Kim Vinnell

Hi, I'm Kim Vinnell in Whanganui, New Zealand.

It's Thursday, March 12th.

Today, tankers burn in the Middle East as Iran warns the world should prepare for oil at $200 a barrel.

Outdated targeting data may be involved in the US striking an Iranian girls' school.

And the Trump administration opens new unfair trade probes to rebuild tariff pressure.

This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes, seven days a week.

A witness captures footage of an oil tanker on fire off the coast of Iraq, the vessel sending huge fireballs and plumes of black smoke into the air.

It's one of two fuel tankers in Iraqi waters which appear to have been attacked by Iranian-controlled boats laden with explosives.

Iran is stepping up its attacks on oil and transport facilities across the Middle East and is warning the world should be ready for oil at $200 a barrel.

Spokesman for the Iranian Armed Forces, Ebrahim Zolfukhari, says Iran will not allow even a single litre of oil to pass through the Strait of Hormuz if that oil is going to benefit the US or Israel.

The US, meanwhile, will release more than 170 million barrels of oil from its strategic reserve in a bid to reduce rocketing oil prices.

part of a bigger release of 400 million barrels by nations signed up to the International Energy Agency.

And U.S.

President Donald Trump has said there's another way the U.S.

could help.

But our global shipping reporter Jonathan Saul says in reality, the U.S.

Navy isn't yet prepared to act.

For news on the impact of all of this on the markets, tune into our sister podcast, Morning Bid, available wherever you get your podcasts.

A strike on an Iranian girls' elementary school, one that could rank among the worst civilian casualty incidents in decades of US conflicts, may have been using outdated American targeting data.

That's according to two sources Reuters spoke to.