Monday, March 30, 2026 - An Iranian missile attack wounded several U.S. service members and damaged several planes at a base in Saudi Arabia on Friday, a U.S. official familiar with the situation said.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss
sensitive military matters, said the attack on Prince Sultan Air Base involved
an Iranian missile and unmanned drones. It damaged several U.S. refueling
aircraft. It was not clear how many troops were wounded or how severely.
The confirmation, reported earlier by The Wall Street
Journal, comes after satellite imagery that appeared to show the damage to the
aircraft appeared online.
Army Sgt. Benjamin N. Pennington, 26, died days after being
wounded during a March 1 attack on the base.
U.S. Central Command said earlier in the day that more than
300 service members have been wounded in the conflict.
Also Friday, US President Donald Trump said it will be time
for Saudi Arabia and Israel to normalize ties after the war in Iran wraps up
"It's now time," Trump said at a Miami event
sponsored by the Saudi sovereign wealth fund. “We've now taken them out, and
they are out bigly. We got to get into the Abraham Accords.”
Trump has been pressing Israel and Saudi Arabia, the two
biggest powers in the Middle East, for years to normalize ties as part of his
Abraham Accords efforts.
Significant headwinds remain, including Saudi Arabia's
insistence that there needs to be a credible path to a Palestinian state before
it normalizes commercial and diplomatic ties with Israel.
Meanwhile the Iranian ambassador to the United Nations in
Geneva said Tehran has agreed to "facilitate and expedite"
humanitarian aid through the Strait of Hormuz, even as it endures strikes on
its nuclear facilities.
Ali Bahreini said Tehran accepted a request from the U.N to
let humanitarian aid and agricultural shipments move through the vital
waterway, which usually handles a fifth of the world's oil shipments and nearly
a third of the world's fertilizer trade.
The aid plan would be the first breakthrough at the shipping
chokepoint after a month of war. While markets and governments have largely
focused on blocked supplies of oil and natural gas, the restriction of
fertilizer ingredients and trade threatens farming and food security around the
world.
"This measure reflects Iran's continued commitment to
supporting humanitarian efforts and ensuring that essential aid reaches those
in need without delay," Bahreini said in a post on X. The U.N. earlier
announced a task force to address the ripple effects the Iran war has had on
aid delivery.
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