Sawt Falasteen - Saudi forces down drones, French soldier killed in Iraq

Iranian media reported fresh explosions in the capital Tehran, while Israel also came under attack, with the conflict showing no signs of slowing despite growing economic fears and the rising death toll.

Oil prices stayed above the benchmark $100 a barrel after a record release of crude reserves and the International Energy Agency warned the war could create "the largest supply disruption" in the industry's history.

But US President Donald Trump said defeating Iran's "evil empire" was more important than crude prices, though his administration lifted some additional restrictions on Russia oil sales in a bid to ease the impact.

The conflict that began February 28 with US-Israeli strikes that killed Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has quickly spread across the region.

A French soldier was killed in an attack in the Erbil region of Iraq, French President Emmanuel Macron said Friday, adding that several other soldiers were wounded.

Macron did not give details on the attack, or say who was behind it. The French military said earlier that drones hit a base where troops were taking part in counter-terrorism training with Iraqi counterparts.

France has said its stance in the Middle East war is "strictly defensive."

Elsewhere in Iraq, a US refueling aircraft crashed, though the US military said it was "not due to hostile fire or friendly fire."

Iran's military however claimed in a statement carried by state TV that an allied group in Iraq had downed the aircraft with a missile, killing all its crew.

The KC-135 is at least the fourth US military aircraft lost during the war in the Middle East, after three F-15s were shot down by friendly fire over Kuwait.

- Oil prices rise again -

Iran has unleashed waves of drone and missile strikes against neighbouring states hosting US military assets, including Saudi Arabia, whose defence ministry said Friday that its forces had intercepted a total of 28 drones.

Israel also reported new Iranian missile attacks.

On Thursday, Iranian security chief Ali Larijani warned Trump that the war "cannot be won with a few tweets" and that "we will not relent until making you sorry for this grave miscalculation."

His comments came after Iran's new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei issued a defiant statement, his first since succeeding his father on Sunday.

Mojtaba Khamenei, who was reportedly wounded in the strike that killed his father, has not appeared publicly since his nomination. His message calling for vengeance was read by an anchor on state television.

The statement said the "lever of blocking the Strait of Hormuz must definitely be used," referring to Iran's effective closure of the waterway through which a fourth of the world's seaborne oil trade usually transits.

The strait, which also normally accounts for a fifth of the world's liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies, lies off Iran and is just 54 kilometres (34 miles) wide at its narrowest point.

Iran also warned Thursday that it would "set the region's oil and gas on fire" if its own energy infrastructure and ports were attacked.

With Gulf states slashing production and oil tankers stuck in the Gulf, benchmark oil prices have risen 40 to 50 percent since the conflict began.

- 'We won't leave' -

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the war war "crushing" Iran and Tehran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.

He said the war was intended "to create, for the Iranian people, the conditions to bring down this regime", in addition to hobbling its nuclear and missile programmes.

In an interview with AFP, Iran's deputy foreign minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi said Tehran was acting only in "self defence" and wanted to ensure that war could not be "imposed" again.

He said Iran had been approached by some "friendly countries" aiming to end the conflict, without specifying which ones.

"We are telling them the same thing, that we want the ceasefire to be part of an overall formula for ending the war altogether," he said.

The war has upended daily life for Iranians.

A 30-year-old woman living in Kermanshah in western Iran said 90 percent of shops in her city had closed.

"People are desperately trying to withdraw their savings from the banks, as trust in them has vanished," she said. "Bread is now rationed. The population is extremely tense and outraged."

The conflict has also spread to Lebanon, where authorities reported 687 people killed by Israeli attacks, including at least 12 in a strike Thursday on Beirut's seafront, where displaced families are camping in tents.

Dalal al-Sayed told AFP she had pitched her tent there after fleeing attacks in southern Lebanon. Her family cannot afford to rent an apartment, she said.

"We won't leave, we will stay here even if we die."

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said Thursday that he was ordering troops to "prepare for expanding" attacks on Lebanon, and Israeli forces pushed further into southern Lebanon.

Iran's health ministry said on March 8 that more than 1,200 people have been killed in the war, a figure AFP has not been able to independently verify.

Three million people have been displaced by the war in Iran, according to figures issued Thursday by the UN's refugee agency.

Officials said 14 people had been killed in Israel since the start of the Iran war, while attacks in the Gulf have killed 24, including 11 civilians and seven US military personnel.

burs-sah/jm

N.AbuHussein--SF-PST