President Donald Trump announced "major combat operations" against Iran on Feb. 28, with massive joint U.S.-Israel strikes attack targeting military and government sites, officials said.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was among those killed in Tehran on the first day of strikes and his son Mojtaba Khamenei was chosen to succeed him. Iran is responding with missile and drone attacks targeting Israel, regional U.S. bases and multiple Gulf nations. Iran is also attempting to block some shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.
Israel is also intensifying its long-running strike campaign against the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia in Lebanon.
Watch special coverage on Nightline, "War with Iran," each night on ABC and streaming on Disney+ and Hulu.
Kuwait said Friday that its Mina Al-Ahmadi oil refinery was attacked by Iranian drones for the second day.
No injuries were immediately reported, but fires erupted in several of the refinery's units, prompting a partial shutdown, according to the state-owned Kuwait Petroleum Corporation, which operates the facility.
Firefighters were at the scene Friday morning working to extinguish the flames, according to the Kuwait Fire Force.
-ABC News' Morgan Winsor
Mar 20, 2026, 3:39 AM EDT
Iran knocks out 17% of Qatar's LNG capacity, causes estimated loss of $20 billion in annual revenue
Qatar’s state energy company, QatarEnergy, said that the missile strikes on its Ras Laffan terminal on Wednesday knocked out 17% of its liquefied natural gas (LNG) export capacity.
The strikes caused an estimated loss of $20 billion in annual revenue and is expected to take up to five years to repair, officials said.
The terminal is the world’s largest and is responsible for a fifth of global LNG exports.
"This was an attack on all of us who stand for development and human progress that is sustained by a fair, reliable, and secure access to energy,” Qatar's minister of energy said in a statement confirming the damage.
Mar 19, 2026, 7:12 PM EDT
'I misled no one,' Netanyahu says in response to questions about US involvement in Iran war
Answering questions from reporters on Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu denied pressuring the U.S. government into war with Iran and spoke out about the cost of the conflict in American lives and the impact on the global economy.
"Prime Minister -- given the escalation of attacks on U.S. allies across the Gulf, given the spiraling energy costs, the high costs in general, the U.S. service personnel killed in this war -- many Americans are asking that question, whether you misled their government into starting this war, and for how long should Americans keep paying the price?" ABC News' Tom Soufi Burridge asked Netanyahu.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference in Jerusalem on March 19, 2026.
Ronen Zvulun/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
"I misled no one", Netanyahu replied. "I didn't have to convince President Trump to prevent Iran from developing its nuclear program, putting it underground and being able to launch nuclear tipped missiles at the United States."
Netanyahu added: "He understood that. He explained it to me. I didn't explain it to him, and I think that our partnership is the only way to avoid this catastrophic development."
Netanyahu then paid tribute to the lives of U.S. service personnel lost in the war.
"Freedom is precious," he said, adding that it "has its cost, but if you're not prepared to defend it, if you're not prepared to resist the tyrannies that are trying to arm themselves with the weapons of mass death, you will have no future."
The prime minister then addressed rising oil prices, and claimed the current increase was "a spike."
"It goes up and goes down," he added. "The Americans are working very hard, and we're trying to help them in every way that we can, to open the Straits of Hormuz. And if they succeed, which I think they will, then oil prices will come down."
Regarding the strike on the Iranian gas field on Wednesday, which drew a reaction from Trump, Netanyahu said: "Israel acted alone against the Asaluyeh gas compound. Fact No. 2, President Trump asked us to hold off on future attacks and we're holding out."
Mar 19, 2026, 2:56 PM EDT
F-35 that conducted emergency landing believed to have been struck by Iranian fire
An Airforce F-35 plane that conducted an emergency landing just before midnight Wednesday is believed to have been struck by Iranian fire, according to a source familiar with the incident.
The stealthplane landed after flying a combat mission over Iran, according to Capt. Tim Hawkins, a CENTCOM spokesperson.
This is the first time that an American military aircraft involved in the air operations over Iran has been hit by Iranian fire.
