Trump has thanked China’s Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin for being “neutral” during the US-Israel war on Iran.
“I just want to thank them because they made it a lot better,” Trump said, adding that China was “terrific” 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.
Lebanon’s National News Agency also reported an Israeli drone being downed in the area, where it said several Israeli air raids had occurred.
AMMAN — 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 Forces–Arab Army, said that the interception operation resulted in the fall of missile debris in several locations, with no injuries or property damage reported.
AMMAN — The Jordan Armed Forces–Arab 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 Jordan’s airspace and safeguard the Kingdom’s 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 ‘Special Report.’
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 )
“I 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,” Trump wrote on social media.
“There were two pilots involved, both are safe and uninjured. Nevertheless, the United States must, of necessity, respond,” 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 Iran’s neighbors played — some with permission, some likely without — 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.
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Centcom said it “downed multiple drones and ensured no American personnel or assets were harmed”.
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 “self-defence” strike against an Iranian ground control station on the island.
“The value is that you can move these quickly,” she said. “They are mobile launch systems, in some cases man-portable. We don’t 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.”
Iran’s 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.
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Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps says it has shot down a MQ-9 Reaper drone after identifying “hostile aircraft” entering Iranian airspace.
The Guard’s forces “also fired upon an RQ-4 drone and an intruding F-35 fighter jet”, a statement said, without specifying when the incidents took place.
The Lebanese armed group has said that its forces “confronted an Israeli warplane in the airspace of the western sector” 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 – „Hezbollah“ announced in communiqués that “the ‘’Islamic 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.
(4 May 2026 16:12 BST | Last update: 2 hours 57 mins ago)
Iranian sources told MEE that Iranian intelligence had established the Emirati role in the attacks went beyond hosting US bases.
One official said: „Iranian intelligence believes the UAE also made some of its own air facilities available for operations against Iran.“ Abu Dhabi has served as an advanced platform for Israeli interests in the region, the official said.
He suggested this included „deception operations“ – false-flag Israeli attacks on Oman and at least one other country intended to look like Iranian ones.
Iran also believes that cooperation included the use of the AI infrastructure within the UAE to support data collection and analysis for US and Israeli targeting.
If Iran were to be invaded, the UAE would be treated as an aggressor, one diplomat told MEE.
That the UAE has gone way beyond its Gulf neighbours in supporting the US and Israeli attack on Iran, is down to one man, its President Mohammed bin Zayed, often referred to by the acronym MBZ.
Air defence systems are active in the sky over Iran‘s Kermanshah and its surrounding suburbs, according to the Mehr news agency.
“Local sources claim this sound resulted from testing defence systems, but official sources have not yet announced confirmation of this matter,” the report said.
The Prime Minister contacted his Lebanese counterpart by telephone and strongly condemned Israel’s aggression.
According to a spokesperson for the Prime Minister’s House, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Lebanon’s Prime Minister Nawaf Salam spoke over the phone.
Combat search and rescue missions have become relatively rare for U.S. forces after more than a generation of near-total air dominance, with American aircraft typically operating with limited threats to aircraft in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Neither the White House nor the Pentagon released public information about the downed planes. But the Pentagon notified the House Armed Services Committee that the status of a second service member from the fighter jet was not known.
In an email from the Pentagon that obtained by The Associated Press, meanwhile, the military said it received notification of “an aircraft being shot down” in the Middle East, without providing more details.
Iran’s Mehr news agency is reporting that a US helicopter, on a search mission for the jet reportedly shot down in Iran, was also hit by a projectile.
We will bring you more on this as soon as we can.
10:53 AM (US time zone)
An American F-15E fighter jet was downed over Iran, U.S. officials confirmed Friday, and a search and rescue effort is ongoing, two sources confirmed to CBS News. The F-15E is flown by a two-member crew.
Earlier Friday, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard claimed it shot down a U.S. fighter jet over central Iran.
Nicole Grajewski, the author of Russia and Iran: Partners in Defiance from Syria to Ukraine, said that Iran does not possess the Wing Loong Drone in its arsenal.
Neither the US nor Israel is known to operate Wing Loong II drones, but Saudi Arabia and the UAE have them in their arsenal.
The Wing Loong drone has featured prominently in Sudan’s civil war, where the UAE has deployed them in support of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, according to The New York Times.
In a statement on Friday, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) said that its newly developed and advanced air defenses had shot down a stealth F-35 fighter jet in central Iran.
The downed aircraft belonged to the Lakenheath squadron, it said, adding that the fighter jet was completely destroyed and crashed.
Due to the complete disintegration of the aircraft, the fate of the pilot remains unknown, it noted.
The report said the drone was intercepted and destroyed earlier Tuesday.
Iranian officials said the downing marked the 146th drone shot down during the conflict.
The MQ-9 Reaper, widely used for surveillance and strike missions, has an estimated cost of about $30 million per unit.