Al Jazeera

By Yashraj Sharma and Rached El-Moctar

    Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) says it has attacked US bases in Jordan after US forces bombed two rocket launchers on Iran’s Larak Island, which US Central Command (CENTCOM) said were preparing to launch naval mines into the Strait of Hormuz.

    The IRGC says the US ⁠attack on Larak ⁠Island killed and wounded ‌several Iranian fighters and civilians, according to Iran’s ⁠state broadcaster IRIB.

    Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian has said that Tehran “is not looking for war”, but would “never sit still in the face of any aggression”.

    A US official told Al Jazeera that US forces had intercepted Iran’s retaliatory missiles against Jordan.

    Israeli forces have launched a major raid on the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, with two Palestinians reportedly killed.

China’s biggest airlines post heavy losses as fuel shock from Iran war bites

    China’s three biggest state-owned airlines have reported first-half losses for the seventh consecutive year, battered by surging jet fuel prices caused in large part by the US war on Iran.

    Air China, China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines posted combined first-half net losses of about 8.2 billion yuan ($1.22bn), having warned last month that the figure could reach as high as 9 billion yuan, Reuters reported.

    The trio was confronted by what China Eastern described as a profit environment “severely undermined” by disrupted international routes and persistently elevated jet fuel prices linked to the war.

    Fuel costs at each of the carriers rose between 35 percent and 38 percent in the first half.

    Unlike many Asian and European rivals, Chinese airlines hedge little of their fuel purchases, leaving them more exposed to oil price swings.

Interesting if Iran used expensive rockets, instead of boats to lay mines

    Harlan Ullman, a retired US senior naval officer, has been speaking with Al Jazeera about the US’s claims of attacks on Iran’s mine-laying capabilities by targeting rocket launchers on Larak Island.

    Ullman said he found it “interesting that Iran would try to implant sea mines with a rocket, in such an expensive way, when they have got far more efficient ways of doing it, like underwater swimmers and small boats”.

    He added that, despite all the operations, one could never be sure if the channels in the Strait of Hormuz are free from mines. “Mines may or may not be there, but even the suggestion raises the psychological question for insurance companies,” he said, noting therefore that disruption in shipping becomes inevitable.

    “The mine sweeping capability of the United States Navy regrettably is very, very limited,” Ullman added.

IRGC says it shot down a US MQ-9 drone over the Strait of Hormuz

    Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has said that it shot down a US MQ-9 Reaper drone over the Strait of Hormuz as both countries trade attacks after nearly a month of relative quiet.

    Iran’s Fars and Mehr news agencies cited a statement from the IRGC that said that its air defences had intercepted “a long-range American MQ9 drone” over the Strait of Hormuz, which then fell into the Gulf.

Iran ‘is not looking for war,’ says President Pezeshkian

    In his first comments since the US attack on Iran’s Larak Island, President Masoud Pezeshkian has said that Tehran “is not looking for war”, but would “never sit still in the face of any aggression” either.

    Pezeshkian made the comments as he was leaving for Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, to attend the summit of the heads of state of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation countries.

    According to Iran’s Fars news agency, Pezeshkian said that Iran “will give a decisive response to the aggressors” if attacked.

    “Instability and unrest in the region are not in the interest of any country and will challenge everyone,” he added.

Iranians ‘curious’ whether more US-Iran exchanges will follow this escalation

By Sinem Koseoglu

Reporting from Tehran, Iran

    Iranian authorities have claimed responsibility for this attack. They announced that they attacked the US military bases inside Jordan.

    However, neither the Iranian side nor the US side has mentioned any number on the casualties that they have caused in Jordan on these bases. So far, we haven’t heard that anyone was killed or wounded.

    Apparently, this was also a contained attack as retaliation for the American attack on Larak Island. Because, as soon as the attack happened, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard acknowledged the attack, saying that several Iranians, including some fighters, had been killed and injured. But they didn’t give out any specific numbers.

    So in Iran, too, everybody is curious whether there is going to be more for this escalation.

    Is it just a retaliation for the US attack on Larak Island, or will Iran attack more throughout the night  This is unclear for now.

Trump posts AI video depicting Iran’s Kharg Island ‘being blown to smithereens’

    Trump has shared an AI-generated video on his Truth Social platform depicting the bombing of Iran’s Kharg Island.

    The footage shows an oil storage tank and an oil tanker exploding, as watched from an aircraft above.

    “Kharg Island being blown to smithereens!!! President DJT,” the post reads.

    Before the war started, Kharg Island handled the majority of Iran’s oil exports, making it a vital economic node.

    Trump has repeatedly threatened to seize or destroy the island since the start of the war.

Hosting US bases ‘an asset’ as well as ‘a liability’ for Jordan

    Al Jazeera’s Rob McBride says Jordan has been “very much on the front line of the fighting” since February, with missiles exchanged between Israel and Iran crossing its airspace, and some intercepted over its territory.

    Jordan hosts about 4,000 US personnel at two main bases, Azraq and King Hussein airbase, along with drones, fighter jets and Patriot air defences. Forces have been moved there from more exposed Gulf positions because it “keeps them still in theatre but not in such a vulnerable position”, McBride said.

    That has also made the country a repeated target. Its bases have been hit before, and several American casualties in the war have occurred there.

    Amman remains a close US ally, and gains financially from the bases, though its relationship with Israel “leaves a lot to be desired”, said McBride. Like many Gulf states, McBride said, it is coming to terms with the cost of hosting American forces.

    “As well as an asset, it can at times, as we have seen, also become a liability,” he said.

Trump reiterates that Iran must not be allowed a nuclear weapon

    Trump has repeated his position that Iran must never obtain a nuclear weapon in an interview with Fox News.

    “You cannot let them have a nuclear weapon, and they won’t have a nuclear weapon,” he said, describing Iran’s leadership as “very violent, evil people”.

    Trump argued that Tehran would have used such a weapon had it acquired one, saying the Middle East “would have essentially been gone” and that Israel would have been destroyed, with the US or Europe possibly next.

    Describing Iran as a “failing nation” Trump also said he was shocked when Tehran began targeting Gulf nations at the start of the war.

    “Everybody was shocked. I was surprised,” he said. “I thought it was a real good thing because they lost all the support that they had.”

Oil jumps more than 1 percent after US-Iran trade attacks

    Oil prices have jumped more than $1 a barrel after the US struck Larak Island and Iran responded with an attack on Jordanian bases hosting US troops.

    Brent crude futures climbed $1.08, or 1.23 percent, to $89.18 a barrel as of 00:40 GMT, while US West Texas Intermediate crude was at $84.32, up 92 cents, or 1.10 percent.

    “Looks like we are in another escalation phase. How long that lasts is impossible to determine. Could be days, could be weeks,” IG market analyst Tony Sycamore told Reuters.

US official tells Al Jazeera that US forces intercepted Iran’s retaliatory missiles against Jordan

US forces were able to intercept Iran’s retaliatory attacks against Jordan after Washington said it hit Tehran’s minelaying capabilities on Larak Island in the Strait of Hormuz, a US official has told Al Jazeera,

    “The missile attack on US forces in Jordan proves that Iran is no longer the power it once was,” the official said, adding that Tehran had launched medium-range ballistic missiles towards Jordan.

Larak Island central to Iran’s monitoring of Strait of Hormuz

    Sina Azodi, director of the Middle East Studies programme at George Washington University, told Al Jazeera that the US struck Larak Island because “I believe it’s where Iran has dispersed its assets to control the Strait of Hormuz”.

    He said Washington was trying to degrade Iran’s ability to monitor and surveil the ships passing through the waterway, not only its capacity to strike them.

    The island fits a pattern going back to July, Azodi said, when the entire southern shore of Iran was on the US target list.

    He said the US claim that Iran was preparing to lay mines was plausible, adding that he “would not be surprised if they wanted to assert their power and control over the strait”.

    Asked whether Iran had been waiting for an opening to hit Jordan, he said Tehran’s war plans “were formed in advance”.

Israeli military raids several homes, arrests man in occupied West Bank

    Israeli military forces have raided several homes at dawn during a raid on the town of Mithlon, south of Jenin, in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian news agency Wafa has reported.

    Wafa quoted Palestinian sources as reporting that Israeli soldiers also arrested a young man, Fatih Al-Ashqar, near the municipal stadium in the city of Nablus.

US Central Command says IRGC’s ‘minelaying forces’ on Larak Island posed ‘imminent threat’

    US Central Command (CENTCOM) says its forces “took limited, precise action against IRGC minelaying forces posing an imminent threat in the Strait of Hormuz” in its attack on Larak Island.

    “In essence, Iran created the threat, and the US military eliminated it to protect civilian mariners, commercial shipping, and the free flow of global commerce,” CENTCOM said in a statement posted on X.

    CENTCOM rejected the Iranian statement that the strikes were “an act of aggression”.

Mere maritime ‘uncertainty’ in Hormuz enough for disruption

    David Des Roches, a former director of Arabian Peninsula affairs in the US Defense Department, has been telling Al Jazeera more about the Iranian capabilities to lay mines in the Strait of Hormuz, using rockets instead of small boats.

    “It’s not a normal way of deploying sea mines, but something you do at extremes,” he said. “But Iran doesn’t really have the ability to send a maritime equivalent of a squad-size raid or a small boat.”

    He said Tehran is facing difficulties taking on a task at a distance from its waters. “A lot of their capabilities were destroyed. So, it’s not ideal [to use rockets to lay mines], but it is a known capability with the Fajr-5, which I’m assuming it would be.”

    Roches added that Iran’s efforts in the Strait of Hormuz “are not directed against the US Navy but against neutral civilian shipping”.

    “Iran only has to introduce uncertainty, and the maritime insurers of the neutral civilian ships will raise rates to a prohibitive level,” he said.

Vessels crossing Strait of Hormuz dropped to 5 per day over weekend

    The number of visible commodity vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz dropped to five per day over the weekend, according to shipping data.

    The actual number of ships passing the strait could be higher, as some vessels have switched off their automatic identification system to evade attacks.

    On Sunday, UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said it received a delayed report that a tanker had been struck while transiting “inbound in the Strait of Hormuz”, 12 nautical miles (22km) to the north of an Omani port.

    Before the war began in late February, nearly 20 percent of global oil transited through the strait.

Trump may be enforcing ‘zero tolerance’ on Iran laying mines in Hormuz

By Manuel Rapalo

Reporting from Washington, DC

    I think that this is a case where President Trump is putting his money where his mouth is.

    We’ve had no signalling from the administration that this is representing any sort of major escalation in this conflict. But (the attack on Larak Island) is the largest escalation, and most significant escalation, that we have seen in weeks, at least in terms of kinetic force by the United States.

    All of this stems from that reporting earlier on Sunday that US intelligence suggested that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard was preparing – or believed to be preparing – to launch mines into the Strait of Hormuz, something that the Trump administration has been very staunch and adamant about having a zero-tolerance policy over, in fact touting that shipping along the Strait of Hormuz was largely normalised.

    So, at this point, there are still very important details that we don’t know regarding both of these latest incidents (including Iran’s strike on US bases in Jordan), but we are working on giving you the latest information as we’re receiving it here in Washington, DC.

Treasury secretary says US plans to sanction another bank over Iran transactions

    The Trump administration is planning to impose sanctions on another bank this week in an effort to clamp down on Iranian transactions, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has told The Associated Press.

    “This is going to be financial violence if we have to. We are showing people that we know who you are, you know who you are, and this has got to stop, Bessent said, speaking ahead of the G20 meetings in Asheville, North Carolina.

    Last week, the US cut Banque Misr’s UAE operations off from the US financial system after accusing Egypt’s second-biggest bank of doing business with the Iranian government.

    Bessent said he would speak to his Chinese counterparts at the G20 and “all options are on the table” in terms of sanctioning Beijing for its continued purchases.

Iranian missiles can lay naval mines in Hormuz Strait’s southern route

    We have been speaking with David Des Roches, a former director of Arabian Peninsula affairs in the US Defense Department, about the US attack on Larak Island.

    “The specificity of the strikes suggests that the Trump administration is actually doing what it says,” Des Roches told Al Jazeera, after Washington claimed it had seen the deployment of missiles capable of laying naval mines.

    “It is probably Fajr-5,” he said, referring to Iran’s 333mm long-range multiple launch rocket system, which has a reported range of 75km (47 miles).

    “It can range the naval channels there,” Roches said, referring to the southern route of the Strait of Hormuz, near the Omani coast. “Some ships are going through Omani waters to circumvent the Iranian attacks on neutral civilian shipping,” he added.

    “[These Iranian rockets] have the potential to lay mines in those waters. So it would complicate the southern route. It is a pretty significant potential Iranian capability.”

A recap of recent developments

    Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) says it launched a missile and drone attack on two bases hosting US forces in Jordan in retaliation for a US strike on Iran’s Larak Island. Jordan says it intercepted eight missiles over its airspace.

    The US says its attack on Larak had targeted two IRGC launchers, claiming they were preparing to launch naval mines into the Strait of Hormuz.

    Iran says the US attack killed and wounded an unspecified number of fighters and civilians.

    Iran says it stopped a ship-to-ship oil transfer in the Strait of Hormuz.

    Oil has risen more than 2 percent on news of the US attack on Iran.

    At least seven people were injured in the occupied West Bank village of al-Mughayyir, most by live ammunition, during a raid by Israeli settlers and soldiers. Residents say the village entrance has been shut off.