US-Iran war updates: Three major oil refineries hit by airstrikes after Trump’s terrifying threat to Iran

Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker says Europe will not be strong-handed into the war in the Middle East, despite calls from the US to help defend the Strait of Hormuz.

“Europe, and Austria as well, will not allow itself to be blackmailed,” Stocker said on Thursday.

“Intervention in the Strait of Hormuz is not an option for Austria anyway.”

Iranian deputy Foreign Minister Esmaeil Baghaei says the killing of the country’s former supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was a “terrorist act”.

In an interview on the ABC’s 7.30 program, Baghaei says Iran was “forced” to defend themselves when the US and Israel initiated airstrikes.

“We have never started this war,” he said.

“We were forced to (retaliate) after the US and Israel attacks on our country.”

Chinese authorities are “shocked” by Israel’s authorisation to kill leaders of the Iranian regime and Hezbollah, AP is reporting.

“We have been opposed to the use of force in international relations, and the killing of Iran’s national leaders and attacks on civilian targets are even more unacceptable,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said.

The spokesperson then reiterated China’s position on the war, that the US, Israel, and Iran should stop military operations before conflict deepens.

Natural gas prices in Europe have spiked 35 per cent on Thursday, as attacks energy production locations threaten the security of global supply, The Guardian is reporting.

Brent crude prices have jumped to a whopping $110 per barrel on Thursday, which the report says is up by 48 per cent since the war began on February 28.

A drone has hit the SAMREF oil refinery in Yanbu in Saudi Arabia’s west, the country’s defence ministry is reporting.

Owned by both Saudi Aramco and Exxon Mobile, SAMREF is located in the Yanbu port on the Red Sea and processes over 400,000 barrels of crude oil per day, according to AP.

“Damage assessment is underway,” the Saudi Ministry of Defence said.

The strike comes just hours after two Kuwait refineries were set on fire by air strikes on Thursday morning.

A Thai worker has been killed by cluster munitions in central Israel on Wednesday evening, accorfing to Thailand Labor Minister Treenuch Thienthong.

30-year-old Chaiwait Waewnil was registered as a worker on a potato farm in Adanim whic is located in central Israel.

AP is reporting his body will go through an autopsy process conducted by authorities, before being returned to his family in Thailand.

AP is reporting a second oil refinery in Kuwait has been set alight after it was hit by airstrikes on Thursday.

The Mina Abdullah refinery, which is located on the country’s east coast, is just 11 kilometres away from the Mina Al-Ahmadi refinery which was struck earlier on Thursday.

The Mina Abdullah refinery is owned by the Kuwait National Petroleum Company.

“Emergency & rapid response teams were immediately deployed to contain and control the fire in accordance with the highest approved safety standards,” a report from the Kuwait News Agency said.

The Iranian Red Crescent Society has posted footage of a woman being pulled from the rubble of a residential building which had been hit by an airstrike in Tehran.

According to aid workers, the woman is heard asking if her child, a little girl, was still alive as she was uncovered from the building’s ruins.

“We saved them… (your daughter) was in that room in the corner. We brought everyone downstairs safely,” an aid worker is heard telling the woman.

“We’re going to get you out. Try to stand, and we’ll pull you out.”

Reuters is reporting the Samref refinery, owned by Saudi Aramco, was hit by Iranian aerial strikes on Thursday.

The refinery, which is located in the Yanbu port in the Red Sea, is the only outlet for Gulf Arab crude oil as the Strait of Hormuz remains untenable for a majority of shipping, according to The Guardian.

It is believed the refinery suffered “minimal impact” from the strikes.

The Tasnim news agency is reporting a US-Israeli drone has struck a residential area in Dorud county in Iran’s west, Al Jazeera is reporting.

12 people were killed by the attack, and 116 injured, according to reports from a local official.