‘Every military target’ on Iran’s key oil island ‘totally obliterated’, says Trump

President Donald Trump says the US has “totally obliterated” every military target on Iran’s Kharg Island, but spared the oil infrastructure.

Kharg Island is a tiny but strategic terminal in the northern Gulf.

Earlier, two officials told the BBC’s partner CBS News that the US is expected to send a marine unit and more warships to the Middle East.

Plans have not been confirmed but the unit, which can carry out amphibious raids, is typically made up of up to 5,000 Marines and sailors across several warships.

The BBC has approached the US military and the Pentagon for comment.

Meanwhile, Iranian outlets publish footage of officials attending pro-establishment rallies in Tehran to mark Quds Day, an annual pro-Palestinian event.

Iran’s military says oil and energy infrastructure belonging to firms working with the US would “immediately be destroyed and turned into a pile of ashes”, local media reported.

The announcement, reported by Iran’s Fars and Tasnim news agencies, was in “response to statements” made by Donald Trump.

In a Truth Social post, Trump said US forces had “totally obliterated” Iranian military infrastructure on Kharg Island in the Strait of Hormuz, a critical waterway for global oil shipping.

Earlier, the BBC’s US partner CBS reported that more US Marines and warships are expected to be deployed to the Middle East.

Officials said the reinforcements were to come from an amphibious ready group and its Marine expeditionary unit, with the group headed by the Japan-based USS Tripoli, an amphibious assault ship.

Early deliveries of oil from the US strategic reserve should reach the market by the end of the week, the US Department of Energy says, in an effort to help combat energy price rises since the start of the Iran war.

The DOE requested an exchange of up to 86 million barrels of crude oil from the reserve, which will be released from the 172 million barrels that Washington announced earlier this week.

The oil will be released “at no cost to American taxpayers”, the department said.

The US effort is part of the International Energy Agency’s collective release, wherein 32 member countries unanimously agreed to make 400 million barrels of oil from their emergency reserves available to the market in response to the war in the Middle East.

BBC Verify has been tracking the wave of ship attacks causing blockages through the Strait of Hormuz – the world’s busiest oil shipping channel.

Six ships were attacked in the Gulf in less than 48 hours, bringing the total of vessels since the start of the war to 18, according to reports by UK Maritime Trade Operations and maritime intelligence company Vanguard.

Iran’s new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei vowed to keep blocking the channel in his first public statement on Thursday.

Since then, the US president announced the US military had “totally obliterated” every military target on Iran’s Kharg Island.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump said oil infrastructure had not been wiped out on the island, but warned that if Iran or anyone else interfered with safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz, the decision could change.

Credit: BBC