20/03/2026
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20/03/2026
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DUBAI,(AP), Mar 20: Three weeks into an escalating war in the Middle East, the U.S. is sending more warships and Marines to the region, and Iran threatened Friday to expand its retaliatory attacks to include recreational and tourist sites worldwide.
As Israeli airstrikes landed in Tehran, Iran launched more attacks on Israel and energy sites in neighboring Gulf Arab states, and the region marked one of the holiest days on the Muslim calendar. Iranians were also celebrating the Persian New Year, known as Nowruz, a normally festive holiday that is more subdued this year.
With little information coming out of Iran, it was not clear how much damage its arms, nuclear or energy facilities have sustained in the punishing U.S. and Israeli strikes that began Feb. 28 — or even who was truly in charge of the country. But Iran’s attacks are still choking off oil supplies and denting the global economy, raising food and fuel prices far beyond the Middle East.
The U.S. and Israel have offered shifting rationales for the war, from hoping to foment an uprising that topples Iran’s leadership to eliminating its nuclear and missile programs. There have been no public signs of any such uprising and no end in sight to the war.
Khamenei defiant as Iran’s military threatens tourist sites
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei praised Iranians’ steadfastness in the face of war in a written statement read on Iranian television to mark Nowruz. He said the U.S. and Israeli attacks were based on an illusion that killing Iran’s top leaders could cause the overthrow of the government.
Khamenei has not been seen in public since he became supreme leader following the assassination of his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in Israeli strikes at the start of the war that also reportedly wounded him.
Iran’s top military spokesman, Gen. Abolfazl Shekarchi, warned Friday that “parks, recreational areas and tourist destinations” worldwide won’t be safe for the country’s enemies. The threat renewed concerns that Iran may revert to using militant attacks beyond the Middle East as a pressure tactic.
U.S. bolstering its firepower in the Mideast
The U.S. is deploying three more amphibious assault ships and roughly 2,500 additional Marines to the Middle East, a U.S. official told The Associated Press. Two other U.S. officials confirmed that ships were deploying, without saying where they were headed. All three spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military operations.
The news of the deployment comes just days after the U.S. redirected another group of amphibious assault ships carrying another 2,500 Marines from the Pacific to the Middle East.
A White House official said President Donald Trump has said he has “no plans” to send troops into Iran, but retains all options. The official wasn’t authorized to speak to the media and spoke on condition of anonymity.
U.S. and Israeli leaders say weeks of strikes have decimated Iran’s military. In addition to Iran’s supreme leader, airstrikes have also killed the head of its Supreme National Security Council and a raft of other top-ranking military and political leaders.
Gen. Ali Mohammad Naeini, a spokesman for Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, was quoted by a state-run newspaper Friday saying Iran continues to manufacture missiles despite Israel’s claim that it had destroyed Iran’s production capabilities. Iranian state television later said that Naeini was killed in an airstrike.
