Iran attacks Kuwait; IRGC says inflicted 'destruction' on US facilities

TNA’s live coverage of the latest from the US-Israeli war on Iran concludes for today. Join us again tomorrow.
 

• Tanker hit in Strait of Hormuz
  A tanker reported being struck by an unknown projectile near Oman, UKMTO said. No casualties were reported.
• Iran targets US base in Kuwait
  Iran’s army said it fired missiles at US forces at Camp Arifjan, as Tehran described the conflict as a “full-scale war”.
• Explosions reported in Iran
  Iranian media reported blasts in Chabahar, Konarak and Sirik Island, with Tehran claiming US strikes.
• Lebanon pilot zones begin
  Israel and the US said a southern Lebanon pilot zone programme had started, allowing Lebanese forces to take over security.
• US lawmakers call for end to Iran war
  Democrats urged an end to the conflict after three US soldiers were killed, bringing reported US military deaths to 17.
• Iran strikes Gulf states
  Bahrain reported Iranian drones targeted air navigation systems, while Kuwait said it intercepted missiles and drones.
• Jordan intercepts Iranian missiles
  Jordan’s military said it downed three missiles launched from Iran without causing damage or injuries.

A tanker has reported being struck by an unknown projectile in the Strait of Hormuz, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO).

The maritime security agency said the incident occurred around eight nautical miles northeast of Limah, Oman.

No further details were immediately available, including the extent of any damage or whether there were casualties.

The Iranian army said early Tuesday it had targeted a US base in Kuwait with missiles, as President Masoud Pezeshkian said the conflict had morphed into a "full-scale war".

"The army's ground forces targeted the HIMARS missile systems of the US terrorist army stationed at the Arifjan base in Kuwait with surface-to-surface missiles," state news agency IRNA said, quoting the army's public relations officials.

Several explosions have been reported in the southeastern Iranian cities of Chabahar and Konarak, according to Iranian state media.

Iran’s official IRNA news agency said at least 14 explosions, both large and small, were heard within an hour at the two ports on the Gulf of Oman.

The governor of Chabahar said the city and nearby Konarak were targeted in US attacks earlier in the day.

Iranian media also reported further explosions in the Bamani area of Sirik Island, located near the strategically important Strait of Hormuz.

The reports come amid escalating hostilities between Iran and the United States, with both sides exchanging attacks across the region.

The Israeli army will adjust its troop deployment in one of three zones in southern Lebanon where the Lebanese Armed Forces will exercise sole security control, an Israeli military official said Monday.

The phased Israeli pullback from the three zones comes after US-brokered talks between representatives of Israel and Lebanon earlier this month in Rome.

"The [Israeli military] will adjust its force posture in one of the pilot areas in order to enable the Lebanese Armed Forces to carry out their mission, while safeguarding the security of [Israeli military] soldiers and preserving its right to self-defence and to remove threats," the official said, without identifying the area.

"The pilot serves as a test of the Lebanese Armed Forces' sovereignty in the three pilot villages, as the sole official authority authorised to bear arms in the area."

Earlier on Monday, Washington said the Lebanese army had started taking charge of security in three southern Lebanese villages.

The State Department said operations had started in "pilot zones" in Froun, Srifa and Zawtar al-Gharbiya.

The Lebanese military said Monday that troops "continue to carry out their missions in the southern regions, including the towns of Froun and Srifa."

Israeli forces are however present on the outskirts of Zawtar al-Gharbiya.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) called Monday for the immediate release of all Palestinian healthcare workers "arbitrarily detained" by Israel.

"MSF is outraged by the treatment of healthcare workers, most of whom are being detained in dire conditions, without justification or cause," it said in a statement.

The medical charity joined calls for the release of Hussam Abu Safiya, a paediatrician and the director of Gaza's Kamal Adwan Hospital, who has been held since December 2024.

His detention "follows an appalling pattern of the Israeli authorities detaining and targeting medical staff across Palestine", said Geneva-based MSF.

Israel said earlier this month that his detention was "lawful", and rejected reports of him suffering with a life-threatening condition.

The statement came after a United Nations investigative team and several UN rights experts raised the alarm about the case.

About 50 people, including doctors, trade unionists and pro-Palestinian activists, gathered outside France's foreign ministry in Paris on Thursday to call for his release.

MSF said that its orthopaedic surgeon Mohammed Obeid "has been detained in Israel for more than 600 days, in difficult conditions, and without any contact with his family".

Doctors Without Borders said he was arrested by Israeli forces on October 26, 2024 by Israeli forces while on duty at the Kamal Adwan Hospital.

It reiterated its call for his immediate and unconditional release.

"The practice of arbitrarily detaining, torturing and abusing Palestinian medical staff in Israel is unacceptable. For too long, too many world leaders have failed to condemn Israel's conduct in Palestine," the non-governmental organisation said.

"We call for the release of all arbitrarily detained medical personnel immediately. Pending their release, they must be granted access to adequate medical care and dignified detention conditions."

MSF added that 15 of its colleagues had been killed since the start of the war in the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli military said a pilot zones programme in southern Lebanon began on Monday in cooperation with the US military and Lebanon's armed forces.

It warned that it would respond to any violation of the agreement. The pilot zones are patches of territory in southern Lebanon where the US-backed agreement between Israel and Lebanon foresees Hezbollah's disarmament, the withdrawal of Israeli forces and the deployment of Lebanese troops.

Jordan's army said on Monday that air defences had downed three Iranian missiles targeting the kingdom, with no injuries or damage reported.

"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 that it "did not lead to any injuries or material damage".

US lawmakers have called for an end to the war with Iran following the deaths of three more American service members amid renewed fighting between Washington and Tehran and attacks on US bases across the region.

The Pentagon announced on Monday the deaths of two service members: Officer Tyler James Vihan, 25, from Hawaii, who was killed on Saturday, and Isabella Gonzalez, 19, from Texas, who died on Friday during an Iranian attack on an air base in Jordan.

Their deaths bring the number of US military personnel killed since the start of the US-Israeli war with Iran to 17.

US President Donald Trump said on X: "Every time Iran kills an American soldier, it will pay a double price."

Democratic Senator Ed Markey called for "an end to Trump's illegal war on Iran", asking on X: "How many people should die for the war Trump chose to start?"

Senator Patty Murray also called for an end to the conflict, saying: "Congress must end this," following the deaths of the soldiers.

House Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries described the war with Iran as a "reckless and costly" disaster, saying: "No more American heroes should die because of this war that was chosen to be fought," adding that troops had been "unnecessarily endangered".

Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen said the "senseless war" must end and should never have begun, while Democratic Representative Susan Bonamici called for an end to the attacks.

"Three members of the armed forces have lost their lives in the last few days because of the war on Iran," she said, adding: "Congress and the American people have said their word: this war must end."

The Palestinian health ministry said Monday that Israeli forces shot dead two Palestinian men when a group of Israeli settlers attacked a village in the occupied West Bank overnight.

The military said its troops opened fire after Palestinians threw stones at them.

The Ramallah-based ministry identified the two as Odeh Abdul Rahim Odeh Farakhna, 53, and Ahmad Adel Rashid Abu Mkhou, 26.

"They were killed by (Israeli) occupation gunfire in the town of Deir Jarir," it said.

In a separate statement, the Palestine Red Crescent Society said its teams evacuated one other person wounded during a settler attack on the town late on Sunday.

Israel's military told AFP news agency that troops were dispatched to Deir Jarir to protect and evacuate Israeli settlers who entered the area to retrieve livestock.

"A violent confrontation developed in the area, during which terrorists hurled rocks and concrete blocks at the forces," the military said.

"The forces responded with fire in order to remove the threat. Hits were identified."

Deir Jarir mayor Eid Hamad said that the settlers had come to take livestock that was not theirs.

"Settlers, accompanied by the Israeli army and police, arrived at the outskirts of the village and raided the sheep pens of local residents who owned sheep and cattle," he said at the two men's funeral on Monday.

"They brought a truck and loaded the sheep," Hamad said, adding that "while the settlers were there, young men from the village arrived and confronted them."

"The army then intervened and began firing on the young men present, resulting in casualties," Hamad said.

On 20 July, Andy Burnham enters Downing Street facing a Middle East transformed by widening conflict.

Gaza lies in ruins despite a fragile ceasefire, Israeli settlements are expanding across the occupied West Bank, while the US-Israeli war against Iran has heightened risks to regional stability and the global economy.

Those expecting an immediate overhaul of British policy may nevertheless be disappointed. The former Greater Manchester mayor enters office with limited recent foreign policy experience, while his immediate priority will be restoring the Labour Party’s weakened domestic standing.

Under Keir Starmer, the Labour government’s popularity sank amid the cost-of-living crisis, continued fiscal austerity, alongside criticism from the right over perceived weakness on migration.

Burnham’s Middle East approach is likely to constitute a selective reset rather than a comprehensive one. That may include some more pressure on Israel, caution over involvement in another war with Iran, and broad continuity in Britain’s economic and security relationships with Washington and the Gulf.

A ship was struck off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, a British maritime agency said on Monday as Iran and the United States traded strikes over control of the Strait of Hormuz.

"A vessel reports being struck by an unknown projectile causing damage to the steering gear. All the crew are reported as safe. There is no environmental impact," the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency said, adding that the incident occurred 17 nautical miles east of Dibba, near Hormuz.

US President Donald Trump on Monday vowed that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would not face arrest at a UN summit in New York, after the city's new mayor said he was investigating the move.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani admitted he was unsure if he had the power to order police to detain a foreign leader but said he was discussing the matter with his legal team ahead of the UN General Assembly in September.

"Benjamin Netanyahu will not be arrested, in any way, shape, or form, while in the United States of America," Trump said on social media. "He is fighting against the Islamic Republic of Iran."

The Hague-based International Criminal Court said in 2024 that it had reasonable grounds to believe Netanyahu was responsible for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity related to Israel's brutal offensive in Gaza following the October 7, 2023 cross-border attack by Hamas.

"I believe that Prime Minister Netanyahu belongs in The Hague," Mamdani told the New York Times on Saturday. "He's a war criminal."

Netanyahu's office also dismissed Mamdani's stance and said the ICC was a kangaroo court.

Two French diplomats in Iran suffered "an extremely serious act of intimidation" by Islamic republic security services, with one of them physically abused, France's foreign minister said Monday.

Jean-Noel Barrot said in a statement sent to AFP news agency that the two diplomats were targeted by the Iranian officials late Sunday "in flagrant violation of diplomatic immunity".

Both were "detained for several hours without reason, interrogated and one of them was physically abused" before they were able to return to the embassy, he said.

Bahrain said Iranian drones targeted its air navigation systems on Monday, though traffic remained unaffected, while Kuwait also reported attacks as the United States and Iran traded strikes.

A shaky US-Iran ceasefire has all but collapsed as Iran began attacking vessels using an Omani route in the Strait of Hormuz.

In response, the US has attacked Iran, which has responded with strikes on the Gulf and other Arab countries.

"As a result of a hostile Iranian act of aggression against the Kingdom of Bahrain, civil air navigation systems... were targeted by hostile drones," Bahrain's aviation authority said.

"However, air navigation operations remained unaffected," it added.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards later said they targeted American assets at two air bases in Bahrain and the main port in the island kingdom.

Months into its invasion of southern Lebanon, Israeli forces have occupied, destroyed or taken control of numerous landmarks, including sites that symbolised resistance to Israel's previous occupation, as well as historic, religious and cultural heritage sites.

Many of these locations sustained heavy damage during Israel's military campaign that began in October 2024, when Israeli ground forces invaded southern Lebanon following a year of cross-border hostilities with Hezbollah.

In recent days, reports have emerged that the Israeli military has transformed the notorious Khiam detention centre into a fortified military position complete with a helipad.

Originally built by the French Mandate authorities as military barracks, the Khiam detention centre was later operated by the Israeli-backed South Lebanon Army during Israel's 18-year occupation of southern Lebanon between 1982 and 2000.

More than 5,000 detainees are believed to have passed through the prison, where torture was systematic and at least ten prisoners died.

Video circulating online appears to show the moment Iranian missiles hit an airbase in Jordan, killing two American service members. Another remains missing after the Friday attack.

And another US service member was killed in Iraq on Saturday, reflecting how troops face lethal risks without being deployed into Iran.

The US military said the latest service member was killed in Iraq on Saturday during the “controlled detonation” of a downed Iranian drone.

“We hit them very hard again tonight,” Trump said. “And we did that in honor” of the soldiers killed.

Oil prices hit one-month highs Monday before scaling back as Iran said diplomatic exchanges with the United States were ongoing via mediators to dial back renewed conflict in the Middle East.

That helped give a positive tone to sentiment on Wall Street, while European equity markets largely stabilised.

However, Asian stock markets ended the day mostly lower under the weight of higher oil prices which briefly shot above $91 per barrel, alongside lingering concerns that the AI sector may be overbought.

"The Iran war has escalated and driven oil prices back above $90 a barrel," noted Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.

"That means inflation fears are back on the table."

Crude futures surged over the past week as Washington and Tehran traded fire, raising fears of a sustained disruption in the Strait of Hormuz, through which around one fifth of the world's oil normally passes.

​​​​​​​Here are the latest developments on Monday:

• Iran declares "full-scale war" with US
  Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Tehran is in a "full-scale war" with Washington as fighting spreads across the region.
• Houthis announce Saudi blockade
  Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis declared a maritime embargo on Saudi Arabia after renewed clashes between the two sides.
• Iran targets Bahrain and Kuwait
  Bahrain said Iranian drones targeted air navigation systems, while Kuwait reported intercepting Iranian missiles and drones.
• Iran says talks with US continue
  Tehran said diplomatic exchanges with Washington are ongoing through mediators, despite escalating military tensions.
• US expands strikes on Iran
  Washington widened its strikes to new areas, including Bushehr province, home to Iran's nuclear power plant. Iran said at least one person was killed.