It is Saturday, March 14th, and we begin this hour with America's latest movements in the Middle East and the toll that the war has already taken in the 14 days since the United States and Israel launched attacks against Israel.

Last night, the U.S. carried out a large-scale attack on

Iran's main oil export hub, an island in the northern part of the Persian Gulf called Karg Island.

This is a critical site, not just for Iran, but for the global energy market, because about

90% of Iran's crude oil production is handled on Karg Island, and any disruption to its

infrastructure could

rattle the world's economy. U.S. Central Command, however, says that it avoided the island's oil

facilities and focused its targets on military sites. The U.S. is also beefing up its presence

in the Middle East. Five thousand additional service members, including 2,000 U.S. Marines,

are being deployed to the Arabian Sea to support the

war effort against Iran. Meanwhile, the American death toll is now up to 13 personnel killed after a

refueling plane crashed in Western Iraq this week and killed all six crew members on board. The U.S. said

the crash was not caused by hostile fire or friendly fire, but the circumstances are still

under review. Six other Americans were killed at the start of the war when a drone hit a port

in Kuwait and another soldier died the week after, succumbing to injuries that he sustained

from an Iranian attack on a military base in Saudi Arabia. The Pentagon also acknowledged that

about 140 service members have

been injured in the first 10 days of the war, information that was only made public after pressure

from multiple news outlets. The Pentagon said that most of the injuries were minor and that many of the

wounded have already returned to duty, but follow-up reports have indicated that dozens of Americans

remain in hospital after suffering

serious injuries, including brain trauma. The death toll across the region has now surpassed 2,000,

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