From the New York Times, with reporting by Tony Romm, Isabel Kershner, David E. Sanger, Javier C. Hernández and Johnatan Reiss:
Oil prices surged to $119 a barrel on Thursday, an increase of nearly 10 percent, before settling at $108.65.
Ground troops: During a meeting with the Japanese prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, in the Oval Office on Thursday, Mr. Trump was asked about using ground troops in Iran. He said: “I’m not putting troops anywhere. If I did, I wouldn’t tell you.”
Missile attacks: Strikes on Wednesday and Thursday hit the Ras Laffan energy hub in Qatar, reducing the country’s natural gas export capacity by 17 percent and causing an estimated loss of $20 billion in annual revenue, according to Saad Sherida al-Kaabi, the country’s energy minister and head of QatarEnergy, the state-owned energy company. He said damage from missiles would take three to five years to repair and would affect supply to markets in Europe and Asia.
Saudi Arabia: Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister said that the country reserved the right “to take military actions if deemed necessary” to protect itself from Iranian attacks.
Death tolls: Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations said last week that at least 1,348 civilians had been killed since the start of the war. On Wednesday, a Washington-based human rights group, the Human Rights Activists News Agency, reported that at least 1,369 civilians had been killed. The number of Lebanese killed rose to more than 1,000, Lebanon’s health ministry said on Thursday. At least 14 people have been killed in Iranian attacks on Israel, officials have said. The American death toll stood at 13.