STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
In a few minutes, we hear an advocate for regime change in Iran. We will ask John Bolton how he thinks it's going. The last time the United States and Israel attacked Iran, they called it a 12-day war. The current war may need some different name because we have reached Day 12 with no sign of the end. Iran is talking of imposing more pain in retaliation for the U.S. and Israeli attacks. Its government said they now consider banks and economic centers a target in the Middle East. This after Iranians say one of their banks was targeted. Pete Hegseth, the civilian head of the U.S. military, made a promise on Tuesday.
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PETE HEGSETH: Today will be yet again our most intense day of strikes inside Iran.
INSKEEP: That was yesterday. So how much damage is the U.S. doing? NPR's international correspondent Aya Batrawy is in Dubai. Hi there.
AYA BATRAWY, BYLINE: Good morning.
INSKEEP: What have you learned?
BATRAWY: Well, internet is cut across Iran, and many people are fearful of sharing what they're seeing, even in messages due to fear of retaliation from the government. But, you know, based on the information that is coming out from official statements and activist groups, we know that already more than 1,200 people have been killed across Iran. The Iranian Red Crescent rescue service also published a video overnight showing a residential area struck in the capital, Tehran, standing over the rubble of a building there. And people who've left to Tehran through the Turkish border have been telling NPR they're fleeing because the sky is red from bombings, and they have also reported multistory residential buildings being flattened into Tehran.
Now, in addition to homes, we've also seen damage emerging from centuries-old landmarks and palaces in Tehran and cities south like Isfahan, 300 miles south of Tehran. But, you know, the Pentagon and Israeli military are only confirming hits on military targets, and a new video from the U.S. military shows strikes on Iranian vessels yesterday, including 16 Iranian mine-laying ships near the Strait of Hormuz. You know, that's that narrow waterway that much of the world's oil was passing through.
INSKEEP: Oh, I'm glad you mentioned oil. I want to tell you in Dubai what's happening here in the United States. Gas prices have gone up sharply in the past week. People do notice. I was talking with somebody yesterday who said, you know, I don't follow politics, but they knew to the penny how much they'd been paying for gas. So that's the U.S. What's happening in energy markets in your part of the world and elsewhere in the world?
BATRAWY: Yeah. So those prices are going up in the U.S. because those ships are stuck, unable to get through the Strait of Hormuz, but also because Iran has been attacking energy sites across the Gulf in response to this war. And the biggest oil refinery in the Gulf was actually just hit yesterday here in the UAE. Now, before that hit, it was capable of refining nearly a million barrels of crude oil a day. Now, that is an addition now to production cuts and suspensions we're already seeing in countries like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Iraq and other Gulf Arab states. And, you know, the cost of gas is not only rising in the U.S., as you mentioned, but also in places with fragile economies like Egypt and parts of Nigeria where fuel has gone up as much as 40% in some cities, sparking panic buying and long fuel lines there. In Thailand, people are also being asked now to take the stairs to save on energy costs. And so countries are now discussing releasing some of those emergency strategic oil reserves that they have in order to bring prices down.
INSKEEP: You know, I appreciate the facts that you've got, but what are the unknowns here, the things we don't know?
BATRAWY: So one of the unknowns right now is about Mojtaba Khamenei. Now, he's the new supreme leader that was announced this week, but we've heard no public statements from him since his selection this week. And there are reports trickling out of Iran he may have been wounded in the attack that killed his father, the former supreme leader, and members of his immediate family, but there's no way to independently confirm that.
Now, also, we're struggling to get a clear picture of what's happening at bases where U.S. troops are in the Gulf. The White House was asked and confirmed that around 150 U.S. soldiers have been wounded since the start of the war in addition to seven killed. But it is increasingly difficult to report on these developments. There are censorship laws in Israel and restrictions on social media posts in the Gulf related to the war, but also satellite imagery is becoming restricted. Planet Labs, which is a commercial satellite imagery company used by many, announced a 14-day delay to the release of imagery over the region, including Iran, but also those bases where U.S. troops have been hit.
INSKEEP: NPR's Aya Batrawy. Thanks very much for the update. Really appreciate it.
BATRAWY: Thanks, Steve. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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