* Israeli military says strikes launched on targets in

Tehran

* Iran strikes badly damage Qatar gas output

* Trump says US not told in advance of Israel's gas field

strike Bahrain, Kuwait, UAE say under attack early on Friday

By Andrew Mills, Trevor Hunnicutt and Maayan Lubell

DOHA/WASHINGTON/JERUSALEM, March 20 (Reuters) - Israel

launched a fresh wave of attacks on Iran on Friday, a day after

President Donald Trump told it not to repeat its strikes on

Iranian natural gas infrastructure, which sharply escalated the

U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.

The conflict has killed thousands of people, spread to

neighbouring nations and hit the global economy since the United

States and Israel launched strikes on February 28, after talks

about Tehran's nuclear program failed to yield a deal.

"The IDF has just begun a wave of strikes against the

infrastructure of the Iranian terror regime in the heart of

Tehran," a spokesperson for the Israeli Defense Forces said,

without providing details.

Bahrain, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates said they were

dealing with missile attacks in the early hours of Friday,

following days of Iranian strikes on regional energy

infrastructure that has roiled global markets.

Energy prices jumped on Thursday after Iran responded to an

Israeli attack on a major gas field by hitting Qatar's Ras

Laffan Industrial City, which processes around a fifth of the

world's liquefied natural gas, causing damage that will take

years to repair.

Saudi Arabia's main port on the Red Sea, where it has been

able to divert some exports to avoid Iran's closure of the

Gulf's exit point, the Strait of Hormuz, was also attacked on

Thursday.

But oil prices fell on Friday as leading European nations

and Japan offered to help secure safe passage for ships through

the Strait of Hormuz, the conduit for a fifth of the world's oil

supplies, and the U.S. outlined moves to boost oil output.

The strikes on regional energy facilities underscored Iran's

continued ability to exact a heavy price for the U.S.-Israeli

campaign, and the limits of air defenses in protecting the

Gulf's most valuable and strategic energy assets.

Trump, politically vulnerable to rising fuel prices among

his core voters ahead of November's midterm elections, has

lashed out at allies who have responded cautiously to his

demands that they help secure the Strait of Hormuz, the conduit

for around a fifth of the world's oil.

He said he had told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin

Netanyahu not to repeat the attack on energy infrastructure.

"I told him, 'Don't do that', and he won't do that," he told

reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday.

Netanyahu later said Israel had acted alone in the bombing

of Iran's South Pars gas field and confirmed that Trump had

asked Israel to hold off on such attacks.

Iran is being "decimated" and no longer had the capacity to

enrich uranium or make ballistic missiles, but a revolution in

the country would require a "ground component," he said, without

elaborating.

ENERGY CRISIS ESCALATES

With no end in sight to the conflict, and the threat of a

global "oil shock" growing by the day, Britain, Canada, France,

Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Japan issued a joint

statement expressing "our readiness to contribute to appropriate

efforts to ensure safe passage through the Strait".

They also promised "other steps to stabilise energy markets,

including working with certain producing nations to increase

output".

There was little indication of any immediate move. German

Chancellor Friedrich Merz reiterated that any contribution to

securing the strait would come only after hostilities ended.

The resistance by major U.S. allies to becoming involved in

the war reflects scepticism over a conflict European leaders

have said has unclear objectives that they did not seek and over

which they have little control.

Israel's bombing of Iran's South Pars gas field, which Trump

said the U.S. had not known about, suggested gaps in

coordination of strategy and war aims between the main

protagonists.

Adding to the confusion around the attack, three Israeli

officials said the operation had taken place in consultation

with the United States, but was unlikely to be repeated.

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard told the

House intelligence committee that U.S. and Israeli goals

differed: "...the Israeli government has been focused on

disabling the Iranian leadership. The president has stated that

his objectives are to destroy Iran's ballistic missiles

launching capability, their ballistic missile production

capability, and their navy."

'A NEW STAGE IN THE WAR'

Iran's military said strikes on Iran's energy infrastructure

had led to "a new stage in the war" in which it had attacked

energy facilities linked to the United States.

"If strikes (on Iran's energy facilities) happen again,

further attacks on your energy infrastructure and that of your

allies will not stop until it is completely destroyed," Iranian

military spokesman Ebrahim Zolfaqari said, according to state

media.

QatarEnergy's CEO told Reuters the Iranian attacks had

knocked out a sixth of Qatar's LNG export capacity, worth $20

billion a year, and that repairs would take three to five years.

Israeli media reported that an Iranian strike hit oil

facilities in Israel's port of Haifa, causing damage but no

casualties.