Saudi Arabia condemns Houthi maritime blockade
Saudi Arabia on Monday condemned an announcement by Yemen’s Houthis of a maritime blockade of the kingdom, as the Iran-backed rebels threatened the top oil exporter’s ability to bypass the strait of Hormuz.
In a statement the Saudi foreign ministry said it “expresses the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s strongest condemnation of the statements made by the so-called military spokesman of the terrorist Houthi militia ... imposing a maritime blockade on the Kingdom.”
The kingdom, it said, “will take all necessary measures to protect its vessels in accordance with international law.”
It added that Riyadh “continues to support the brotherly Yemeni people and their legitimate government”.
Iranian state TV is reporting explosions in the port city of Bandar Abbas. And the Mehr news agency is reporting air defence systems being activated near the Bushehr nuclear power plant.
US launches new round of strikes on Iran
The US military began a fresh round of strikes against Iran about 20 minutes ago, according to Centcom.
“The strikes are designed to further degrade Iranian military capabilities used to attack commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz,” it said in a statement.
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Lebanon army begins taking over southern 'pilot zones', says US
The Lebanese army began taking charge of security in three southern villages on Monday, the United States said, as a deal to secure an Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon and the disarmament of Hezbollah faced its first test on the ground.
The US state department said operations had started in “pilot zones” in Froun, Srifa and Zawtar al-Gharbiya “in accordance with the Trilateral Framework and under the auspices of the Military Coordination Group for Lebanon.”
Spokesman Tommy Pigott described the step as a direct outcome of talks held between Israeli and Lebanese delegations in Rome last week.
The framework, signed by Lebanon, Israel and the US on 26 June, envisions a phased Israeli withdrawal from positions in southern Lebanon.
In exchange, the Lebanese Armed Forces are to assume sole security control of vacated areas and certify that they have been cleared of Hezbollah weapons and infrastructure.
Hezbollah has rejected the framework, with the Iran-backed group insisting any arrangement in Lebanon be linked to wider negotiations between Washington and Tehran.
It has not said whether it will resist implementation in the designated areas.
The agreement does not set a timetable for Israel’s withdrawal. Israeli officials have also vowed that their forces will remain in a “security zone” six miles deep along the frontier for as long as Hezbollah remains armed.
The Lebanese military said on Monday that troops “continue to carry out their missions in the southern regions, including the towns of Froun and Srifa.”
“In parallel, coordination is underway with the Military Coordination Group for Lebanon (MCG4L) to begin deployment in the town of Zawtar al-Gharbiya,” awaiting Israel’s withdrawal from there, the army added.
The mayor of Froun, Hassan Bazzi, told Al Jazeera on Monday that the Lebanese army has not yet begun deploying in Zawtar al-Gharbiya, because Israeli forces are yet to withdraw from the outskirts of the town.
“There have been no new developments in the town of Froun. The situation remains unchanged,” said.
Lebanese president Joseph Aoun is set to meet with Donald Trump in Washington on Tuesday.
An explosive-laden drone was shot down near Iraq’s al-Harir air base which houses US forces, security sources told Reuters.
There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage from the incident which was reported east of Erbil.
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Here is more from Jordan’s army on intercepting the missiles coming from Iran.
“The air defence system intercepted and downed tonight three missiles coming from Iranian territory that entered Jordanian airspace and targeted the kingdom’s territory,” the army said in a statement, adding it “did not lead to any injuries or material damage”.
Jordan's military says three Iranian missiles intercepted
Jordan’s armed forces said three missiles launched from Iran have been intercepted, state TV is reporting.
No injuries or material damage has been reported.
Sirens sounded in the capital Amman on Monday evening, AFP reported.
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The mayor of the Lebanese town of Froun, Hassan Bazzi, said the Lebanese army has not begun deploying troops in the town of Zawtar al-Gharbiya because Israeli forces are yet to withdraw from the outskirts of the town.
He told Al Jazeera: “This is just talk. There have been no new developments in the town of Froun. The situation remains unchanged.”
Sirens sounded in the Jordanian city of Amman in the last few minutes, Agence France-Presse reports.
We’ll get you more information as we get it.
Even by the brutal standards of militant settler violence in the West Bank, the raid on Deir Jarir late on Sunday night that killed two Palestinians and left another in hospital with a gunshot wound was extreme.
Palestinians in the town said settlers from a nearby outpost arrived after 9pm on Sunday claiming that they were searching for stolen livestock. Israeli soldiers and police soon joined them, protecting them as they sought to take several villagers’ sheep by force.
But when villagers raised the alarm and a crowd gathered, soldiers shot two men, beginning a night of three successive raids by settlers from nearby outposts and Israeli soldiers that lasted until after 2am, according to Palestinian residents of Deir Jarir.
Saber Ajaj, a relative of one of the victims, 53-year-old Odeh Farajna, said he found him moments after he had been shot through the chest. Farajna, a member of the village council, owned a flower shop and helped with the stonework at the local graveyard.
Netanyahu will not be arrested while in US, says Trump
Donald Trump also said on Monday that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu will not be arrested when he visits the United States, after New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani said he was still considering the move.
“Benjamin Netanyahu will not be arrested, in any way, shape, or form, while in the United States of America,” Trump wrote on social media , without referring to the mayor’s comments.
Trump did not mention Mamdani in his Truth Social post, but credited Israel with helping in the war against Iran.
Over the weekend, Mamdani said he was reviewing whether his administration could arrest Netanyahu if as expected the Israeli prime minister visits the city for the UN general assembly in September.
“I believe that prime minister Netanyahu belongs in The Hague,” Mamdani told the New York Times’s the Interview podcast on Saturday, referring to the Dutch city that is home to the international criminal court, which issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu in November 2024 over alleged war crimes in Gaza.
“He’s a war criminal who has been charged by the international criminal court, and what you will find is that is an opinion that is held by many, purely because of what his actions have wrought over these past many years,” Mamdani said.
Mamdani said it was unclear to him whether he has the legal authority to order the New York police department (NYPD), which he oversees, to detain a foreign leader like Netanyahu. But he said he was in “an active conversation” with the city’s law department about the matter.
“Whatever the law allows me to do in New York City, that’s what we will do,” Mamdani added. “But we won’t be writing our own laws to that end.”
The warrant which the ICC issued for the arrest of Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders accused them of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, including “starvation as a method of warfare, and … murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts”.
Here’s our story on Mamdani’s comments:
Trump says Iran 'will pay' for killing US soldiers 'many times over'
Donald Trump said on Monday that Iran would “pay” for killing US soldiers “many times over” after multiple service members were killed in action over the weekend.
The US president wrote on Truth Social:
Every time Iran kills an American Soldier they will pay for that killing many times over! This directive has been passed on to Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Daniel Caine, and every Leader in the Military.
The US military on Monday identified two soldiers killed in Jordan while defending against Iranian ballistic missile and drone attacks. An examination of remains is underway to determine whether they belong to a third service member who was reporting missing in that attack. And in Iraq, another US service member died after “a controlled detonation” of an Iranian drone.
It brings the total number of deaths in the war with Iran, which the US and Israel started in late February, to 17.
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Iran’s president says country is in ‘full-scale war’ after expansion of US attacks
Iran’s president has said the country is in a “full-scale war” after the United States expanded its aerial campaign and Tehran struck Washington’s Gulf allies, even as diplomats say talks are ongoing to de-escalate.
Iranian media reported strikes around Tabriz, believed to hold underground missile bases, as well as Bushehr, home to the country’s only operational civilian nuclear power plant. The US military said it had struck “military command centers, air defence and coastal surveillance sites, maritime capabilities, missile and drone launch sites and communications networks”.
Iran launched attacks against Bahrain, which hosts the US navy’s fifth fleet, and Kuwait, in addition to striking tankers in the strait of Hormuz, which carried a fifth of global oil and gas supplies before the war. Bahrain said its country’s air traffic systems were damaged by the strikes, but said traffic was unaffected.
The Iran-allied Houthis in Yemen also announced a blockade of Saudi ports.
“The reality is that today the Islamic Republic of Iran is engaged in a full-scale war,” the Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, said in a statement on Monday, warning it might have to endure more strikes.
But in a sign that talks could still stop the escalating round of conflict, an Iranian official told Reuters that mediators gave Iran a proposal for a 10-day-ceasefire to find ways to revive the MoU. The proposal follows a statement by Iran that diplomacy with the US was ongoing despite the fighting, without giving details on the content of the discussions.
Iran’s interior minister was expected to travel to Islamabad on Monday, Agence France-Presse reported.
“We have been informed by mediators, we have received messages – without going into details – but the main point is that the diplomatic apparatus has been active in recent days and ideas have been conveyed to us by certain mediators,” Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said at a press conference in Tehran.
Hours earlier, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said the US was still open to negotiations with Iran, but that “it has to be real”.
“We’re going to continue to respond. If the door opens to diplomacy – if the guys that want to do something productive for Iran win and take control of that system, or take control of the negotiations – that’ll be a very positive development,” Rubio said.
France warns of consequences after Iranian security services detain embassy staff
French foreign minister Jean-Noël Barrot said on Monday there would be consequences after two of its embassy officials in Tehran were detained for several hours by Iranian security services.
Barrot said the French officials were detained without reason for several hours, interrogated and physically intimidated before finally being able to return to the embassy.
“I let Iran’s foreign minister know that these extremely serious and unacceptable violations of the integrity of our agents could not go without consequences,” he wrote on X.
Further to our earlier post on Yemen’s Houthis announcing a maritime embargo of Saudi Arabia, the Iran-backed group did not say how they planned to impose the embargo.
Tensions between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia were inflamed earlier this month after Yemeni government planes, supported by Saudi Arabia, bombed the Houthi-controlled Sana’a airport in protest at Iranian efforts to send a plane to the city containing a Houthi delegation returning from the funeral of the Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei. The Houthis responded by targeting Saudi Arabia’s Abha international airport.
The Houthis’ naval blockade, if enforced, could further strain Saudi Arabia’s economy by cutting off access to its Red Sea ports, which have been vital for oil exports as renewed fighting limits passage through the strait of Hormuz.
The blockade is also expected to hurt global markets that rely on Saudi Arabia – the world’s leading crude exporter, producing over 10m barrels per day – for their energy imports.
Farea al-Muslimi, a research fellow at the London-based Chatham House think-tank, told AFP “this is an attempt by the Houthis to basically go into a war with Saudi Arabia”. A war “with Saudi shipment is a war with the world”, he added.
The Houthis have previously tried to cut off shipping through the Red Sea, leveraging the Bab al-Mandab Strait, a chokepoint at its southern tip which vessels must navigate when travelling to or from the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean.
They previously launched drone and missile attacks on ships transiting the strategic waterway beginning in November 2023 during the Gaza war, forcing vessels to take lengthy detours around Africa instead of travelling directly from Europe.
“Even if no ships are attacked, the announcement alone is likely to disrupt shipping and create uncertainty for Saudi ports,” Mohammed al-Basha, of the US-based risk advisory Basha Report, told AFP. “Whether the Houthis move from threats to direct action remains the critical issue.”
Hamas names Khalil al-Hayya as new overall leader
Hamas has named Khalil al-Hayya as its new overall leader, according to a statement from the Palestinian militant group, succeeding Yahya Sinwar who was killed by the Israeli military in Gaza in October 2024.
Hayya, the group’s exiled Gaza chief and top negotiator, is generally seen as more hardline than Khaled Meshaal, the head of the militant group’s office in exile and the other frontrunner for the leadership.
Lebanese army begins taking over 'pilot zones' in southern Lebanon, state department says
The US state department has said the Lebanese army has began taking charge of security in three southern villages under so-called “pilot zone operations”.
“Today, pilot zone operations began in the villages of Froun, Srifa, and Zawtar Al-Gharbiya in accordance with the Trilateral Framework and under the auspices of the Military Coordination Group for Lebanon,” the US state department said in a statement.
The state department described the step as “a direct outcome” of talks held between Israeli and Lebanese delegations in Rome last week, adding that Washington would keep working with both sides “to implement the framework to a successful conclusion”.
Lebanon and Israel announced a “framework agreement” in late June, laying out a plan for Israeli forces to withdraw from southern Lebanon, in exchange for the disarmament of Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Lebanese militant group.
The Lebanese president, Joseph Aoun, will reportedly present a plan in Washington to Donald Trump tomorrow on how to disarm Hezbollah and secure Israel’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon. Hezbollah has firmly rejected the government’s direct talks with Israel and efforts by the state, which it operates independently of, to strip it of its arms.
As well as killing many Lebanese civilians in airstrikes across the country, the Israeli military has destroyed dozens of villages in the areas it occupies, something Human Rights Watch said could amount to a war crime. Hundreds of thousands of Lebanese people remain displaced from their homes.
Israel has occupied large swathes of south Lebanon in what it calls a “security zone” and says it is trying to protect its northern communities from the threat of Hezbollah. Lebanon was drawn into the war when Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel on 2 March to avenge the US-Israeli killing of Iran’s former supreme leader in Tehran in late February.
Kuwait army says it is responding to Iranian attacks
Kuwait’s army wrote in a post on X that it is “confronting” missile and drone attacks from Iran, adding that any loud explosions heard will be the sound of air defence systems intercepting aerial attacks. “Everyone is kindly requested to adhere to the safety and security instructions issued by the competent authorities,” it added.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps reportedly said earlier that it hit US military targets in Kuwait, with the Fars news agency cited as saying the Ali Al Salem air base was targeted. The Kuwaiti army also earlier said its air defences were responding to hostile drones from Iran.
Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, speaker of Iran’s parliament, posted on X that the US keeps bringing new military equipment into the region while also claiming they want to end the war.
He said Iran has reached a stage of mastery in recognising American games and have prepared themselves as such.
Air sirens are again sounding in Bahrain, for the fourth time in less than 24 hours, with the ministry of interior urging residents to remain calm and seek shelter.
Earlier, Bahrain’s civil aviation authority said Iranian drones had targeted Bahrain’s air navigation system, but traffic has remained unaffected.
Donald Trump says he feels 'very badly' about three US military casualties
While speaking to reporters on Sunday, Donald Trump acknowledged the three US military casualties as the strikes on Iran continue unabated.
“Well, we feel very badly, but you know those great people, those great patriots, were out there fighting that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said while returning to Washington from the Fifa World Cup final in New Jersey.
The president insisted that Iran “lost everything almost militarily” and the US controls the strait of Hormuz. “They don’t control anything. So we’ll see what happens. But we hit them very hard again tonight,” Trump added.
One service member was killed on Saturday in northern Iraq during a controlled detonation on a downed Iranian drone and two more were killed in an Iranian attack on Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan on Friday. The US defence department identified the two killed in Jordan as 25-year-old first lieutenant Tyler James Feehan of Ewa Beach, Hawaii and 19-year-old private Isabella Gonzales of Carrollton, Texas.
In total, 17 US military personnel have been killed since the war began.
Updated
We have some more quotes from the Houthi military spokesperson, Yahya Saree, who has been quoted by Al Jazeera as having said the continued blockade of Yemen’s Sana’a airport “is unacceptable and cannot be tolerated”.
Saree said the Houthis would respond “to the blockade with a blockade and to respond to all escalation with escalation”.
He continued:
The Yemeni armed forces affirm their complete readiness for all options and any foolish act committed by the reckless Saudi enemy.
We call upon the people of our great nation to continue the general mobilization and general call to arms, and to be fully prepared for all scenarios and developments, and to support the fronts with fighters.
Yemen has been in a state of intermittent civil war since 2015, when the Houthis seized control of Sana’a, the capital, forcing the UN-recognised government to withdraw to Aden in the south with Saudi support, as my colleague notes in this story.
A Saudi-led coalition imposed an air and sea blockade on Yemen in 2015, as part of its war efforts to dislodge the Houthis. That year, the UN established a mechanism to inspect and verify that vessels heading to Yemeni ports don’t carry weapons.
The blockade has, however, resulted in crippling restrictions on the flow of commercial goods and humanitarian aid into the country, which has been one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
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Yemen's Houthis declare naval blockade against Saudi Arabia
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels have announced a maritime embargo of Saudi Arabia.
The rebels “declare a maritime embargo against the criminal Saudi enemy, based on the equation of ‘an eye for an eye’ effective immediately upon the issuance of this statement,” military spokesperson Yahya Saree said.
The territory controlled by the Houthis in Yemen sits alongside the critical Bab al-Mandab strait, which connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea, and is vulnerable to Houthi attacks by drones missiles and small boats. The Red Sea route is responsible for about 15% of global naval shipping trade.
The decision by the Houthis could put new pressure on Saudi Arabia as it is using its East-West Pipeline to try to get oil out of the kingdom as the strait of Hormuz remains in the effective control of Iran.
Tensions between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia were inflamed earlier this month after Yemeni government planes, supported by Saudi Arabia, bombed the Houthi-controlled Sana’a airport in protest at Iranian efforts to send a plane to the city containing a Houthi delegation returning from the funeral of the Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei. The Houthis responded by targeting Saudi Arabia’s Abha international airport.
The Houthi militant group controls Sana’a, while Yemen’s internationally-recognised government, backed by Saudi Arabia, is based in the southern Yemeni city of Aden. For over a decade, aircraft entering Yemeni airspace have needed permission from the Saudi-led coalition first.
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Pentagon failed to disclose information about dozens of US military injuries - report
In the week leading up to the Iranian attack on Friday that killed two American troops in Jordan, Iran launched three other strikes against US forces in the country, according to the New York Times.
The Times, citing several US officials with knowledge of the matter, reports that dozens of American service members were injured in these attacks, but the Pentagon did not disclose the strikes or the injuries they caused.
The Times reports that the Iranian attacks in Jordan, which hosts major US air bases, also damaged several helicopters, something else the Pentagon also reportedly kept secret.
Today so far
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The United Kingdom Maritime Operations Centre updated its previous report to say that a vessel on fire off the Omani coast in the strait of Hormuz had been struck by an unknown projectile. Though Iran’s Revolutionary Guard had earlier claimed that two oil tankers were blown up after attempting to transit through the southern route of the strait, there has been no independent confirmation of this and it is unclear if the IRGC was referring to this vessel.
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US forces wrapped up its ninth consecutive night of strikes against Iran on Monday as the number of confirmed American military deaths in the renewed fighting rose to three. The strikes were aimed at “degrading” Iran’s ability to attack commercial vessels in the strait of Hormuz, the US military’s Central Command said. US missiles struck several Iranian cities early on Monday, according to Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency, with explosions heard in Tabriz, Chabahar, Konarak, Bandar Mahshahr and Bandar Imam Khomeini.
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Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei on Monday called on the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency to condemn the overnight US strikes on a nuclear power plant under construction in Darkhovin. The IAEA had previously said that the watchdog agency was looking into reports of the strike, but noted that the facility was “in the very early stages of construction and contained no nuclear material when last visited by the IAEA”. The watchdog added that director general Rafael Grossi “reiterates call for military restraint in the vicinity of all nuclear-related sites”.
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Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said it hit US military targets in Kuwait and targeted US aircraft in Jordan’s Aqaba airport with ballistic missiles, while sirens sounded in Bahrain on Monday and the Guard also announced a surprise strike against “the enemy’s special operations headquarters in Syria’s Al-Tanf area”. Bahrain’s civil aviation authority said Iranian drones had targeted Bahrain’s air navigation system, but traffic has remained unaffected.
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Amid the exchange of strikes, diplomatic exchanges between the US and Iran have continued via mediators, said Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei. Though Baghaei said that Iran would not allow the strait of Hormuz to be used to threaten the country’s security – and that Iran was “determined to take the necessary measures” to safeguard its sovereignty – the news of the diplomatic talks was enough to bring the price of oil back below $90 a barrel.
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Donald Trump said the latest American strikes were being carried out in honour of the US service members killed in recent days. The US military had said a service member was killed on Saturday in northern Iraq during a controlled detonation on a downed Iranian drone, and that a day earlier two of its service personnel were killed in Jordan in an Iranian attack. On Monday, the US military identified the soldiers killed in Jordan as 25-year-old first lieutenant Tyler James Feehan of Ewa Beach, Hawaii and 19-year-old private Isabella Gonzales of Carrollton, Texas. Iran’s health ministry said on Saturday that 50 people had been killed and more than 500 injured in US strikes on the country over the past three weeks.
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Bahrain’s civil aviation authority said Iranian drones targeted Bahrain’s air navigation system on Monday, according to AFP – but traffic has remained unaffected.
“As a result of a hostile Iranian act of aggression against the kingdom of Bahrain, civil air navigation systems serving the Bahrain flight information region were targeted by hostile drones. However, air navigation operations remained unaffected,” the civil aviation authority said in a statement, adding that “flights and air traffic” were proceeding normally.
Updated
US military identifies soldiers killed in Iranian attack on Jordan
The US defence department has identified the two soldiers killed over the weekend in an Iranian attack on Jordan as 25-year-old first lieutenant Tyler James Feehan of Ewa Beach, Hawaii and 19-year-old private Isabella Gonzales of Carrollton, Texas.
Feehan was killed in action on Saturday and Gonzales on Friday in an attack on Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan.
Feehan was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 55th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 32nd Army Air Missile Defense Command out of Fort Bragg, North Carolina while Gonzales was assigned to 1st Battalion, 57th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 52nd Air Defense Artillery Brigade, 10th Army Air Missile Defense Command in Ansbach, Germany.
Oil has fallen back below $90 a barrel, paring back some of its earlier gains after reports of diplomatic exchange between the US and Iran.
Iran has said that diplomatic exchanges with the United States via mediators were ongoing, despite US military strikes on the country.
For more, follow our live business updates here:
US gas prices jump to average of $4 a gallon again new strikes
The national average for a gallon of regular gasoline has jumped once again on Monday as the US and Iran launched more attacks, AP reports.
The national average for a gallon of regular gasoline is now back to $4, almost an entire dollar more than the average price a year ago at $3.14 a gallon, according to motor club federation AAA.
Average gas prices reached over $4 gallon at the start of the conflict at the end of March, but dipped in mid-June and continued to fall after US and Iran reached an interim deal.
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Iran urges IAEA action on US strike of under-construction nuclear site
Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei on Monday called on the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency to condemn the overnight US strikes on a nuclear power plant under construction in Darkhovin.
“Iran... expects the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) board of dovernors and the director general of the IAEA, who from time to time makes political statements regarding the Iranian nuclear issue, to clearly state their position on this matter in condemning the US crime,” Baghaei said at a press conference attended by AFP.
The IAEA had previously said that the watchdog agency was looking into reports of the strike, but noted that the facility was “in the very early stages of construction and contained no nuclear material when last visited by the IAEA”.
The watchdog added that director general Rafael Grossi “reiterates call for military restraint in the vicinity of all nuclear-related sites”.
Iran foreign ministery: Diplomatic exchanges between US and Iran are ongoing
Diplomatic exchanges between the US and Iran are ongoing via mediators, even amid US strikes on Iran and the Iran’s Revolutionary Guard claiming to have targeted US military infrastructure in other Gulf nations, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei told the AFP at a press conference on Monday.
“We have been informed by mediators, we have received messages – without going into details – but the main point is that the diplomatic apparatus has been active in recent days and ideas have been conveyed to us by certain mediators,” Baghaei said.
However, Baghaei said that Iran would not allow the strait of Hormuz to be used to threaten the country’s security, adding that the country was “determined to take the necessary measures” to safeguard its sovereignty.
Updated
UKMTO: Vessel on fire in strait of Hormuz had been struck by unknown projectile
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency is reporting that the vessel on fire off the Omani coast in the strait of Hormuz had been struck by an unknown projectile.
The crew has safely abandoned the vessel and were rescued by a tug boat, UKMTO said. The fire has not been extinguished and the vessel is currently adrift.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard had earlier claimed that two oil tankers were blown up after attempting to transit through the southern route of the strait, but there has been no independent confirmation of this and it is unclear if the IRGC was referring to this vessel.
Updated
State news agency IRNA reports that overnight US strikes hit several locations in Bushehr, a southern port city in Iran and the home to the country’s only civilian nuclear plant, according to AFP.
There were no details on casualties or damages.
State news agency IRNA is reporting that US strikes in northwestern Iran killed at least one person on Monday and wounded several more, according to AFP.
The attack took place in an area southwest of Tabriz, Majid Farshi, head of crisis management of East Azerbaijan province, told IRNA.
Interim summary
In case you’re just joining us, here’s a recap of the latest events as US-Iran hostilities continue and fuel concerns of a slide towards all-out war. It’s 9.30am in Tehran and 2am in Washington DC.
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US forces launched a ninth consecutive night of strikes against Iran on Monday as the number of confirmed American military deaths in the renewed fighting rose to three. The strikes were aimed at “degrading” Iran’s ability to attack commercial vessels in the strait of Hormuz, the US military’s Central Command said.
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US missiles struck several Iranian cities early on Monday, according to Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency. Explosions were heard in Tabriz, Chabahar, Konarak, Bandar Mahshahr and Bandar Imam Khomeini, it said.
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Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said it hit US military targets in Kuwait and targeted US aircraft in Jordan’s Aqaba airport with ballistic missiles, while sirens sounded in Bahrain on Monday and the Guard also announced a surprise strike against “the enemy’s special operations headquarters in Syria’s Al-Tanf area”.
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Donald Trump said the latest American strikes were being carried out in honour of the US service members killed in recent days. “We hit them [Iran] very hard again tonight, and we did that in honour of the probably three, it’s probably three great patriots,” the president told reporters as he returned to Washington after the World Cup final.
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The US military had said a service member was killed on Saturday in northern Iraq during a controlled detonation on a downed Iranian drone, and that a day earlier two of its service personnel were killed in Jordan in an Iranian attack. It brought the total number of US military personnel killed since the war began to 17, with more than 420 others wounded. Iran’s health ministry said on Saturday that 50 people had been killed and more than 500 injured in US strikes on the country over the past three weeks.
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The Royal Navy’s United Kingdom Maritime Operations Centre said late Sunday it received a report that a vessel was on fire off the Omani coast. The Revolutionary Guard later claimed two oil tankers were blown up after attempting to transit through the southern route of the strait. There was no independent confirmation.
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The Guard said the strait would remain unsafe as long as what it called US “aggression” in the region continued, warning that “this passage will not be safe for the transit of petrochemical products, nor even a single drop of oil and gas”. It also warned the US military to prepare for a “punitive operation”.
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US secretary of state Marco Rubio said Iran was using the strait of Hormuz as leverage “against the world” and urged other countries to step up pressure to protect global shipping.
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Oil prices jumped in early Asian trade on Monday after the latest US strikes and Hormuz strait tensions, with brent crude for September delivery rising 2.72% to $90.50 a barrel by about 0100 GMT. It earlier briefly crossed $91 – its highest price since June.
Updated
Iran war in spotlight at Asean talks
South-east Asia’s top diplomats will express alarm over renewed hostilities in the Middle East when they gather in the Philippine capital on Tuesday for talks to be joined by western and Asian counterparts, including from the US, China, Russia and the EU.
Foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) will first meet among themselves in Manila on Tuesday to discuss – among other main concerns – the US-Iran hostilities that have triggered fears of a return to a full-blown war. They plan to issue a joint statement expressing alarm over the developments and urge both sides to resume talks, two south-east Asian diplomats told the Associated Press.
The fighting has again threatened shipping traffic in the strait of Hormuz, the waterway where about 20% of global oil supplies transited before the war.
South-east Asia – a region of more than 680 million people – relies heavily on Middle East oil and gas and was severely hit by the global supply and price shocks sparked by the Iran war.
Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos Jr declared a national energy emergency in March to ensure the availability of fuel, food and other basic goods and prevent hoarding and profiteering.
Washington’s preoccupation with the war in Iran and the diversion of its military firepower to the Middle East has sparked concerns over its focus on Asia-Pacific concerns, including China’s aggressive actions in the disputed South China Sea and against Taiwan.
US secretary of state Marco Rubio, Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi and Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov are among those attending the talks.
Bahrain is again saying air raid warning sirens have sounded there – the third time it has issued the alert in about the past eight hours.
The interior ministry’s latest post on X again urged people to shelter in the nearest safe place.
The alert came as Iran has continued retaliatory strikes in the region after another round of US attacks.
Updated
During the ninth night of US attacks on Iran, the country’s state media has said explosions were reported in Tabriz, Chabahar, Konarak, Bandar Mahshahr and Bandar Imam Khomeini.
There was no immediate word from Iran on any casualties or damage from the attacks.
An attack on Tabriz, in north-west Iran, would mark a widening in US targets, which over recent days have largely been confined to the south and the area around the strait of Hormuz.
Kuwait’s army has said that the country’s air defences are actively “confronting attacks” from Iranian drones.
In a post on social media, the General Staff of the Army ordered citizens to “adhere to the security and safety instructions issued by the competent authorities.”
The statement comes soon after Iran’s Revolutionary Guards claimed to have hit US military targets in the country.
Rubio says other countries need to 'step up' to protect Hormuz strait shipping
The US secretary of state has said Iran is using the strait of Hormuz as leverage in the ongoing Middle East conflict and that other countries need to step up pressure to protect global shipping.
“It’s clear that Iran – at least some people in Iran – want to control the straits and hold that as leverage against the world,” Marco Rubio told reporters ahead of travelling to the Philippines for a meeting of foreign ministers with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).
The United States will do and continue to do what it needs to, to protect global shipping, but other countries need to begin to step up and provide – whether it’s hardware or finances – to help carry that burden.
When asked if there was still a diplomatic solution to the escalating conflict, Rubio said, quoted by AFP:
I think we’re always open to diplomacy. It has to be real. It has to be a deal that they’re willing to live by.
Iran attacks US military targets in Kuwait – reports
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has reportedly said it hit US military targets in Kuwait, with the Fars news agency cited as saying the Ali Al Salem air base was targeted.
The Kuwaiti army earlier said its air defences were responding to hostile drones from Iran.
The Islamic republic has continued launching strikes around the Gulf region in response to waves of US attacks as the two countries edge closer to a return to full-scale war after the collapse of their interim peace agreement signed last month.
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Bahrain has just said air raid sirens have sounded there again.
The interior ministry urged people to stay calm and head to the nearest safe location.
About six hours earlier it said in another post on X that its alarm siren had been activated.
The alerts came as Iran has continued to retaliate against US strikes by targeting US-allied countries around the Middle East.
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The latest US-Iran hostilities come as the two countries have inched closer to all-out war since last month’s interim deal meant to permanently end the fighting has crumbled and shipping traffic in the strait of Hormuz has largely stalled.
Iran has continued to retaliate against US strikes by hitting American-allied countries throughout the Middle East, with sirens heard in Bahrain early on Monday and Kuwait army later saying its air defences were responding to hostile drones from Iran.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards also claimed to have launched a “surprise attack” on an enemy command centre in the Al-Tanf region of Syria, in a statement reported by Iranian state news agency Irna.
After Iran targeted sites in Jordan on Sunday, Israel warned of the danger of the strikes spilling across its borders, reigniting a direct regional conflict that had been restrained even as tensions between the Trump administration and Iran have soared again.
“If Iran fires missiles at Israel, we will attack them with full force,” Israeli defence minister Israel Katz said on Sunday.
The US is expected to send dozens of additional refuelling planes to Israel as part of a reinforcement of its force posture in the region, a US official told Reuters.
There’s more in our latest full report:
Oil prices surge amid latest US-Iran hostilities
The price of oil jumped in early Asian trade on Monday after the US carried out its latest wave of strikes on Iran and a vessel caught fire in the strait of Hormuz.
Brent crude for September delivery rose 2.72% to $90.50 a barrel by around 0100 GMT, after briefly crossing $91 – its highest price since June.
The US benchmark West Texas Intermediate gained 2.39% to $84.46, Agence France-Presse reports.
The gains reflected growing fears that renewed fighting in the Middle East could disrupt oil shipments through the Hormuz strait, a critical corridor for global energy supplies.
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US says it has completed latest wave of attacks
The US military’s Central Command says it has “successfully completed” its ninth consecutive evening of strikes against Iran.
It said in a post on X:
CENTCOM assets targeted Iranian military command centers, air defense and coastal surveillance sites, maritime capabilities, missile and drone launch sites, and communications networks to further diminish Iran’s ability to attack commercial vessels and civilian mariners transiting the Strait of Hormuz.
The U.S. military is holding Iran accountable at the Commander in Chief’s direction.
Iran vows not 'a single drop' of oil or gas will transit Hormuz strait if US 'aggression' continues
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard says it has targeted US aircraft in Jordan’s Aqaba airport with ballistic missiles.
It also claimed on Monday that two oil tankers had exploded and been immobilised after attempting to transit what it described as an unsafe southern route through the strait of Hormuz, alleging they had been encouraged by the US military to use the passage.
The statement from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps gave no details on the vessels’ names, flags, crews or any casualties, Reuters reports, saying it could not immediately verify the incident.
The Guard said the strait would remain unsafe as long as what it called US “aggression” in the region continued, warning that “this passage will not be safe for the transit of petrochemical products, nor even a single drop of oil and gas”.
It also warned the US military to prepare for a “punitive operation”.
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Vessel on fire in strait of Hormuz, maritime agency says
A vessel is on fire in the Hormuz strait off Oman, the UK’s Maritime Trade Operations agency is saying, citing military authorities.
It said it received a report of an incident eight nautical miles north-west of Kumzar in Oman’s far north – on the southern edge of the strait.
The cause of the fire had not yet been verified, the agency posted on X, advising vessels to “transit with caution”.
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Trump says US hitting Iran 'very hard'
More now on Donald Trump saying the latest US strikes on Iran were being carried out in honour of US service members killed in recent days.
“We hit them very hard again tonight, and we did that in honour of the probably three, it’s probably three great patriots,” Trump told reporters as he returned to Washington after the World Cup final.
The US president said “we feel very badly” when asked about the military fatalities, adding that those who died were fighting so that “Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon”, in comments cited by the AFP news agency.
As mentioned, one American service member was killed in Iraq during the “controlled detonation” of a downed Iranian drone on Saturday and two were killed in Jordan in an Iranian attack on Friday, according to the US military.
Trump says US hitting Iran 'very hard'
Donald Trump is saying the US is hitting Iran “very hard” to honour the American service members who have been killed in recent days.
We’ll bring you more on his reported comments soon.
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Kuwait’s army said earlier that its air defences were responding to hostile drones from Iran, while in Bahrain the interior ministry also said earlier that air raid sirens had sounded there.
Tehran has previously retaliated against US attacks with strikes at American-allied countries around the Middle East.
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The Israeli military says sirens sounded a short time ago in the southern Israeli areas of Kfar Aza and Sa’ad but it had been determined to be from a “false identification”.
The IDF posted the announcement on Telegram.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency said it had received a report of an incident 8 nautical miles (14.8 km) north-west of Oman’s Kumzar, where information from a verified source indicated that a vessel was on fire.
UKMTO, cited by Reuters, said the cause of the fire had not been verified.
Opening summary: US says it is launching ninth night of strikes on Iran
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of developments in the Middle East.
The US military says it is beginning its ninth night of strikes on Iran, with an interim deal aimed at ending the war appearing to have all but collapsed.
“The strikes will continue degrading Iranian military capabilities used to attack commercial vessels and civilian mariners transiting the strait of Hormuz,” US Central Command said on X on Sunday.
The attacks on Sunday come after a US service member was killed in Iraq the previous day during a “controlled detonation” of a downed Iranian drone, according to the US military, and two American troops were killed in Jordan on Friday.
The US military said carried out strikes against Iran on Saturday to “swiftly punish” the country’s Revolutionary Guard for the Jordan attack, while Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei said the US would pay for trying to “escalate” the conflict.
In other key developments:
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Bahrain’s interior ministry said overnight to Monday that its air raid sirens had sounded. “Citizens and residents are urged to remain calm and head to the nearest safe place,” it said on X. Bahrain, host of the US Fifth Fleet, has been targeted by Iranian strikes in recent days.
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Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Monday it launched a “surprise attack” on an enemy command centre in Syria, in a statement reported by state news agency Irna. They attack was “in revenge for the blood of martyred soldiers of Iranshahr”, a city in south-east Iran, Irna said on Telegram.
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Iran said it targeted two US bases in Kuwait in response to more than a week of intensifying attacks, which Tehran says have hit transport and infrastructure sites, including an under-construction nuclear power plant.
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Kuwait and Bahrain have borne the brunt of attacks by Iran on its Gulf neighbours since hostilities resumed this month despite a ceasefire and memorandum of understanding between Washington and Tehran.
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Jordan also reported intercepting missiles, a day after the US military said the two service members were killed there Friday and another had gone missing in action as they “defended against Iranian ballistic missile and drone attacks”.
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US Central Command’s announcement that a service member died in northern Iraq during the controlled detonation of an unexploded ordnance from a downed Iranian drone brought to 17 the confirmed number of American military fatalities since the war began. Iran’s health ministry said on Saturday that 50 people had been killed and more than 500 injured in US strikes on the country over the past three weeks.
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