Kuwait says its air defenses are firing after Iran said it targeted the Mideast nation to retaliate over US airstrikes
Iran Guards say targeted US base in Jordan with missiles
Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on Wednesday they had targeted four sites at the U.S. al-Azraq base in Jordan using long-range missiles, Iranian media reported.
The Guards said the targets included F-35 fighter jet hangars and a command-and-control centre, and warned they were
ready to deliver a "crushing and decisive" response to any further US attack.
US military says 'completed' strikes against Iran
The US military said late Tuesday that it had "completed" its retaliatory strikes against Iran over the downing of an attack helicopter.
US Central Command (CENTCOM), which oversees American forces in the Middle East, said on X that it had "completed self-defense strikes against Iran."
"CENTCOM forces struck Iranian air defense, ground control stations, and surveillance radar sites near the Strait of Hormuz with precision munitions from US Air Force and Navy fighter jets," the post said.
Iran's revolutionary guards say US attacks damaged a telecommunications tower in Sirik and destroyed two water tanks
Iran's Guards attack US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain after US strikes on Iran
Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they had attacked the US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain with drones in response to US strikes on areas in southern Iran earlier on Wednesday, state media reported, adding that clashes were continuing.
In a statement, the Guards warned of "a more severe response" if what they described as US "aggression" continued.
The Guards said the US strikes damaged a telecommunications tower and two water tanks in the Iranian port town of Sirik.
Iranian media report fresh strikes near Hormuz
Iranian media outlets reported fresh attacks in areas near the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, as US forces carried out what President Donald Trump described as retaliatory strikes over a downed helicopter.
Explosions were heard on Qeshm Island and in the port city of Bandar Abbas on Iran's southern coast in the early hours of Wednesday, the Mehr and Fars news agencies posted on Telegram.
Iran 'will leave no attack or threat unanswered,' its top diplomat says
Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Wednesday that the military will not leave attacks or threats unanswered, as US forces struck parts of the country after the downing of an American helicopter.
"Despite its defeats on the battlefield, the US opted to test our determination. Our Powerful Armed Forces will leave no attack or threat unanswered. Leave our region if you want to be safe," Araghchi posted on X after the US attacks, which President Donald Trump described as retaliation for the downed helicopter.
Iranian state broadcaster says fighting paused near Hormuz after US strikes
Iran's Foreign Minister: Leave our region if you want to be safe
Trump says wants 'very powerful' response to Iran downing helicopter
President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he wanted a "very powerful" response to Iran shooting down an American helicopter, as the US military announced retaliatory strikes against the Islamic republic.
"This is a response to what they did... with our helicopter last night, and I believe the response should be very strong, very powerful, and that's what this one is," Trump told ABC News.
Iranian state media report that explosions were heard on an Iranian island in the Strait of Hormuz.
US military launches new strikes on Iran after Apache downing
The US military said it launched new strikes against Iran on Tuesday after President Donald Trump
vowed to respond to the downing of a US Apache attack helicopter overnight, in the latest escalation between Washington and Tehran threatening a fragile ceasefire.
The US military's Central Command said in a statement that "self-defense strikes" started at 5 p.m. Washington time at Trump's direction.
"The mission is a proportional response to unjustified Iranian aggression," Central Command said in a statement.
Lebanon health ministry says 3 killed in Israeli strike near Tyre
An Israeli strike near Tyre has killed three people in the southern Lebanese city, the health ministry said, taking the death toll up to 11 in the region.
The strike also wounded nine people, including two women, the ministry added, further confirming an earlier toll of eight dead.
Militants and police executed and maimed dozens of Palestinians in Gaza, UN report says
Hamas militants and police units in Gaza beat, maimed and publicly executed dozens of Palestinians during its war with Israel in acts amounting to war crimes, according to a new United Nations report.
The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights’ report documented hundreds of cases of extrajudicial punishment in the war-ravaged territory, which it said were often publicised during and afterward to instill fear in the populace.
“These cases involved executions, kneecapping, bone-breaking with metal pipes or cement bricks and beatings and were framed by the perpetrators as punishments for alleged collaboration with Israel, looting humanitarian aid, theft, drug-related offenses or affiliations with internal rivals,” it said.
The commission found that Hamas-affiliated militants and police forces were involved in nearly one-fourth of the 249 documented cases — including 108 deaths — from August 2024 to January 2026. The commission specifically investigated cases involving Hamas-affiliated forces but also counted ones attributed to other armed groups.
Srinivasan Muralidhar, the UN commission’s chair, said the abuses documented in Gaza were occurring in an “environment engineered by Israel,” where “Hamas-affiliated forces have exploited the vacuum created by relentless Israeli attacks and widespread destruction.”
Iran's FM says foreign forces in proximity to its territory should leave 'to reduce risk'
Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said foreign forces in proximity to Iranian territory were at "constant risk on account of their own human errors, plain accidents or potentially being caught in crossfire," asking them to leave.
"To reduce risk, best solution is for them (foreign forces) to leave," he said in a post on X.
His statements come after US President Donald Trump said Iran was responsible for the downing of a U.S. apache helicopter that was patrolling the Strait of Hormuz overnight which he said Washington must respond to.
'Unwise' to assume Hormuz strait will return to how it was before war, says shipping group
It would be "unwise" to assume that the situation in the Strait of Hormuz will return to how it was before the Iran war, the head of French shipping group CMA CGM said on Tuesday.
CMA CGM, the world's third-largest container line, is among firms with vessels stranded inside the Gulf since the start of the conflict that has virtually closed the waterway, which carries a fifth of global oil and LNG supply.
"Even if a solution for peace is implemented in the coming weeks, there's no guarantee there won't be another crisis later on and we can't be prisoners to Hormuz," CMA CGM's Chairman and CEO Rodolphe Saade told a French parliamentary hearing.
"I won't be fixated on the idea that the Strait of Hormuz is going to reopen and everything will return to how it was," he said. "Unfortunately, I think it would be unwise to react like that."
Saudi jet fuel supply to Europe higher than before Hormuz strait closure
Saudi Arabia is on course to deliver more jet fuel to Europe this month than it did when the Strait of Hormuz was open, data from shipping trackers Kpler and Vortexa shows, underscoring the importance of Saudi's bolstered exports via the Red Sea.
EU and UK jet fuel imports from Saudi Arabia's Red Sea port of Yanbu stood at 118,000 barrels per day in the first week of June, their highest levels since August 2025, data from Kpler shows. Vortexa estimated the flows at 140,000 bpd.
Its monthly high this year was 77,000 bpd in January, Kpler data shows.
State firm Saudi Aramco declined to comment on the rising jet exports to Europe.
Oil inventories are headed toward multi-decade lows, US EIA warns
Oil stockpiles in the world’s largest economies are headed toward the lowest levels since at least 2003 as top consuming nations tap inventories at a record pace to plug the loss of over 11 million barrels a day of Middle Eastern output due to the Iran war, the US Energy Information Administration said.
Total oil inventories in the members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development will fall to just under 2.3 billion barrels by December, the EIA said, based on its current assumption that marine traffic through the Strait of Hormuz is unlikely to return to pre-conflict levels until early 2027.
Trump blames Iran for Apache helicopter downing over Hormuz, says US must 'respond'
President Donald Trump said Tuesday that a US military helicopter was shot down by Iran and that the United States "must" respond.
In a statement, Trump said he had been informed "that last night the Iranians shot down one of our highly sophisticated Apache Helicopters while patrolling over the Strait of Hormuz."
While the pilots were uninjured, "the United States must, of necessity, respond to this attack.
US crude benchmark falls 5% amid hopes of Iran peace deal
Oil prices have fallen around 5 percent to below $90 a barrel after US President Donald Trump again said an Iran peace deal could be close.
The international benchmark Brent crude fell below $90 for the first time since April 14, while its US counterpart, West Texas Intermediate crude fell to around $86 a barrel.
The relief came just a day after crude surged as Iran and Israel briefly resumed strikes amid a fragile ceasefire in the Middle East war.
Yesterday's key developments:
• US President Donald Trump clashed with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over renewed fighting between Iran and Israel, as Netanyahu insisted that Israel has a "right to self-defence".
• Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz vowed Monday to press on with Israel's military campaign in Lebanon, despite a warning from Iran that any such action would prompt the Islamic republic to take "severe" measures in response.
• Israel conducted strikes against military targets in western and central Iran, hours after Iran fired a salvo of missiles at Israeli targets in retaliation for an attack on Beirut’s southern suburbs.
(FRANCE 24 with Reuters, AP and AFP)
