Iran…Israel …Trump…Evening …3/11/2026…Almost 2 weeks in and Israel and Trump ain’t Winning Much of Anything….

The Middle East war showed no sign of letup on multiple fronts.

Israel struck more than two dozen sites across Lebanon late Wednesday and early Thursday, according to a military spokeswoman.

Lebanese officials said the strikes killed at least seven people in Beirut and injured dozens more there and in the neighborhoods south of the city, a Hezbollah stronghold from which thousands of civilians have fled in recent days.

The Israeli bombardment in Lebanon, which started after Hezbollah fired rockets into Israel in support of Tehran — has killed more than 600 people and displaced more than 800,000 over the last several days, according to Lebanese officials.

Several Persian Gulf countries said they intercepted attacks from Iran on Wednesday.

Tehran residents and state media reported repeated drone attacks on street checkpoints manned by the Basij militia, killing several people — a relatively new development that sowed fear among residents that moving around the city could be lethal.

Oil prices rose on Wednesday despite the vow of a coalition of more than 30 countries to tap their reserves in order to stabilize markets, reflecting global fears of a supply crunch amid Iranian threats to choke off the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway through which one-fifth of the world’s oil transits.

Here’s what else we are covering:

• Death toll: The death toll in Iran is unclear. Iran’s representative to the United Nations, Amir Saeed Iravani, told the Security Council Wednesday that more than 1,348 civilians had been killed. Dozens have also died in Iranian drone and missile attacks on Gulf countries and Israel.

• Vessels hit: Three cargo ships came under attack in or near the Strait of Hormuz early on Wednesday. Iran, which has said that no ships would be allowed to transit the Persian Gulf without its permission, appeared to claim responsibility for one of those strikes.

• Oil reserves tapped: The United States plans to release 172 million barrels of oil from its strategic reserves over the course of four months, beginning next week, the Energy Department said Wednesday evening. This is part of a coordinated effort by the International Energy Agency, whose 32 member countries have agreed to release 400 million barrels of oil from their strategic reserves. Gasoline prices in the United States have climbed for 11 straight days.

• Trump’s remarks: President Trump, who has sent contradictory signals about the duration of the war , portrayed victory as just around the corner in an economic speech in Kentucky. “Over the past 11 days, our military has virtually destroyed Iran,” he said. But Mr. Trump has also said only Tehran’s “unconditional surrender” would end the war, and Iran has shown no sign of halting its attacks.

• Banks threatened: Major financial institutions including Citi and HSBC temporarily closed offices in the Persian Gulf, after Iran said it would target U.S. and Israeli banks in the region. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps made the threat after an airstrike hit a building in Tehran linked to Bank Sepah, an institution founded in 1922 as Iran’s first modern domestic bank.

• Deadly school strike: The United States was responsible for the strike on an Iranian school that killed 175 people, most of them children, based on outdated targeting information, according to the preliminary findings of a Pentagon investigation. Mr. Trump had suggested that Iran could be to blame.

• New leader: Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, who on Monday succeeded his slain father as Iran’s supreme leader, has not appeared on video or in public nor issued any written statements since his appointment was announced. Three Iranian officials said that one reason was concern that any communication could reveal his location and that a second was that he was injured on the opening day of the U.S.-Israeli strikes, they said….

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ISW….Iran Update Morning Special Report, March 11, 2026

1. Iran has deployed fewer than 10 naval mines in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s reticence to deploy the naval mines en masse indicates that while Iran is willing and capable of mining the strait, it remains hesitant to do so due to the far-reaching political and economic costs Iran would incur in doing so.
2. Iran is continuing to target commercial vessels in the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz as part of its effort to disrupt maritime traffic and threaten freedom of navigation. Iranian media published images on March 11 that show a likely Iranian unmanned surface vessel (USV) impact along the waterline of the Thai-flagged MAYUREE NAREE cargo ship.
3. The US and Israeli combined force has continued to target Iranian internal security and military targets. ISW-CTP has observed strikes in 10 provinces since March 10 at 3:00 PM ET.
4. Iran continued to attack the Gulf States and Israel. The Saudi Defense Ministry stated on March 10 that it intercepted 13 Iranian drones targeting multiple locations, including the Shaybah oil field.
5. Hezbollah has claimed 13 attacks targeting IDF positions and forces in northern Israel and southern Lebanon since ISW-CTP’s last data cutoff at 3:00 PM ET on March 10. Israeli media reported that Hezbollah has reportedly fired more than 850 rockets at Israel since March 2….

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The Guardian….

• Donald Trump said the US is “not finished yet” when asked about the war in Iran. He boasted that the US has hit Iran “harder than virtually any country in history has been hit”, before adding: “We’re not finished yet.” Speaking at another engagement, Trump said the US had “won” but “we got to finish the job”. Earlier, he had told Axios that the war would end “soon” since the there is “practically nothing left to target” in Iran.

• The Israeli military launched a “large-scale wave of strikes” on Beirut’s densely populated suburbs after Hezbollah launched what the IDF said were “dozens” of rockets. The IDF claimed the strikes targeted what it described as “Hezbollah infrastructure” in the Dahieh suburb of southern Beirut. Israel’s renewed bombing campaign across Lebanon and its invasion of border areas with ground troops have killed more than 570 people, according to Lebanese authorities. This includes at least 83 children, according to Unicef. About 750,000 people have been displaced after being forced to flee the violence, sparking a growing humanitarian disaster.

• The Israeli military said is prepared to continue its war with Iran for “as long as necessary”. “We as an army are prepared to continue the campaign as long as necessary,” a spokesperson said, as quoted by Reuters. Earlier, the Isreali defence minister, Israel Katz, conveyed similar sentiments, saying that the war “will continue without any time limit”.

• Iran’s UN ambassador said a UN security council resolution demanding that Tehran stop its “egregious” attacks on Gulf nations is an “injustice against my country” – adding that Iran is the “main victim of a clear act of aggression”. “The decision distorts the facts on the ground and ignores the root causes of the current crisis,” Amir Saeid Iravani said. “The attack on us began with the assassination of the supreme leader and officials, which led to the deaths of thousands of victims.”

• Condemning “heinous crimes and lethal aggression” from the US and Israel, Iravani said more than 1,348 civilians have been killed and more than 17,000 injured since Washington and Tel Aviv launched their joint attack on 28 February. More than 19,000 civilian sites – including 16,191 residential homes, 77 medical facilities and 65 schools – have been damaged, he said.

• Masoud Pezeshkian, Iran’s president, demanded that reparations and security guarantees be included in any agreement to end the war started by the United States and Israel. The Trump administration, meanwhile, has said that Donald Trump will decide when to end the war on Iran, and the US president has demanded Tehran’s “unconditional surrender” before that happens.

• Donald Trump evaded a question about the bombing of an Iranian girls’ school that killed at least 175 people, most of them children. Apreliminary investigation found that the US is to blame for the strike, according to a report from the New York Times. When asked whether he takes responsibility for the attack, the US president simply replied: “I don’t know about it.” More on that here.

• Oman’s civil defence is working on containing a fire in fuel tanks at the port in Salalah, Oman’s state news agency reported, after drones struck oil storage facilities there.

• Qatar, Kuwait and the UAE all said they had successfully intercepted Iranian drones and missiles against their territories…..

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