The five-mile-long coral island - twice the size of London's Heathrow Airport - is in the north of the Persian Gulf, 16 miles (26km) from Iran's coast and roughly 300 miles (483km) north of the Strait of Hormuz, the vital waterway through which 20% of global oil flows, that Tehran has shut down.
President Trump said US forces "obliterated" military targets on Kharg Island, but significantly said he chose not to "wipe out" the island's oil infrastructure. He threatened that this could change if Iran interfered with the safe passage of ships through the strait.
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Tehran warned of a new level of retaliation if the oil infrastructure on Kharg was damaged, vowing on Saturday that Iranian forces would destroy the oil and gas infrastructure of companies cooperating with the US in the region if its sites were targeted, according to Iranian state media.
But why is the island so important?
Why was no oil infrastructure hit?
Kharg is the export terminal for 90% of Iran's oil shipments and has the capacity to load around seven million barrels a day.
The island can handle as many as 10 supertankers at the same time, as its waters are deep enough to enable the docking of tankers that are too large to approach mainland Iran's shallow coastal waters.
Before the war, the island handled most of Iran's roughly 1.7 million barrels of crude exports per day, with the majority of it going to China.
Iranian oil accounts for 11.6% of China's seaborne imports so far in 2026, according to tanker tracker Kpler. "Therefore, if [Mr Trump] was to take that out, he might risk the ire of China," Sky News' military analyst Sean Bell said.
Hitting Kharg's oil infrastructure would also likely lead to oil prices surging even further, after they hit a four-year high on Friday.
Oil exports continuing despite war
In the week before the war broke out, Kharg shipped a record of 3.79 million barrels per day, and operations on the island have continued despite the conflict.
About 13.7 million barrels of oil have been exported from the island since the US-Israeli strikes were launched on 28 February, at a rate of 1.1 million to 1.5 million barrels per day, according to maritime intelligence company TankerTrackers.com and Kpler data.
Multiple tankers were still loading there on Wednesday, according to satellite pictures from Tanker Trackers.
Kharg has storage tanks in the south, along with housing for thousands of workers. It has a storage capacity of roughly 30 million barrels, and held about 18 million barrels of crude as of early March, according to a JP Morgan report citing Kpler data.
Critical to funding of Iranian government
The island has long been seen as a key vulnerability that would provoke a severe response by Tehran if attacked.
Kharg is critical to funding Iran's government and military, and if Iran were to lose control of the island, it would be difficult for the country to function, according to Petras Katinas, an energy researcher at the Royal United Services Institute.
Mr Katinas said a takeover would give the US leverage over negotiations with Iran because the island is "the main node" of its economy.
While there has been speculation that the US could be tempted to seize Kharg Island, experts say that would almost certainly require troops on the ground, making it extremely risky.
One Iranian politician has reportedly already threatened US troops with capture if they attempt to seize its crucial oil hub.
JP Morgan's global commodity research team stressed the wider economic implications of a direct strike on the island, warning before the US struck military targets on Kharg that strikes would "immediately halt the bulk of Iran's crude exports, likely triggering severe retaliation in the Strait of Hormuz or against regional energy infrastructure".
"You take out Kharg infrastructure, then you take two million [barrels per day] out of the market for good - not until the Straits get fixed," added Dan Pickering, chief investment officer for Pickering Energy Partners.
Damage to the island
Iranian state media reported that no oil infrastructure was damaged in the US strikes, adding that air defences, a naval base, airport control tower, and a helicopter hangar were targeted.
The US "successfully struck" more than 90 military targets, including naval mine storage facilities and missile storage bunkers, the US Central Command said.
The 55 crude oil storage tanks, which can hold more than 34 million barrels, are "most likely unscathed", Tanker Trackers said.
"Although the island has some offshore oil production, the bulk of the oil actually derives from the mainland via multiple pipelines," the tracking service said.
"The island first began exporting oil during the summer of 1960 and was built to [accommodate] 7 million barrels per day in exports, to reflect the potential in oil production. Iran hit 6.6 [million barrels per day] in production back in 1976."
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The maritime intelligence company added that satellite imagery from Saturday showed two new tankers began loading 2.7 million barrels of crude oil there.
Activities on the island, including exports and imports, are "proceeding normally" after the strikes, the deputy governor of Bushehr, a port city close to Kharg, said, adding that no military personnel, oil company employees or island residents were killed.
Was the island targeted before?
Despite being viewed as a critical vulnerability, the island has rarely been directly targeted.
The last time was during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, but it did not stop crude oil exports from Kharg.
"When Saddam Hussein raided the island numerous times 40 years ago and destroyed a number of storage tanks, Kharg Island was still able to export over 1.5 million barrels per day," Tanker Trackers said in a post on X.
Officers were called to an address on Horseferry Road, Westminster, at roughly 7.30am on Saturday.
The baby girl, 18 days old, was taken to hospital and pronounced dead, the Metropolitan Police said in a statement.
A 43-year-old woman was arrested on suspicion of murder at the scene and taken into police custody, where she remains.
Detective Chief Inspector Alison Foxwell, who is leading the Met's investigation, said the force "believes the incident occurred within a domestic context".
Two forensics officers could be seen working at a window in a flat on the Peabody Estate on Saturday evening.
A police cordon is in place covering most of Great Peter Street, just off Horseferry Road.
Running from Lambeth Bridge to Greycoat Place, Horseferry Road is a major thoroughfare in Westminster.
The street is home to government buildings, including the Department for Transport's offices, as well as Channel 4's headquarters and multiple residential addresses.
DCI Foxwell said in a statement: "Our thoughts today are with the baby's family. The death of an infant is always an extremely tragic occurrence, and officers are making urgent enquiries around the circumstances."
Anybody with information is urged to come forward.
A member of the public discovered the body in a Coventry City Council bin with a green lid in Cash's Park off Daimler Road at around 5pm on Friday.
The victim, thought to be aged 40 to 50, has not yet been identified.
West Midlands Police believe he may have been hit by a vehicle before being moved to the park.
The force appealed for information to establish who the man is, and where and how he died.
"I urgently want to hear from anyone who believes they may have hit someone in their car yesterday, or who has noticed a change in behaviour from someone they know who drives, or who has noticed damage to a vehicle," Detective Chief Inspector Phil Poole said.
"It's vital that we trace that person as quickly as possible so that we can get their account of what happened.
"If anyone in the area has found that their wheelie bin with a green lid has been stolen, I also want to hear from them."
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Police are working with the council to figure out where the bin was moved from, and have asked anyone with dashcam or CCTV footage from the area to come forward.
Officers remain at the scene as the investigation continues.
The actor was given an eight-and-a-half year sentence in January, having been found guilty of sexually assaulting two teenage girls in 2022.
Alford, real name John Shannon, rose to fame in the BBC's Grange Hill, before starring as Billy Ray in ITV's firefighter drama London's Burning in the 1990s.
A prison service spokesperson said: "John Shannon died in prison on 13 March 2026. As with all deaths in custody, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman will investigate."
Shannon attacked the two girls, aged 14 and 15, while they were drunk after a night out at a pub in April 2022.
The trial heard he had intercourse with the 14-year-old and inappropriately touched the older girl while she was half asleep on a sofa.
The 15-year-old said she felt "absolutely sick" and planned to keep it a secret but had a "mental breakdown" to her friend's mother days later.
All of the offences happened at the home of a third girl, whose father was friends with Alford.
Chris White, from the Crown Prosecution Service, said the disgraced star was "fully aware of the girls' ages, yet he chose to exploit them".
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Both races were set to be held in April and alternatives were considered but rejected, the FIA said in a statement.
The Formula 2, Formula 3 and F1 Academy rounds have also been cancelled.
Organisers said they could not go ahead due to the "ongoing situation in the Middle East region".
Bahrain in particular has been targeted heavily by Iran since war broke out last month.
Stefano Domenicali, President and CEO of Formula 1, said the "difficult" decision was the "right one" amid intensifying strikes across the region.
He added: "I want to take this opportunity to thank the FIA as well as our incredible promoters for their support and total understanding as they were looking forward to hosting us with their usual energy and passion.
"We cannot wait to be back with them as soon as the circumstances allow us to do so."
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