Saudi Arabia said on Saturday that its coalition forces struck Houthi militia in Yemen after the Iran-backed group claimed to have attacked two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea earlier in the week.
Air defenses in Saudi Arabia reportedly intercepted two ballistic missiles from Yemen.
The latest salvos appeared to indicate an escalation in fighting in a second front in the Iran war.
The structural reason attribution stays murky is itself worth naming because the „Islamic Resistance in Iraq“ is not a single group but an umbrella of interchangeable front names, staffed largely by Kataib Hezbollah personnel, under which the harder-line factions operate. Attacks surface under disposable labels while the parent organizations issue denials, distributing deniability by design. In that framework, the absence of a claim is not evidence of an outside hand; it is the system working as intended.
Which leaves open a possibility that neither the proxy-signal nor the internal-defiance reading captures: that the strikes serve simply to manufacture instability in a region whose neutrality makes it a soft and symbolically useful target. When drones are intercepted over the cities, their debris cleared and their intended target never confirmed, even the object of the attack becomes a matter of inference.
(March 3, 2026)
For long-range defence, Iran has developed the Bavar-373 which has comparable capabilities to the Russian S-300. For short range air defence, the country has reverse engineered the Chinese HQ-7 as the Ya Zahr, and in 2021 the Zoubin system was unveiled.
Besides these copy cat systems, the country also leans on ageing Russian air defences, most notably the S-300PMU-2 battery.
However, Israel destroyed a significant number of these components in October 2024 and again during the 12-Day War the following year. Worse still, the Israeli Defence Forces learned all they can about the system in 2015 during joint air drills with Greece, which formerly operated its predecessor, the S-300PMU-1.
The exercise allowed Israel to develop comprehensive electronic warfare (EW) technologies specifically designed to compromise radars like those used with S-300 batteries: the Icebreaker missile and Haroop loitering munitions.
(July 18, 2026)
Pakistan deployed the HQ-9 battery to Saudi Arabia in May 2026 under the Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement, according to the Times of Islamabad and The Daily Star. The system is operated exclusively by Pakistani military personnel â not Saudi or American crews â and functions as a standalone package integrated with Pakistanâs own command-and-control architecture rather than with Saudi Arabiaâs existing air defense network, according to Defence Security Asia reporting from May 2026. The Jerusalem Post noted that Pakistan âdeploys the defenses as part of a package because of their interoperability with other Pakistani systems,â a formulation that carries an embedded concession: the HQ-9 is not interoperable with anything else at the base.
(…)
The HQ-9 familyâs combat record is now the most extensively documented peacetime marketing success that has failed every wartime test it has faced. During Operation Sindoor in May 2025, Indian Air Force Su-30MKI fighters launched two BrahMos-A air-launched cruise missiles at Pakistanâs Nur Khan Airbase near Rawalpindi, and Pakistan fired approximately 18 HQ-9B interceptors in response, according to Indian Defence Research Wing. The result was zero confirmed intercepts â both BrahMos missiles struck their targets, an 0-for-18 record that prompted Brandon J. Weichert, national security writer at The National Interest, to call the system âa Frankensteinâs Monsterâ reverse-engineered from Russian S-300 technology.
(July 18, 2026)
A report shared by Axios, said Iran allegedly fired a ballistic missile at a U.S. base in the Kingdom. Unverified videos circulating on social media purport to show a direct impact at Prince Sultan Air Base, though neither Washington nor Riyadh has officially confirmed the authenticity of the footage or the reported strike.
(July 18, 2026)
Footage surfaced showing Iranian ballistic missiles flying over Amman, Jordanâs capital, reportedly targeting a U.S. military base in Saudi Arabia.
2. The United States has continued its effort to degrade the Iranian ability to attack commercial traffic around the Strait of Hormuz. The United States has also conducted strikes further inland, the purpose of which is unclear.
The strikes also collapsed a tower at Iranâs Chabahar port on the Gulf of Oman, a key trade route for landlocked, neighboring Afghanistan, the state-run IRNA news agency reported.
Chabahar port, which Iran had been running with support from India, has been a repeated target of American airstrikes. Iranian state media acknowledged a third round of strikes on the facility without immediately acknowledging the towerâs collapse.
At least 8 dead, several more injured in attacks on Bandar Abbas, Bandar Khamir, Qeshm Island, Sirik and Iranshahr
Speaking during an interview on Fox News, Trump said the United States would broaden its target list if diplomacy failed.
âNext week it gets really bad for them,â President Trump said. âWeâre going to knock out all their power plants. Weâre going to knock out all their bridges unless they get to the table and negotiate.â
He also said energy facilities remained under consideration: âIâll save the energy targets for last, but ultimately weâll hit energy targets.â
More than 30 civilians have been killed in US attacks on southern Iran over the past few days, according to Iranian government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani.
Thirteen US missiles struck facilities at a barracks in Bampour killing seven personnel from the 388th Brigade and injuring several others, it said. The army said âpassive defence measuresâ limited casualties.
Qatarâs defense ministry said on Sunday morning local time its armed forces had intercepted a missile attack targeting the country.
Earlier on Thursday, Mehr News Agency reported that the Aq Tekeh Khan Bridge in the northern Golestan province had been struck by a projectile.
A US official told Axios that the American military targeted two railway bridges in northern Iran with cruise missiles as part of Wednesday‘s strikes.
The attack marked the first reported US strike on Iranian transportation infrastructure since the ceasefire took effect on April 8.
The UAE‘s long-range AN/TPY-2 radar, integrated with the THAAD missile-defense system, can reportedly detect ballistic missiles at roughly 1,000 to 2,000 kilometers under optimal conditions. General air-surveillance radars like the Ground Master 400 typically track aircraft out to about 470 to 515 kilometers.
Patriot system radars, used for engagement and fire control, usually operate in the 150 to 300-plus kilometer range, depending on target type and altitude.
None of these radars can detect the launch or low-altitude flight of a small kamikaze drone originating in Iraq. That is a technical fact, not a matter of interpretation.
Even if the Emiratis possessed precise intelligence from Iraq about the exact time and location of the drone‘s launch, a highly unlikely scenario given the operational security of such attacks, a more fundamental question remains.
Why would Abu Dhabi not inform its Saudi neighbors that a hostile drone would be traversing at least 800 kilometers of the Saudi mainland, flying freely for up to five hours, without any reaction from Saudi air defenses? The absence of such notification is telling.
What can be determined with certainty is this: the drone attack was indeed carried out from the western border and over Saudi territory. And, there is no evidence â technical or otherwise â to support the claim that it was launched from Iraq.
As the minister recalled, to provide the country with anti-ballistic missiles, in April the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense signed a record-breaking contract for hundreds of PAC-2 missiles for the Patriot system, with Germany‘s support. Deliveries will begin over the next few years.
A first step has also been taken toward purchasing about a hundred missiles for the Patriot system for $1 billion using an EU loan. This year, Ukraine also began receiving missiles from the stockpiles of its European partners for the first time.
The strike on the vessel, the Ever Lovely, a container ship that was passing near the Omani side of the strait, appeared to be the first known Iranian attack on a commercial vessel since the signing of a preliminary peace agreement between Tehran and Washington last week. It laid bare the challenges to restoring prewar levels of traffic through the strait, a crucial conduit for oil and gas shipping.
Trump has thanked Chinaâs Xi Jinping and Russiaâs â Vladimir Putin for being âneutralâ during the US-Israel war on Iran.
âI just want to thank them because they made it â a lot better,â Trump said, adding that China was âterrificâ and made efforts to help settle the conflict.
Hezbollah has issued a statement claiming to have shot down an Israeli drone over the Nahle area in the Bekaa Valley.
Lebanonâs National News Agency also reported an Israeli drone being downed in the area, where it said several Israeli air raids had occurred.
AMMAN â The air defence systems and Royal Jordanian Air Force aircraft intercepted and shot down 20 missiles launched from Iran towards Al Azraq in Zarqa early Thursday, a military source said.
The source from the General Command of the Jordan Armed ForcesâArab Army, said that the interception operation resulted in the fall of missile debris in several locations, with no injuries or property damage reported.
AMMAN â The Jordan Armed ForcesâArab Army (JAF) on Wednesday said that air defence systems had intercepted and shot down five missiles launched from Iran towards Jordanian airspace.
The army added that no injuries or material damage were reported.
JAF stressed that it remains at the highest level of operational readiness to protect Jordanâs airspace and safeguard the Kingdomâs sovereignty and territorial integrity. It also reaffirmed that Jordan will not allow any violation of its airspace by any party.
(9 hours ago)
Fox News chief national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin reports on U.S. self-defense strikes against Iran and more on âSpecial Report.â
9 June 2026 22:36 BST
American forces „began launching self-defence strikes against Iran, at 5 pm ET today at the Commander in Chief‘s direction, in response to yesterday‘s downing of a US Army Apache helicopter,“ US Central Command said in a post on X.
„The mission is a proportional response to unjustified Iranian aggression,“ it added.
(Last update: 13 hours 10 mins ago )
âI have just been informed by our Great Military that last night the Iranians shot down one of our highly sophisticated Apache Helicopters while patrolling over the Strait of Hormuz,â Trump wrote on social media.
âThere were two pilots involved, both are safe and uninjured. Nevertheless, the United States must, of necessity, respond,â Trump added.
The secret deployment to Azerbaijan, reported by CNN for the first time, was one of several military positions Israel maintained across the Middle East that gave its military unprecedented reach, highlighting the role Iranâs neighbors played â some with permission, some likely without â in facilitating operations against Tehran and becoming entangled in the conflict.
The locations in Azerbaijan were among numerous covert military sites and bases in multiple countries, the sources told CNN, including in Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, and Somaliland. The forces, initially planned as potential rescue teams in the event of an emergency, expanded in scope to become military and intelligence gathering positions.
Iran said it had attacked US bases and helicopters in a „regional country“ using missiles and drones in retaliation. Centcom said Tehran fired two missiles at Kuwait and three at Bahrain, all of which broke apart or were intercepted.
Kuwait‘s army later said Iranian drones had hit its international airport, causing „significant“ building damage and injuries to a number of people.
(3 June 2026, 03:10 BST)
Centcom said it âdowned multiple drones and ensured no American personnel or assets were harmedâ.
The reported attack followed claims by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) that it had targeted US military assets in Kuwait and Bahrain in retaliation for a US strike on Qeshm Island.
Earlier, Centcom said it had conducted a âself-defenceâ strike against an Iranian ground control station on the island.
âThe value is that you can move these quickly,â she said. âThey are mobile launch systems, in some cases man-portable. We donât know how high the Reaper was flying. Based on the released video, it may have been relatively easy for them to shoot down, but it still indicates they retain some remaining air defence capability.â
Iranâs larger air defence network has been badly damaged. It was built around older radar-guided surface-to-air missile systems, including domestically produced batteries and Russian-supplied missile defence systems such as the S-300. Israeli and US attacks are widely believed to have degraded much of that network.
(31 min ago)
Iranâs Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps says it has shot down a MQ-9 Reaper drone after identifying âhostile aircraftâ entering Iranian airspace.
The Guardâs forces âalso fired upon an RQ-4 drone and an intruding F-35 fighter jetâ, a statement said, without specifying when the incidents took place.
The Lebanese armed group has said that its forces âconfronted an Israeli warplane in the airspace of the western sectorâ at 14:15 local time with a surface-to-air missile.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli army.
Saudi Arabia said it intercepted and destroyed three drones that entered its airspace from Iraq on Sunday morning.
In a statement, the Ministry of Defence said the drones were neutralised after crossing into Saudi territory.
NNA â „Hezbollah“ announced in communiquĂ©s that “the ââIslamic Resistance“ targeted a Merkava tank in the town of Rashaf with a loitering glider and achieved a confirmed hit.
The „Islamic Resistance“ also intercepted an Israeli enemy army drone in the airspace of the Tyre region with a surface-to-air missile.
(7 hours ago)
Explosions have been reported in the southern Iranian port of Bandar Abbas and on Qeshm Island, according to Iranian state media.
The Mizan News Agency said air defences intercepted several small drones over Qeshm, citing local sources.
Separately, Tasnim News Agency reported that air defence systems shot down two drones over Bandar Abbas.