TEHRAN - Iran unleashed early Wednesday defiant new strikes around the region including drones targeting a Saudi oilfield, as the International Energy Agency reportedly proposed its largest-ever oil reserve release to calm markets and prices.
G7 leaders will meet by video conference later Wednesday to discuss the war's economic consequences, particularly the "energy situation," the French presidency said, with the IEA also due to decide on a proposal for its largest-ever oil reserve release, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The United States on Tuesday said it was hitting Iranian ships capable of mining the Strait of Hormuz, the crucial passageway for oil that has been effectively closed by Iranian threats.
Israel also launched new waves of strikes both in Beirut and Tehran, where residents hunkered down after being smothered by black rain from Israeli bombing of fuel depots.
The US military posted video footage of Iranian boats blasted apart, saying it had destroyed 16 minelayers near the Strait of Hormuz, through which one-fifth of the world's oil passes.
"If for any reason mines were placed, and they are not removed forthwith, the Military consequences to Iran will be at a level never seen before," President Donald Trump wrote on social media.
Trump faces mounting political risks over the surging cost of oil, months before US elections. Crude prices spiked five percent late Tuesday, though it turned lower Wednesday after the reserve release report.
Trump has offered for the US military to accompany tankers through the strait, but his administration acknowledged that a post by the energy secretary announcing a first such escort was untrue.
With an eye on jittery markets, Trump on Monday said the war would be short, although his defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, then said Tehran would be hit by unprecedented fire on Tuesday.
Iran's government, run by Shia Muslim clerics, defiantly said that it carried out its own "most intense and heaviest" salvo early Wednesday firing missiles for three hours at cities across Israel.
AFP journalists heard air raid sirens and explosions in Jerusalem. Emergency services reported no immediate injuries, although Channel 12 said several people were hurt in Tel Aviv. And new salvos were reported early on Wednesday, with no reports of injuries.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they also fired on Bahrain and Iraqi Kurdistan, both of which have a heavy US presence.
Drone and ballistic missiles were intercepted across the Gulf on Wednesday morning, including two drones heading to an oil field in Saudi Arabia, its defence ministry said.
Earlier, Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, a former top commander in the elite Revolutionary Guards, said in an English-language post on X: "Certainly we aren't seeking a ceasefire."
"We believe the aggressor must be punished and taught a lesson that will deter them from attacking Iran again," he added.