Tracey Mumford

From The New York Times, it's The Headlines.

I'm Tracey Mumford.

Today's Monday, March 30th.

Here's what we're covering.

The war in Iran is now in its fifth week and counting.

And this morning, we're looking at how the conflict is expanding, the wave of U.S.

troops that were just deployed, and how gas prices may be about to hit a new high.

To start, another front in the war has opened as the Houthis, an Iran-backed militia in Yemen, opened fire on Israel this weekend and vowed to carry out more attacks going forward.

At the same time, Israel and the U.S.

continued to pound Tehran with airstrikes.

One resident there told The Times that they felt, quote, "...hours and hours of explosions."

Iran also stepped up its retaliation, launching a wave of drones and missiles at a military base in Saudi Arabia, injuring 12 American soldiers.

It was one of the most serious breaches of U.S.

air defenses since the war started.

Also, as of this weekend, President Trump has new options if he decides to turn up the pressure on Iran.

According to two U.S.

military officials, several hundred special ops forces, including Army Rangers and Navy SEALs, have now arrived in the Middle East, joining thousands of recently deployed Marines and Army paratroopers.

And on the energy front,

Trump said that Iran is going to let some oil tankers pass through the Strait of Hormuz.

He framed it as a sign that talks with Iran to end the war were underway and going well.