The Iran War entered its 36th day on Saturday as American forces continued searching for a missing crew member from a downed F-15E fighter jet.
Two U.S. rescue helicopters involved in the search for the missing F-15E crew member were hit by Iranian fire during the operation. An anonymous official told the Washington Post that they managed to leave Iranian airspace.
Mehr News Agency on Saturday published photos purporting to show a heavily damaged U.S. Army CH-47 Chinook helicopter at an airbase in Kuwait, claiming it was hit by an Iranian drone while on a search-and-rescue mission for the missing crew member of the downed F-15E.
A second U.S. aircraft, an A-10 attack jet, was also lost on Friday. Two U.S. officials told the New York Times that one pilot was rescued after crashing in Kuwaiti territory.
The White House said President Donald Trump was briefed on the incident, but Trump has made no public comment on the downed F-15E or the rescue operations.
On Saturday morning, Trump threatened Iran on Truth Social to “MAKE A DEAL or OPEN UP THE HORMUZ STRAIT” within the next two days, saying that “time is running out – 48 hours before all Hell will reign [sic] down on them.”
American-Israeli strikes on Saturday hit the Mahshahr petrochemical zone in southwestern Iran. Iranian media reported that at least three companies in the industrial hub were struck. The International Atomic Energy Agency reported that additional strikes targeted a location close to Iran’s Bushehr nuclear plant on Saturday morning.
This past week, the World Health Organization condemned multiple attacks on Iran’s health infrastructure including a recent strike that destroyed the Pasteur Institute in Iran. “Since 1 March, WHO has verified over 20 attacks on health care in Iran, resulting in at least nine deaths, including an infectious diseases health worker and a member of the Iranian Red Crescent Society,” Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, noting that the conflict is disrupting “the delivery of health services and the safety of health workers, patients, and civilians present at health facilities.”
The IRGC said Saturday it launched a new wave of missile and drone strikes on Israeli military and industrial sites across the country, including in Tel Aviv, Dimona, the Negev, Be’er Sheva, and Ramat Gan, according to the state-linked Tasnim News Agency.
After a wave of Iranian drone attacks on Friday, Abu Dhabi authorities halted all operations at the Habshan gas complex, the largest natural gas processing facility in the United Arab Emirates.
The UAE was reportedly the main target of Iran’s retaliatory attacks on GCC countries, intercepting 23 ballistic missiles and 56 drones overnight, according to the UAE Ministry of Defense.
Traffic through the Strait of Hormuzz remains severely restricted, limited mostly to Iran’s shadow fleet. Bloomberg reported that a total of 13 ships have crossed since Friday morning, with 10 exiting the Persian Gulf and three entering from the open seas. The French‑owned boxship CMA CGM Kribi is transiting the strait via an Iran‑approved Larak Island corridor, according to Lloyd’s List Intelligence. It will be the first vessel with Western European ties to cross the Strait since February 28.
The Financial Times reported that oil cargo prices surged to their highest level since 2008 this week, as traders began pricing in the risk of prolonged disruption in crude flows through the Strait of Hormuz. The International Energy Agency has warned that the world now faces the worst oil supply disruption in history.
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Iran’s Speaker of Parliament Ghalibaf hinted Friday that Iran or Yemen’s Houthis, who entered the war last week, may take future action in the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait. “What share of global oil, LNG, wheat, rice, and fertilizer shipments transits the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait?” he wrote on X. “Which countries and companies account for the highest transit volumes through the strait?”
The IEA estimated in 2025 that about 5 percent of global energy production passes through the Bab-el-Mandeb each day, while 40 percent of global maritime fertilizer trade and 20 percent of global maritime trade in rice is estimated to transit the strait.
Gas prices remained elevated Saturday, with AAA reporting the national average gas price at $4.01.
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