War in the Middle East, day 6: Iran fires missiles at Israel and Iraq again / Explosions in Tehran / Thursday's latest

Iran launched a barrage of rockets into Israel on Thursday morning, the sixth day of the war, sending millions of residents fleeing to air-raid shelters, just hours after an attempt to halt the US attack was blocked in Washington. Thus, the US Senate voted against a motion aimed at stopping the air campaign and requiring the authorization of military action by Congress, which means that Donald Trump can carry out almost unfettered the conflict that continues to expand in the Middle East and beyond, Reuters and AFP note.

The latest events related to the war in the Middle East:

Iran fires missiles at Israel

France journalists in Jerusalem heard explosions on Thursday morning. Iran launched a new volley of rockets at Israel on Thursday, the Israeli military and Iranian state media said, triggering alerts in several regions, including Tel Aviv, but with no reported casualties.

After a pause of more than seven hours of air alerts, the Israeli military announced that it had put the center of the country on alert on Thursday morning and air defenses had gone into action to intercept “missiles fired from Iran towards Israeli territory”.

Iranian state television also said a “barrage of missiles” had been fired at Israel.

Explosions in Tehran

Iran's Tasnim news agency reported Thursday morning that several explosions were heard in Tehran, without giving details of their impact.

“Several explosions were heard and defense systems were activated” in the Iranian capital, the agency said.

Iranian attacks in Kurdistan

Iran said on Thursday it had fired missiles at the headquarters of Kurdish forces in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, which hosts US troops.

“We targeted the headquarters of Kurdish groups opposed to the revolution in Iraqi Kurdistan with three missiles,” said a military statement quoted by the Irna news agency.

The explosion of an oil tanker

An oil tanker anchored off Kuwait suffered a “heavy explosion” and is leaking oil after one of its tanks was damaged, Britain's maritime safety agency UKTMO said on Thursday.

“The captain of an anchored tanker reported seeing and hearing a loud explosion on the port side, then saw a small craft leaving the scene” off the Mubarak al-Kabeer region, the Royal Navy said.

Oil leaked from the vessel, but the crew was safe and sound and no fire broke out, the agency said.

Economic impact

The world economy is “once again put to the test” by the war in the Middle East, the director general of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgieva, said on Thursday from Bangkok.

In South Korea, President Lee Jae Myung on Thursday ordered the activation of a financial market stabilization fund, equivalent to nearly 59 billion euros, because of the war, which caused a spectacular drop in Seoul's stock market.

China has asked its main refiners to suspend exports of diesel and gasoline, Bloomberg reported on Thursday, after the war sparked concerns about a supply shortfall.

Evacuations in Qatar

Qatar announced on Thursday that it was evacuating residents living near the US embassy “as a precaution” following Iranian attacks on the Gulf country.

“Competent authorities are evacuating residents near the American embassy as a temporary precaution,” announced the Ministry of Interior on X, which also asked the population of the emirate to stay at home at night.

The measures come after authorities announced on Tuesday that an Iranian ballistic missile had hit the US Al-Udeid base in Qatar.

Canada's participation

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Thursday that he could not “categorically rule out” his country's military participation in the escalating war in the Middle East.

On Wednesday, he lamented that the United States and Israel acted “without going to the United Nations and without consulting their allies.”

Beirut targeted again

South Beirut, stronghold of the pro-Iranian Hezbollah movement, was the target of a new airstrike on the night of Wednesday to Thursday.

The Israeli military earlier urged the Lebanese population to evacuate a suburb of Beirut amid intensifying hostilities with Hezbollah, with “direct” clashes in southern Lebanon, according to armed groups.

Lebanese authorities have announced three new deaths following Israeli attacks that targeted two cars near Beirut. They had previously said they had recorded 72 deaths and more than 83,000 people displaced since the attacks began on Monday.