Live updates: US hits Iran with intense strikes as oil prices surge

The United States hit Iran with intense strikes as the war continues on Friday.

Intense strikes hit Tehran and areas surrounding Iran’s capital, as Iran continued striking at neighboring Arab Gulf States, helping to push oil prices again over $100 a barrel.

On Friday, U.S. Central Command confirmed that all six U.S. service members were killed when a refueling aircraft crashed.

RELATED: 6 US service members killed in refueling aircraft crash in Iraq, US military says

4 US service members killed in aircraft crash

The US Central Command is confirming the deaths of 4 service members killed in aircraft crash. CentCom says at approximately 2 pm ET on March 12, a U.S. KC-135 refueling aircraft went down in western Iraq. Four of six crew members on board the aircraft have been confirmed deceased as rescue efforts continue. The circumstances of the incident are under investigation. However, the loss of the aircraft was not due to hostile fire or friendly fire.

President Donald Trump posted a new threat to Iran’s leaders on his Truth Social platform.

“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!”

Here are the latest updates on Friday.

Red Cross, Red Crescent express outrage at killing of humanitarian workers

1:40 p.m. ET: In less than two weeks of war, a Lebanese Red Cross paramedic helping wounded civilians was killed by an Israeli airstrike, and other medics have been wounded, the groups said.

Iranian Red Crescent staff and volunteers also suffered casualties aiding civilians, the groups said.

“When humanitarian workers are protected, so is our shared humanity,” they said in a joint statement Friday. “The lives of our teams, and those they serve, depend on it.”

Israel to operate evacuation flights for stranded Americans

1:10 p.m. ET: The Associated Press reported that the flights, arranged with the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem, aim to help thousands of Americans in Israel whose return flights were canceled due to the war.

El Al, Israel’s flag carrier, says it will begin operating six special non-stop flights at “full capacity” from Tel Aviv to New York starting Monday.

Beginning Sunday morning, the carrier told the AP it will contact U.S. citizens holding valid El Al tickets that were canceled and not yet reassigned. The airline says it understands “the current number of flights provides only a partial solution and does not meet the high demand,” and may add more flights pending government approvals.

According to the AP, the U.S State Department has helped Americans leave the region through charter flights and, from Israel, via overland routes to neighboring countries where commercial flights remain available. It said on Thursday that the vast majority of people have made their way back to the U.S. on commercial flights, but some were evacuated in roughly 50 charter flights.

Trump says Iran war will be over ‘when I feel it in my bones’

11:04 a.m. ET: Hinting at voter anxieties in the U.S. as the conflict in the Middle East continues, the Associated Press reported that President Donald Trump 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.”

Military confirms 6 dead in crash

10:30 a.m. ET: U.S. Central Command has confirmed that all six crew members aboard a KC-135 were killed when the refueling plane crashed in Iraq.

The identities of the casualties have not been released, and it’s not yet clear what unit the aircraft was with. The military has not said much about the specific circumstances of the crash.

“War as hell. War is chaos. And as we saw yesterday with the tragic crash of our KC-135 tanker, bad things can happen,” Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said. “American heroes, all of them.”

Hegseth says US is working to make sure ‘energy flows’ through Strait of Hormuz

8:45 a.m. ET: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth 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.

RELATED: Recent polls reveal what Americans think about war in Iran

The Associated Press noted that Hegseth told reporters at a Friday news conference from the Pentagon that “we’re dealing with it.” He did not give details.

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.

Neighbors check the situation of their cars and other belongings in a building in the area hit by Israeli forces in an overnight airstrike on March 13, 2026 in the Bachoura neighborhood of Beirut, Lebanon. (Photo by Adri Salido/Getty Images)

Hegseth says Iran’s new supreme leader is ‘disfigured’

8:30 a.m. ET: The Associated Press reported that Defense Secretary Pete 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.

Caine gives more details of 4 US airmen killed in refueling plane crash

8:25 a.m. ET: According to the Associated Press, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete 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 that happened “over friendly territory in western Iraq” and 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 in Thursday’s incident, and that one landed safely while the other went down.

Trump says Putin ‘might’ be helping Iran

8 a.m. ET: President Donald Trump said Russian President Vladimir Putin might be helping Iran.

The Associated Press reported that Trump’s 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.”