Iran: Oil prices soar as attacks on shipping, oil infrastructure continue

Attacks on shipping traffic and energy infrastructure pushed oil above $100 a barrel on Thursday, as American and Israeli strikes pounded Iran with no sign of an end to the war in sight.

Iran hit a container ship off the coast of Dubai, caused a blaze near Bahrain's international airport, targeted a major Saudi oil field with a drone attack and forced Iraq to halt operations at all the country's oil terminals after an attack on its port of Basra on the Persian Gulf.

Since the United States and Israel sparked with war with a Feb. 28 attack on Iran, Tehran has embarked on a campaign generated at inflicting enough global economic pain to pressure them to relent in their attacks.

In addition to attacking energy infrastructure around the region, Iran has a stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic waterway leading from the Persian Gulf toward the Indian Ocean through which a fifth of the world's oil is transported.

With traffic in the Strait effectively stopped, the price of Brent crude oil, the international standard, rose another 9% on Thursday to more than $100 a barrel, up some 38% over what it cost when the war started.