By Nidhi Verma and Saurabh Sharma

NEW DELHI, March 14 (Reuters) - India has sought safe passage for 22 of its vessels stranded west of the Strait of Hormuz, a foreign affairs ministry spokesperson said on Saturday, after Iran allowed a few Indian ships to sail through, in a rare exception to the blockade.

Randhir Jaiswal told a press conference that India has stayed in touch with all major parties in the Middle East - including Gulf Cooperation Council countries, Iran, the U.S. and Israel - to convey its priorities, particularly on energy security.

March 14 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday said four of five tanker planes targeted in an attack on a base in Saudi Arabia suffered "virtually no damage."

"Four of the five had virtually no damage, and are already back in service. One had slightly more damage, but will be in the air shortly," Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.

CAIRO, March 14 (Reuters) - The Palestinian Iran-aligned militant group Hamas has called on Iran to not target neighbouring countries, while still reaffirming Tehran's right to respond to the U.S.-Israeli attacks.

This is the first time the group has publicly commented on Iranian policies. It has expressed solidarity with Iran during the war but appeared to steer clear from threatening any retaliatory actions so far.

Kharg Island, targeted in US air strikes on Saturday, is a scrubby stretch of land in the Gulf that handles almost all of Iran's crude exports.

Announcing the strikes, US President Donald Trump described Kharg as a "crown jewel" for Iran and maintained that every military target on the island had been "totally obliterated".

The island, located around 30 kilometres (19 miles) off the Iranian mainland, is a hub for roughly 90 percent of Iran's crude exports, according to a JP Morgan note released earlier this month.

By Sarah El Safty and Nidhi Verma

DUBAI, March 14 (Reuters) - Some oil-loading operations have been suspended in the United Arab Emirates' Fujairah emirate, a major bunkering hub and crude export terminal, after a drone attack and fire on Saturday, industry and trade sources said.

The suspension comes hours after the U.S. attacked military targets on Iran's Kharg Island oil export terminal and Iran's Revolutionary Guards responded by saying that U.S. interests in the UAE - including ports, docks and military locations - were legitimate targets.

Hezbollah suffered heavy losses in a war with Israel more than a year ago, but the Shia movement has now regrouped only to end up fighting what it has called an "existential battle" and which some warn could be its last.

Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war last week when the militant group, funded and armed by Iran, attacked Israel in response to the killing of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in US-Israeli strikes.

By Saurabh Sharma

NEW DELHI, March 14 (Reuters) - Stranded for two weeks at the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas as drones and missiles set ships ablaze nearby, 26-year-old seafarer Ambuj says he has not been home for six months and cannot wait to see his family.

Ambuj, who asked Reuters not to use his second name for security reasons, is one of about 23,000 Indians working on merchant, harbour and offshore vessels across the wider Gulf region, which is bearing the brunt of the war between Iran and the United States and Israel.

US President Donald Trump urged other nations to help secure a vital shipping lane choked off by the war with Iran that showed no signs of slowing on Saturday, as strikes hit the US embassy in Baghdad and a major Emirati energy facility.

Two weeks after the United States and Israel attacked Iran, the entire Gulf region remained in the grip of a conflict that has sent shockwaves through the global economy.

The war has also spilled into Lebanon, where the health ministry says Israeli strikes have killed hundreds as Israel battles the Tehran-backed militant group Hezbollah.

Here are the latest events in the Middle East war:

- South Korea evacuates more than 200 -

South Korea is evacuating 204 of its citizens and seven other nationals from the Middle East using a military aircraft, the foreign ministry said, calling the operation "unprecedented".

The evacuees are due to arrive in South Korea on Sunday afternoon.

- Loud explosions heard in Bahrain's Manama -

Explosions rang out over Bahrain's capital of Manama early on Sunday, two AFP journalists said.

March 14 (Reuters) - The U.S. Embassy in the Iraqi capital Baghdad was hit in a missiles attack, Iraqi security sources told Reuters on Saturday.

The attack caused smoke to rise from the embassy's building, the sources said, without providing details on the damage.

(Reporting by Muayad Hameed; Editing by Stephen Coates)