The Red Cross Society of China will provide $200,000 to offer condolences and support to the parents of students killed in a missile strike that hit an elementary school in Iran, the Chinese government said.

“Attacking schools and harming children is a … serious violation of international humanitarian law and crosses the bottom line of human morality and conscience,” spokesperson Guo Jiakun said at a daily Foreign Ministry briefing in Beijing.

The money will be disbursed through the Iranian Red Crescent Society, he said.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Russian President Vladimir Putin might be helping Iran.

His comments come after U.S. intelligence indicated Russia has provided Iran with information that could help Tehran strike American warships, aircraft and other assets in the region.

Trump spoke with Putin earlier this week.

“I think he might be helping them a little bit, yeah, I guess,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News that will air in full later Friday. “And he probably thinks we’re helping Ukraine, right?”

Host Brian Kilmeade noted the U.S. is aiding Ukraine.

“Yeah, we’re helping them also,” Trump continued. “And so he says that, and China would say the same thing, you know. It’s like, hey, they do it and we do it in all fairness.”

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said Friday he hopes Israel and Hezbollah end their conflict through a ceasefire.

“My strong appeal to both parties, to Hezbollah and Israel, is for a ceasefire to stop the war,” Guterres told reporters after meeting Lebanon President Joseph Aoun.

“Lebanon was dragged into a war that is not a war that its people would be willing to have,” he said.

Guterres added that he hopes to visit Lebanon in the future when the country is at peace and “where the state has a monopoly for the use for force.”

The Israeli military says an academic who was killed in a drone strike Thursday in Beirut was a Hezbollah operative.

Prof. Mortada Srour was an expert in the field of weapons manufacturing within the organization, the military said Friday.

Srour, one of two academics killed in the strike, was employed as a chemistry lecturer at the Lebanese University campus just south of Beirut.

The military said Srour was the brother of Mohammad Srour, commander of Hezbollah’s aerial unit, who was killed in an Israeli strike in 2024.

The military said Hezbollah’s weapons manufacturing operatives operate from various locations in Lebanon to increase the group’s ability to supplying its own weapons.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Friday criticized the U.S. decision to ease sanctions on Russian oil.

“Six members of the G7 expressed a very clear view that this is not the right signal to send,” Merz said during a press conference with his Norwegian counterpart in Andenes, Norway.

“We learned this morning that the U.S. government has apparently decided otherwise. Once again, we believe this is the wrong decision,” Merz said.

Merz said there was “a price problem, but not a supply problem,” adding that he wished to know what additional motives led to the U.S. decision.

The hard-liner who leads Iran’s judiciary, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejehi, was giving an interview to a state television reporter at a demonstration when a strike hit in the area of Tehran’s Ferdowsi Square.

His bodyguards encircled him, but he raised his fist and said Iran “under this rain and missiles will never withdraw.”