By Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart

WASHINGTON, March 17 (Reuters) - The U.S. aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford, deployed in operations against Iran, is expected to temporarily pull into port after a fire on board, U.S. officials said on Tuesday, the 18th day of the war with Tehran.

The carrier, America's newest and the world's largest, is currently located in the Red Sea. It is expected to temporarily go to Souda Bay on the Greek island of Crete, the two officials said.

The USS Gerald R. Ford -- the world's largest aircraft carrier -- is playing a key role in the US-Israeli war against Iran, but has suffered problems during its extended deployment.

The carrier has now been at sea for almost nine months and will reportedly soon set sail for the island of Crete for repairs after a blaze broke out aboard the ship last week.

Below are some key facts about the aircraft carrier.

- Middle East deployment -

March 17 (Reuters) - Iran's security chief Ali Larijani has been killed, Iranian media confirmed on Tuesday.

(Reporting by Yomna Ehab, Editing by Franklin Paul)

By John Irish

PARIS, March 17 (Reuters) - Initial findings by an internal U.N. inquiry suggest Israeli tank fire hit a U.N. position in southern Lebanon on March 6, wounding Ghanaian peacekeepers, according to a Western military source, underscoring the growing risks as Israeli operations expand.

The U.N. peacekeeping mission known as UNIFIL is stationed in southern Lebanon to monitor hostilities along the demarcation line with Israel - an area that is at the heart of clashes between Israeli troops and Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters.

By Patricia Zengerle and Michael Martina

WASHINGTON, March 17 (Reuters) - The war on Iran has not delayed shipments of weapons to Taiwan or changed U.S. policy toward the island, officials from President Donald Trump's administration told members of Congress on Tuesday, despite the demands of the intense air campaign.

"Have we delayed moving things to Taiwan? We haven't," Stanley Brown, principal deputy assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs, told a House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee hearing.

By Maggie Michael

TEHRAN, March 17 (Reuters) - As U.S. and Israeli air strikes pound Tehran, Iranian rescue workers are braving the risk of secondary attacks and say they are suffering trauma from the horror of pulling dead children from the rubble.

The rescue teams are responding to a daily barrage of strikes across the city, and one worker told Reuters that on each of the 10 days he had been working since the war began, he had been on between two and 10 call-outs.

BAGHDAD, March 17 (Reuters) - Rocket and drone attacks on the U.S. embassy and a diplomatic facility in Iraq resumed on Tuesday after a series of earlier strikes the same day, security sources said.

Rockets and an explosive drone targeted the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, triggering sirens and an explosion was heard near the compound, security sources said.

At least three explosive drones also targeted a U.S. diplomatic facility near Baghdad International Airport, activating C-RAM air defence systems, the sources added.

Iran is selecting ships from friendly countries to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial trade waterway cut off by the Middle East war, data trackers indicated Tuesday.

Tehran's forces have closed off the waterway, through which a fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas passes in peacetime, with deadly hits reported on vessels since the war began with US-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28.

But at least five ships exited the Strait via Iranian waters on March 15 and 16, maritime intelligence firm Windward said in an analysis report on Tuesday.

The Iranian women's national football team landed at Istanbul Airport on Tuesday after several members of the delegation withdrew their asylum bids in Australia and decided to return home.

Footage from Turkish news agency DHA showed the players, wearing Iranian national team tracksuits, walking through the arrivals area at Istanbul Airport.

The players arrived in Turkey via Oman and Kuala Lumpur, having left Australia where they were competing in the Asian Cup.

"I am missing my family," one of them told AFP on Monday at Kuala Lumpur Airport.

Thousands of seafarers face dwindling supplies of fuel and water as they wait on board, stranded by the Middle East war, a key shipping body warned Tuesday as it urged governments to help get maritime traffic flowing again.

John Stawpert is marine director of the London-based International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), which represents the world's national shipowner associations and over 80 percent of the world merchant fleet.