Iran live updates: 7th killed service member is identified

The State Department says it's aware of 20,000 Americans who have returned to the U.S. from the Middle East since Saturday. The department said its task force has helped 10,000 Americans.

The department also said it is expanding its crisis intake form -- which previously covered the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Israel -- to now include Bahrain and Kuwait.

The Trump administration has faced criticism for not having a plan in place to evacuate Americans in advance of the joint operation. The State Department on Monday urged Americans to depart from 14 countries in the region using commercial means, but there are significant disruptions in air travel.

In addition to the charter flight that left the Middle East Wednesday night, the department said it expects "additional flights and ground transports" to take place Thursday in order to move Americans out of the region.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said Thursday that a Bahamas-flagged tanker was hit by an explosion in the northern Persian Gulf late on Wednesday.

The explosion occurred while the vessel was empty and at anchor around 30 nautical miles southeast of the Kuwaiti coast, the UKMTO said.

"The Master" of the tanker reported "a large explosion on the port side then seeing a small craft leave the vicinity," the UKMTO said.

Iranian state media on Thursday carried a claim by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' public relations office that IRGC naval forces attacked an oil tanker in the northern Persian Gulf.

-ABC News' Zoe Magee

Authorities in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, said on Thursday that six foreign nationals were injured by falling debris after the "successful interception of drones by air defence systems."

Debris fell in two locations in the ICAD 2 area to the south of Abu Dhabi city. "The incident resulted in minor and moderate injuries to six Pakistani and Nepali nationals," the Abu Dhabi Media Office said.

-ABC News Zoe Magee and Morgan Winsor

A series of loud explosions were heard in Doha, Qatar, on Thursday, with the Defense Ministry saying in a statement that the country had been subjected to "a missile attack."

"Air defense systems are intercepting the missile attack," the ministry said in a post to X.

-ABC News' Marcus Moore, Dragana Jovanovic and Colm O'Molloy