Iran Spokesman Dies After Issuing Defiant Statement

A Kuwaiti oil refinery came under Iranian drone attack early Friday and sirens in Israel warned of incoming fire, while explosions boomed over Tehran from Israeli strikes as the country marked the Persian New Year. The war that has rocked the global economy neared the end of its third week with Iran showing no signs of letting up on its attacks on Gulf region energy infrastructure. Kuwait said two waves of drone strikes at its Mina Al-Ahmadi oil refinery sparked a fire and crews were working to control the blaze, the AP reports. The refinery, which can process some 730,000 barrels of oil per day, was already damaged Thursday in another Iranian attack. It is one of three oil refineries in the tiny, oil-rich nation.

• Iran stepped up its attacks on energy sites in Gulf Arab states after Israel on Wednesday bombed Iran's massive South Pars offshore natural gas field in the Persian Gulf. Loud explosions could also be heard in Jerusalem after the Israeli army warned of incoming Iranian missiles.
• In a rare statement, the country's new Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei said Iran's enemies need to have their "security" taken away. Khamenei hasn't been seen since he succeeded his father, the 86-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike on the first day of the war.
• Heavy explosions shook Dubai as air defenses intercepted early incoming fire over the city, where people were observing Eid al-Fitr, the end of the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, and mosques made the day's first call to prayers. Bahrain's Interior Ministry said a fire broke out after shrapnel from an intercepted projectile landed on a warehouse, and Saudi Arabia reported shooting down multiple drones targeting its oil-rich Eastern Province.

• The renewed attacks came after an intense day that saw Iran hit energy infrastructure around the region and launch more than a dozen missile salvos at Israel following the attack on South Pars.
• Late Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the country would hold off on any further attacks on the gas field at the request of President Trump after the Iranian response sent oil prices skyrocketing. The Israeli prime minister also claimed Iran's capability to produce ballistic missiles had been taken out, but the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard insisted Friday that they were still in production. The Israeli said military said a "wave of strikes" on Tehran Friday targeted government infrastructure, the New York Times reports.
• "We are producing missiles even during war conditions, which is amazing, and there is no particular problem in stockpiling," spokesman Gen. Ali Mohammad Naeini was quoted as saying in Iran's state-run IRAN newspaper. He added defiantly that Iran had no intention of seeking a quick end to the war. "These people expect the war to continue until the enemy is completely exhausted," he said. "This war must end when the shadow of war is lifted from the country."
• Several hours after that statement, Iranian state media announced that Naeini had been killed in US-Israeli strikes, the BBC reports.