WASHINGTON, March 20 (Reuters) - The United States military is deploying thousands of additional Marines and Sailors to the Middle East, three U.S. officials told Reuters on Friday.

One of the officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that the USS Boxer, along with the Marie Expeditionary Unit aboard, were departing the West Coast of the United States about 3 weeks ahead of schedule.

(Reporting by Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

WASHINGTON, March 20 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump assailed NATO allies on Friday over their lack of support for the U.S.-Israel war against Iran, calling the longtime U.S. allies "cowards."

"Without the U.S.A., NATO IS A PAPER TIGER!" Trump said in a social media post. "COWARDS, and we will REMEMBER!"

(Reporting by Doina Chiacu; editing by Michelle Nichols)

Just a trickle of cargo ships and tankers -- most of them Iranian -- have made it through the Strait of Hormuz since Iranian forces effectively blocked the crucial trade route in the Middle East war.

Here are facts and figures about vessels that have passed through the 167-kilometre (104-mile) long strait since the war broke out with US-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28.

- 95% shipping drop -

From March 1 to 1600 GMT on March 23, commodities carriers made just 144 crossings, according to analytics firm Kpler -- a 95 percent decrease from peacetime.

US President Donald Trump on Friday ruled out reaching a ceasefire agreement with Iran, as more Marines headed to the Middle East in a possible sign of a coming ground operation.

Trump insisted Washington had the upper hand in the three-week-old war, despite Iran effectively blockading the Strait of Hormuz in a move that has sent global oil prices skyrocketing.

"I think we have won," Trump told journalists at the White House alongside Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

KYIV, March 20 (Reuters) - Kyiv has deployed 228 specialists to help Middle Eastern countries with drone defence, and is working with Middle Eastern leaders to sign "serious agreements," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday.

Zelenskiy also told reporters that Ukrainian and U.S. working groups would continue work on bilateral documents between Kyiv and Washington and discuss a wide-ranging drone deal at a meeting in the U.S. at the weekend.

(Reporting by Olena Harmash, writing by Max Hunder; Editing by Aidan Lewis)

PRAGUE, March 20 (Reuters) - Czech investigators are probing an overnight fire at an industrial complex as potentially being a deliberate attack, officials said on Friday, following media reports that a group protesting against Israeli weapons claimed responsibility.

Firefighters said on X that they had responded to a fire at a storage hall in a complex in Pardubice, 120 km (75 miles) east of Prague. No one was injured in the fire, which spread to another building.

Far from the Middle East war, fallout from oil disruptions is reverberating across the world, unsettling lives from Lagos to Manila as people adjust to fuel price hikes and gas shortages.

Benchmark oil prices are hovering around $100, a surge of around 40 to 50 percent since the war against Iran began to disrupt oil supplies.

Weeks before war broke out, Adeola Sanni, a 36-year-old Nigerian entrepreneur making corporate uniforms in Lagos, had planned to hire an additional worker.

By Joe Cash and Xiuhao Chen

Beijing, March 20 (Reuters) - China called for an end to the war in the Middle East on Friday, warning of the impact on global energy, shipping and trade, with the near three-week conflict showing no sign of slowing.

"History and reality have repeatedly shown the world that force is not the solution to problems and armed conflict will only breed new hatred," Lin Jian, a spokesperson for China's foreign ministry said when asked whether Beijing had a message for Muslim communities as they mark the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

US-Israeli airstrikes after almost three weeks of war have killed Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei and a whole echelon of the political and military elite in the Islamic republic.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday said Iran is "being decimated" while the Israeli army on its Persian-language X account described the Iranian leadership as a "house of cards that is collapsing".

But several key figures have survived and the Islamic republic has shown resilience in rapidly replacing killed leaders and also keeping up the war against the US and Israel.

NEAR TEL AVIV, Israel, March 20 (Reuters) - France's Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said he did not see an obvious end to the conflict in the Middle East in the short-term, but that France and its allies would continue to work towards trying to find a lasting solution.

"There is no obvious short-term way out of the ongoing regional escalation, which has in some ways been unfolding since October 7, 2023. But this must in no way serve as a pretext for inaction," Barrot told reporters after meeting with Israeli counterpart Gideon Saar in Tel Aviv.