US-Iran war live updates: Israel to strike Lebanon ‘in coming hours’ as Bahrain oil refinery up in flames

Iraqi oil production from its main southern oilfields has fallen by 70 per cent to just 1.3 million barrels per day as the country is unable to export oil via the Strait of Hormuz due to the Iran war.

Production from the fields stood at around 4.3 million barrels per day before the war.

“Crude storage has reached maximum capacity and the remaining output after the major cut will be used to supply the country’s refineries,” said an official with the state-run Basra Oil Company, which manages production and export operations from the southern fields.

The Strait of Hormuz is one of the world’s key oil transit choke points, carrying roughly a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas flows.

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The United States Central Command (CENTCOM) has confirmed a seventh service member has passed away after being wounded in an Iranian air strike.

“Last night, a US service member passed away from injuries received during the Iranian regime’s initial attacks across the Middle East,” A CENTCOM post on X stated.

“The service member was seriously wounded at the scene of an attack on US troops in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on March 1.

“This is the seventh service member killed in action during Operation Epic Fury. Major combat operations continue. The identity of the fallen warrior will be withheld until 24 hours after next of kin notification.”

The Australian Government is directing the departure of dependants of Australian officials posted to the UAE, due to the deteriorating security situation.

The public travel advice for the UAE has been upgraded to ‘do not travel’.

On Sunday evening the tally sat at 1,868 citizens that have arrived in Australia via 12 direct flights from the UAE.

Smartraveller continues to advise Australians not to travel to Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Kuwait, Lebanon, Palestine, Qatar, Syria, the UAE and Yemen.

Australians should reconsider the need to travel to Jordan, Oman and Saudi Arabia and exercise a high degree of caution in Azerbaijan.

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An Israeli air strike has killed at least two Palestinians in Gaza City, local health officials said, the deadliest incident in Gaza since Israel and the United States launched their war against Iran a week ago.

Medics said the two people were travelling in a car near Al-Azhar University in western Gaza City on Sunday. Their identities were not immediately clear. Several other people in the area were wounded in the strike, the health officials added.

Such attacks have declined since the start of the US-Israeli campaign against Iran, although Israeli forces have killed several Palestinians over the past week.

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As the world watches on in nervous anticipation a group of oil refineries have been bombed in Tehran overnight.

The US and Israel launched strikes against at least five oil sites around Tehran, according to reports in The Guardian.

Footage has emerged of the refineries buring as crucial shiping lanes in the Middle East remain closed.

• Lebanon’s health ministry announced Israeli airstrikes have claimed the lives of at least 394 in the last week.
• Iran’s health ministry says US and Israeli airstrikes had killed 200 children and about 200 women since the war started with the nations’ healthcare structure in ruins.
• Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait are reporting they are fighting off Iranian drone strikes. In Bahrain, authorities announced that a desalination plant had been damaged in an Iranian attack.
• Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, reportedly threatened to increase attacks on American targets across the region in the face of ongoing Israeli and US airstrikes.

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Donald Trump says if Iran do not seek approval from the US any new leader “is not going to last long”.

“He’s going to have to get approval from us,” the president told ABC News.

“If he doesn’t get approval from us he’s not going to last long. We want to make sure that we don’t have to go back every 10 years, when you don’t have a president like me that’s not going to do it.

“I don’t want people to have to go back in five years and have to do the same thing again or worse let them have a nuclear weapon.”

A senior cleric has confirmed the Iranian Assembly of Experts is close to announcing the replacement for the former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed by US-Israeli strikes last Saturday.

The group of 88 senior clerics are tasked with deciding Khamenei’s replacement.

Ayatollah Mohammad Mehdi Mirbagheri said a “majority decision” had been reached, but that some procedural obstacles need to be resolved.

The decision has been not been seen favourably with Israel stating they will “pursue every successor and every person who seeks to appoint a successor”.