* Trump warns Iran not to attack neighbors over Israel's

South Pars strike

* Iran strikes hit Qatar gas facilities, target Riyadh

* Islamic foreign ministers condemn Iran attacks on

neighbors

* Trump considering sending more troops to Middle East

By Andrew Mills and Timour Azhari

DOHA/RIYADH, March 19 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald

Trump said an angry Israel had "violently lashed out" and

attacked Iran's major gas field, a significant escalation in the

U.S.-Israeli war, but said Israel would not make further such

attacks unless Iran retaliated.

Wednesday's attack on the huge South Pars gas field drove

oil prices higher and prompted a threat by Iran to attack oil

and gas targets across the Gulf, while it fired missiles at

Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

The escalation heightens the unprecedented disruption of

global energy supplies that has raised the political stakes for

Trump, who joined Israel in attacking Iran nearly four weeks

ago.

State oil giant QatarEnergy reported "extensive damage"

after Iranian missiles hit the Ras Laffan Industrial City that

processes about a fifth of global gas supply.

IRAN HITS MASSIVE QATAR OIL FIELD, SAUDI CAPITAL

Saudi Arabia said it intercepted and destroyed four

ballistic missiles launched toward Riyadh on Wednesday and an

attempted drone attack on a gas facility in its east.

On Thursday, Iran again attacked Qatar's gas facilities, and

its missiles also targeted the Saudi capital.

QatarEnergy reported "sizeable fires" and extensive damage

at several of its liquefied natural gas facilities hit by

missile attacks early on Thursday.

Trump said the United States did not have advance knowledge

of Israel's attack and that Qatar had not been involved. The

Wall Street Journal, however, reported that Trump had approved

of Israel's plan to attack Iran's natural gas field.

"Israel, out of anger for what has taken place in the Middle

East, has violently lashed out at a major facility known as

South Pars Gas Field in Iran," Trump posted on X on Wednesday.

"Unfortunately, Iran did not know this, or any of the

pertinent facts pertaining to the South Pars attack, and

unjustifiably and unfairly attacked a portion of Qatar's LNG Gas

facility.

"NO MORE ATTACKS WILL BE MADE BY ISRAEL pertaining to this

extremely important and valuable South Pars Field unless Iran

unwisely decides to attack a very innocent, in this case, Qatar.

"In which instance the United States of America, with or

without the help or consent of Israel, will massively blow up

the entirety of the South Pars Gas Field at an amount of

strength and power that Iran has never seen or witnessed

before."

TRUMP CONSIDERS SENDING MORE TROOPS TO MIDDLE EAST

South Pars is the Iranian sector of the world's largest

natural gas deposit, which Iran shares with Qatar, a close U.S.

ally and host of the United States' biggest military base in the

Gulf.

Since the start of the conflict, Tehran has targeted not

just Israel, but U.S. diplomatic and military facilities across

the Gulf and warned its neighbors not to host attacks on Iran.

With no sign of de-escalation, Trump is considering sending

thousands more U.S. troops to the Middle East, a U.S. official

and three other people familiar with the planning told Reuters.

Those troops could be used to restore the safe passage of

oil tankers through the narrow Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint

for a fifth of the world's oil trade.

Trump this week asked U.S. allies to help reopen the strait,

but his request has so far been rebuffed. Iran's closure of the

strait has spiked energy prices and fueled fears of a rise in

inflation globally.

An unknown projectile hit a vessel 4 nautical miles east of

Qatar's Ras Laffan LNG facility, the United Kingdom Maritime

Trade Operations said on Thursday. All crew were reported safe,

it said.

The foreign ministers of 12 Muslim-majority countries

meeting in Riyadh denounced Iran's strikes on Gulf neighbors,

calling for an immediate halt.

Iran's targeting of residential areas and civilian

infrastructure, such as oil facilities, airports and

desalination plants, could not be justified under any

circumstances, the ministers said in a statement.

"This pressure from Iran will backfire politically and

morally and certainly we reserve the right to take military

actions, if deemed necessary," Saudi Foreign Minister Prince

Faisal bin Farhan told a press conference after the diplomats

met.

Interceptors were seen fired from near the Riyadh hotel

where the conference was held around the time the ministers

gathered for the consultative meeting on the Iran war.

SAUDI PORT HIT, UAE SHUTS GAS FACILITY

Saudi Arabia's Red Sea port of Yanbu - currently the only

export outlet for Gulf Arab countries' crude - was hit by an

aerial attack on Thursday, an industry source said, adding there

was minimal impact. It was unclear what was targeted and by

whom. Aramco did not immediately respond to an emailed request

for comment.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on Thursday issued

an evacuation warning to several oil facilities across Saudi

Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, including SAMREF, a

joint venture between Aramco and Exxon Mobil.

The UAE shut down its Habshan gas facility after it

intercepted missiles fired in what its foreign ministry called a

"terrorist attack" by Iran.

European Union leaders will seek ways to curb the jump in

energy prices triggered by the Iran war when they meet on

Thursday but they have few easy options. European gas prices

have increased by more than 60% since the war on Iran began on

February 28.

More than 3,000 people have been killed in Iran since the

U.S.-Israeli attacks began, the U.S.-based Iran human rights

group HRANA estimates.

Authorities in Lebanon say 900 have been killed there and

800,000 forced to flee their homes. Iranian attacks have killed

people in Iraq and across the Gulf states, and at least 13 U.S.

military service members have been killed in the war.