War returns to Iran with Israel, US strikes

Unidentified armed men ⁠are ⁠believed to have boarded the chemical tanker Asana ⁠off the southern coast of Yemen in ⁠the Gulf of Aden on Friday and are in control of ‌the vessel, Reuters reports, citing maritime security sources.

The small tanker, which had no confirmed flag, had listed the Somali port of ⁠Bosaso as its ⁠next destination, ship tracking data shows.

Earlier, British agency UKMTO said that a vessel was boarded by ⁠unauthorised personnel while transiting east in ⁠the Gulf ⁠of Aden, 65 nautical miles south of Yemen’s Al Mukalla ‌port.

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul has proposed replacing the expiring UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon with an EU-mandated force, he has told the Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland, Al Jazeera reports.

“We should examine in the EU whether we can ensure that no security vacuum arises with a European mandate following the UNIFIL ⁠mission,” Wadephul says in an interview published today.

The UNIFIL mission expires on December 31, 2026.

An EU-mandated force could “create the ⁠conditions for the Israeli army to withdraw without Hezbollah returning with its terror,” the minister has added.

Kuwait’s Ministry of Electricity, Water and Renewable Energy has said that one of its electricity generation and water desalination plants was targeted by Iran in the latest attack, resulting in fire and damage to the site, Al Jazeera reports.

The ministry has said in its statement that firefighting teams had brought the fire under control, while technical teams continue carrying out repair work and restoring the affected units to service, alongside continued monitoring of the stability of the electricity grid.

The ministry has also called on citizens and residents to rationalise their electricity consumption.

Iran has claimed to have destroyed High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) platforms and missiles in attacks on Kuwait at several locations, where Tehran has said American forces and Israeli-backed fighters are stationed, Al Jazeera reports.

Iranian attacks eliminated “a large number of anti-revolutionaries and American special forces [and] the tit-for-tat operations are ongoing,” the IRGC has said in a statement.

China will raise domestic retail prices of petrol and diesel from Saturday, the state planner has said, as the escalation of the US-Iran conflict lifts global oil prices.

Caps for domestic retail petrol and diesel prices will go up by 300 yuan ($44.28) per metric ton and 290 yuan per metric ton, respectively, the National Development and Reform Commission has said, citing upward swings in global crude oil prices as reasons for adjustments.

Ebrahim Azizi, the head of the Iranian Parliament’s National Security Committee, says the US attacks in southern Iran on residential and civilian zones “reveal the hypocrisy of those who preach ‘human rights’”, Al Jazeera reports.

“The proud South has always been Iran’s fortress of defence, and every Iranian’s heart beats there,” he has said in a post on X.

“To the enemies of this resistant and victorious nation: The Armed Forces will not let the blood of the innocent go [unavenged],” the post says.

British police say they have charged a 39-year-old man on suspicion of assisting Iran’s intelligence service, the latest in a series of incidents involving Tehran and offences covered under UK National Security laws, Reuters reports.

Police has said the suspect, Vahid Aberi, from Liverpool, northern England, was taken to a police station in central England and searches had been carried out at addresses in nearby Birmingham and Liverpool.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) say they have targeted US fighter jets stationed in Jordan, according to Iranian State TV, Al Jazeera reports.

Earlier, the Jordanian army had said that it shot down three Iranian missiles targeting the country.

Bahrain’s armed forces say its air defence systems have intercepted and destroyed “a number of hostile Iranian aerial attacks” today, Al Jazeera reports.

“Iran has continued its aggressive approach by carrying out cowardly attacks targeting civilians in the Kingdom of Bahrain,” the military has said in a statement.

It has also urged everyone to exercise caution, avoid approaching any strange or suspicious objects that may have resulted from the Iranian attack, and report them immediately.

“The General Command stresses that the deliberate use of missiles and drones to target civilians and private property constitutes a blatant violation of international humanitarian law,” the statement further notes.

Strikes in Iraq’s Kurdistan region killed eight members of an Iranian Kurdish armed opposition group on Friday, the exiled party said, blaming the attack on Iran, AFP reports.

Idriss Kohlwazi from the Komala party told AFP that “the Iranian regime attacked with drones and rockets a camp” belonging to the party and its vicinity near the city of Sulaimaniyah in the early morning, resulting in the “martyrdom of eight of our members and wounding others”.

A tanker was struck by a projectile off the coast of Oman, the UK Maritime Trade Operations agency said, as Iran and the United States exchanged fire over control of the Strait of Hormuz, AFP reports.

“A tanker has reported being hit by an unknown projectile causing minor structural damage to the port side,” the British organisation said in a statement, reporting that it took place overnight and that all crew were safe and accounted for.

Iranian state media reported that overnight US strikes on infrastructure in southern and western Iran killed eight people and wounded 20 others, AFP reports.

“Some infrastructure in several provinces of the country came under US military attack,” the IRNA news agency said, reporting that six bridges in the southern province of Hormozgan were targeted.

The US-led coalition shot down several drones over Erbil, the capital of Iraq’s northern Kurdistan region, Kurdish forces said, in the second such incident in the city this week, AFP reports.

Kurdish counterterrorism forces said that “coalition forces downed eight explosive-laden drones over Erbil between 04:19 and 05:25 am, with no damage or casualties reported.

Iran’s health ministry said that at least 38 people had been killed and more than 400 injured in the country since fighting resumed with the United States, AFP reports.

“The number of injured from US attacks has exceeded 400, and 38 compatriots have been martyred” since June 22, ministry spokesman Hossein Kermanpour posted on X. “Among them are 22 injured women, three martyred women, nine injured under the age of 18, and one martyr under 18”.

China and Pakistan’s foreign ministers on Friday called on the United States and Iran to end fighting and return to the negotiating table, after they met in Shanghai, according to a government statement issued by Beijing, AFP reports.

China’s Wang Yi and Ishaq Dar jointly “expressed concern over the deterioration of the current situation, calling on the involved parties to immediately cease hostilities… (and) return to dialogue”, the statement by Beijing’s foreign ministry said.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Friday they had struck two radar sites belonging to the United States in the Gulf sultanate of Oman, AFP reports.

A statement said their forces “targeted and destroyed the maritime surveillance radar at the Salamah Rocks and the US air surveillance radar stationed in the Ghanam area”.

The Jordanian army has said that it shot down three Iranian missiles targeting the country after its air defense systems intercepted the projectiles, Al Jazeera reports.

The army said that the incident did not cause any human casualties as Jordan’s Royal Engineering Corps teams dealt with falling shrapnel.

US Vice President JD Vance has taken to X to deny claims that top White House advisers Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff attempted to benefit financially from their roles as Iran negotiators.

“This is completely bogus”, Vance said, describing Kushner and Witkoff as “trusted members of the president’s team”.

“The idea they’re trading on insider information is absurd,” said Vance, responding to a post from an X account called The Hormuz Letter.

If the US and Iran do not increase oil flowing through the Strait of Hormuz soon, the world should worry about energy security, International Energy Agency Executive Director Fatih Birol said, according to Reuters.

“Oil security is still a critical issue,” Birol told a Council on Foreign Relations event.

“We should be worried, and I am worried, if the situation does not improve in the next few weeks.”

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they attacked a US special operations command centre at al-Tanf in Syria in retaliation for the killing of Iranian soldiers in Iranshahr, Tasnim news agency reported, Reuters reports.

The Guards also said Iran retained full control of the Strait of Hormuz and that no oil or gas would be exported through the waterway for as long as US attacks continued.

Seven people were killed in US attacks on bridges in Bandar Khamir, a port city in southern Iran, IRNA reported, citing the Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences, Reuters reports.

Iran’s Mehr news agency reports that a US missile strike has hit the Chabahar maritime control tower.

The attack marks the third time a US strike has hit the facility over the past week, it added.

Iran said it had targeted US military infrastructure in Kuwait in response to American attacks, AFP reports.

Iran said it had deployed drones in Kuwait to target “the deployment sites of US forces and the logistical support centers of the ‘terrorist’ and ‘child-killing’ US military”, Iranian state TV reported.

“The attacks were in response to the crimes of the arrogant enemy and in revenge for the blood of the martyrs of the homeland,” it added.