War returns to Iran with Israel, US strikes

Unidentified individuals have illegally boarded a vessel off the coast of Yemen, AFP reports citing the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Centre UKMTO.

The UKMTO says the incident took place 65 nautical miles south of Mukalla, a major city on Yemen’s south coast.

“Military authorities have reported that the vessel was boarded by unauthorised personnel whilst transiting east in the Gulf of Aden,” the agency writes on X, without providing further details.

It adds that authorities are investigating and did not mention the status of the ship’s crew.

The prime minister of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region has denounced “unjustified attacks” that he blames on Iran and urged Tehran to halt the escalation, AFP reports.

“We condemn the unjustified attacks by the Islamic Republic of Iran against the Kurdistan region,” says the office of Masrour Barzani. “While urging the Islamic Republic of Iran to stop this escalation, we also call on the Iraqi federal government and the international community to end these violations.”

The Kuwaiti military says several personnel have been “wounded as a result of enemy drones targeting several facilities and camps affiliated with the Kuwaiti Army this morning, following the heinous Iranian aggression”.

It has published a statement on X saying that the injured were visited by senior military officials in hospital.

Seyed Majid Mousavi, the commander of the Aerospace Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), has said that the Iranian attacks will continue “until calm returns to the southern coastline and the Strait of Hormuz”, Al Jazeera reports.

“In the system of calculations, the entire territory of Iran — from Tehran to the south — is one and the same. Effective and targeted strikes from across Iran against the enemy will continue until calm returns to the southern coastline and the Strait of Hormuz,” he says in a statement carried by Iranian state TV.

The presidency of Iraqi Kurdistan has denounced attacks on the autonomous region as a “blatant violation” of Iraq’s sovereignty, AFP reports.

“Targeting the region and the resumption of violence are a serious escalation and a blatant violation of Iraq’s sovereignty,” the regional presidency says, after air defences shot down drones over Erbil, the capital of Kurdistan, and strikes targeted exiled Iranian Kurds.

Oil prices have risen by about 2 per cent after the US and Iran stepped up attacks across the Gulf, with shipping threatened by a potential Red Sea closure on top of the restricted traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, Reuters reports.

Brent crude futures are up by $1.53, or 1.82pc, to $85.76 a barrel as of 0951 GMT (2:51pm PKT). US West Texas Intermediate futures have gained $1.69, or 2.14pc, to $80.64.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has taken a dig at the United States government, reiterating the warning of Israeli interference in Washington’s foreign policy and domestic politics, Al Jazeera reports.

“Americans are being warned of foreign influence. How about the extensive Israeli Campaign to bamboozle the US Administration into an unwinnable war of choice?” Araghchi writes in a post on X.

The Iranian official is referring to an article in Time magazine, which reported that Trump’s former presidential campaign manager, Brad Parscale, is running an Israeli influence operation targeting the MAGA base.

“Even worse: Israel is using US taxpayer dollars to silence any US critics,” he adds. “It will all soon unravel.”

Iran says its forces have targeted the US air base in Al Udeid, Qatar, in the 15th wave of attacks, Al Jazeera reports.

The IRGC has said in a statement that the Iranian attacks destroyed a long-range radar system and several US strategic refueling aircraft, according to IRIB news agency.

“The American enemy and the hosts of its bases in the region should know that crossing red lines and attacking people and civilian infrastructure will have a very severe and miserable price. If the enemy continues this trend, more crushing responses are on the way; responses that will remain in the history of battles,” it has said.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps says that they had targeted US radar systems and military aircraft in Qatar to “punish the aggressor” following overnight US strikes on Iran.

“In continuation of last night’s retaliatory operations, the brave fighters of the IRGC’s Aerospace Force… carried out a heavy and surprise attack on the US airbase at al-Udeid, Qatar, to punish the aggressor and the child-killing US military,” the IRGC has said in a statement.

Ahmad Moradi, a member of parliament from Iran’s Hormozgan, has said that the targeting of civilian infrastructure and the killing of civilians are “a sign of the criminal nature of these attacks”, Al Jazeera reports.

Moradi is visiting the bridges destroyed during the latest US attacks in Bandar Khamir, according to Iran’s Mehr news agency.

Moradi, referring to the damage to the city’s communication infrastructure, has said: “The destruction of bridges and public infrastructure once again revealed the nature of these attacks and the disregard for the lives of civilians.”

He has added, “[Iran’s] armed forces will defend the country’s security with authority and will respond to aggression at the appropriate time.”

A Syrian military source has denied to AFP that Iran has bombed the Al-Tanf base near Syria’s southeastern borders with Jordan and Iraq, after IRGC said it had targeted the facility in response to US strikes.

“We deny any Iranian bombardment targeting the Al-Tanf area,” the source has said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Bahrain has said an Iranian drone attack caused material damage to a water desalination plant in the country, marking the first time a Gulf nation has reported targeting any such facility during the eight days of the war between Iran and the US and Israel.

The attack on Sunday comes a day after Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said a freshwater desalination plant on Qeshm Island in southern Iran was attacked by the United States.

“Water supply in 30 villages has been impacted. Attacking Iran’s infrastructure is a dangerous move with grave consequences. The US set this precedent, not Iran,” he said on X on Saturday.

While Tehran has not yet commented on the Bahrain attack, it has raised questions about the vulnerability of the Gulf countries, which depend on desalination plants for the majority of their water supply.

How important are water desalination plants to the Gulf region? Can water security in the Gulf be guaranteed amid a widening of military targets to include energy and other civilian sites?

Read more here.

Iran’s energy ministry called on citizens to reduce electricity use after the power grid came under strain following US strikes on energy infrastructure in the south, AFP reports.

The ministry, in a statement, urged people to switch off air conditioners in peak hours “to help ensure a stable electricity supply in the southern provinces, which are currently facing extreme heat and attacks on electricity supply facilities”.

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.