Iraq

Trump says all mines have been cleared from Strait of Hormuz’s international waters and that Tehran received warnings that ships laying new mines will be ‘destroyed’.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announces new sanctions on Tehran to sever financial support for the regime, urging US allies to support the measures.

Fox News co-host Emily Compagno is jumping from the network’s daytime chatfest “Outnumbered” to join “The Five,” the most-watched program on cable news.

The conservative-leaning news network announced Monday that Compagno will fill the seat vacated last year by Jeanine Pirro, who left “The Five” in May to join the Trump administration as interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia before her Senate confirmation three months later.

Compagno will be on daily starting Sept. 8 alongside fellow co-hosts Greg Gutfeld, Dana Perino and Jesse Watters. Jessica Tarlov and Harold Ford Jr. rotate their appearances in the lone liberal seat on the program.

“Emily is a highly accomplished host whose energy and talent have made her a standout across FOX News Media, and we are thrilled to officially welcome her to the show,” Fox News Media Chief Executive Suzanne Scott said in a statement.

Compagno’s chair on “Outnumbered” will have guest co-hosts after she departs the program.

“The Five” has been a ratings juggernaut for Fox News in recent years, scoring audience levels that rival live viewing for hit broadcast network shows. In the second quarter of this year, “The Five” averaged 3.6 million viewers according to Nielsen, capturing more than 64% of the cable news viewing audience in the 5 p.m. Eastern hour.

Before joining Fox News as a contributor in 2018, Compagno practiced law in criminal defense and civil litigation and later served as a federal managing attorney and Acting Director at the Social Security Administration.

She also served as a Senior Judge Judicial Extern for the late Hon. John T. Noonan at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, Compagno served as captain of the cheerleading squad for the NFL’s Raiders when they played in her hometown before moving to Las Vegas. She served as an ambassador for the league overseas, visiting U.S. troops in Iraq and Kuwait on a USO tour.

She is also the author of “Under His Wings: How Faith on the Front Lines Has Protected American Troops,” which was released on the network’s publishing imprint FOX News Books and debuted at No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list.

Omani and Iranian foreign ministers hold a call as Washington prepares economic sanctions amid ongoing shipping disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has called for an end to the months-long war with the United States, stating that Tehran holds a position of strength as diplomatic talks remain stalled.

“It is better that we bring the war to an end now as we are in a position of power and dignity,” Pezeshkian said in a meeting with doctors on Friday. “The whole world acknowledges our victory and emphasises that America has attacked our schools, hospitals and infrastructure in violation of all regulations and is hated around the world.”

Pezeshkian – whose authority as president is ultimately subordinate to Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei – also defended the June memorandum of understanding agreed with Washington against hardline domestic critics in parliament, who accused his administration of giving concessions to the US.

“They cannot find even a single clause in this agreement that indicates capitulation. All the commitments concern the other side,” he said.

However, days after the memorandum of understanding expired, Iran’s military leadership has warned that the country remains ready to strike back against any new threats.

“With preparedness across land, sea, air, air defence and cyberspace, Iran’s armed forces will respond to the enemy’s new threats with crushing, punishing and devastating responses,” Major-General Ali Abdollahi, chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces, was quoted as saying by Iranian media.

Strait of Hormuz

Meanwhile, Omani and Iranian foreign ministers discussed in a phone call on Friday ways to create suitable conditions for resuming dialogue and negotiations, as well as developments affecting navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, according to Oman’s state news agency.

Tehran continues to keep the key waterway partially shut while Washington persists with a naval counterblockade. Reports in US media indicate the US navy has been organising and protecting secret convoys of tankers through the southern sector of the strait, enabling between five and 10 million barrels a day of oil to be exported.

In Washington, President Donald Trump expressed scepticism over Tehran’s willingness to negotiate, telling reporters when asked if US military options with Iran were limited: “It just means that we’re seeing what happens.”

“We have total control of that entire region having to do with the Strait of Hormuz, and that means well into it, the land areas. So, they would love to make a deal, but they’re not ready to make the right deal, in my opinion,” Trump added.

He has also warned of economic consequences against any country that provides “any type of lifeline to Iran”.

The comments came as US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned that Washington would “collapse” the Iranian government with a sanctions campaign.

Bessent will hold a news conference at the Department of the Treasury on Monday, where he is expected to outline planned sanctions against Iran, marking a shift by the Trump administration towards economic rather than military pressure as the war nears the six-month mark.

Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has already condemned the US plan, accusing Washington of “economic terrorism” and stating that “the instigators of these sanctions are deserving of trial and punishment”.

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Lin Jian also criticised the US measures, stating that “sanctions and pressure will not help resolve the issue” and urging all parties to “take responsible measures and resolve the problem through political and diplomatic means”.

For years, the day in Kulak ended when the generator powered down. Like thousands of villages across Iraq, this small farming community in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region lived to the faltering rhythm of an erratic power supply: a few hours of electricity, then the water pumps stopped, refrigerators warmed and children put down their books.

Today, Kulak runs on the sun. Solar panels harness its energy, batteries store the excess and residents have power 24/7. The change is visible beyond the homes: water pumps keep running, and cold storage gives farmers more control over when they sell their harvest.

This is the part of the energy transition the global climate conversation too often overlooks. Solar hardware is cheap; the world has learned how to install it. What matters is what comes after the panels go up: building the local capacity to keep the systems running and using reliable power to support farms, livelihoods and communities.

The energy transition will not be won in conference halls. It will be won, or lost, in places like Kulak.

Iraq’s rural energy crisis

Iraq’s energy story is usually told as a paradox. It is one of the world’s great oil producers, yet rural communities still endure daily power cuts. Summers now regularly push past 50 degrees, and the United Nations ranks Iraq among the nations most vulnerable to climate change. Drought has emptied farmland. Heat has made whole regions harder to live in. Rural families face a quiet, grinding choice between staying on land that can no longer sustain them or joining the drift towards overcrowded cities.

These pressures do not respect provincial boundaries. They are shared across Iraq, from the marshes of the south to the mountains of the north. They demand responses that work for the whole country.

For remote communities, decentralised power should not simply be treated as a stopgap while they wait for the grid. It can be part of the long-term answer.

Beyond electrification

Kulak is one of five villages in the Kurdistan region electrified through a solar initiative that pairs new infrastructure with local training and agricultural development. Residents are trained to operate and maintain their own systems, while research is under way into how reliable power can support local production.

Energy is treated not as a gift to be received but as an asset to be managed. That means looking beyond electricity itself to what it can enable: cold storage that allows farmers to hold their harvest for better prices, irrigation that no longer depends on diesel and processing that adds value before crops ever leave the village.

That distinction matters, because the graveyard of development is full of well-intentioned infrastructure. Anyone who has worked in this field has seen the solar array gathering dust because no one was trained to fix an inverter, or the water project abandoned when the foreign NGO moved on.

Sustainability is not a slogan; it is a design choice. Building local capability into a project from day one is the difference between a photo opportunity and a future.

Building the transition from the ground up

There is a broader argument here for the climate movement.

The energy transition is overwhelmingly narrated from the top down: through COP plenaries, G7 communiques and the financing pledges of wealthy nations, many of them unmet. Yet for hundreds of millions of people in the Global South, the transition will arrive, if it arrives at all, through decentralised solutions built close to the ground.

Rural Iraq will not wait decades for grid expansion to reach every valley. It does not have to. Distributed solar suits these communities better than centralised generation ever did, while local institutions can move at a speed that multilateral programmes rarely match.

There is also a quieter point about who gets to act on climate.

The prevailing image of climate action in the Middle East is the megaproject: vast desert solar farms, futuristic cities and sovereign wealth funds. Those have their place. But electrifying farming villages one by one represents a different kind of ambition, one rooted in the belief that Iraqis themselves, in all their diversity, can build the country’s energy future rather than wait for it to be delivered.

Local involvement matters particularly in places where reliable electricity is tied not only to household comfort but to whether farms can irrigate crops, preserve produce and remain economically viable.

Iraq has thousands of rural communities, and scaling this model will require partners, patient financing and supportive policy at every level of government. The agricultural research is promising but young.

On my last visit to Kulak, I was struck less by the panels than by what surrounded them: the cold store, the working pumps, the sense of a community planning for next season rather than next month.

The lights staying on is the least of it. What has really been switched on is the future tense.

If Iraq’s energy transformation is built like this across the whole country, village by village and from the ground up, it will be more durable than anything imposed from above. That means investing not only in the systems themselves, but in the people who will maintain them and the farms, businesses and livelihoods that reliable power can support.

The world’s climate diplomats could do worse than pay attention.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says Washington will impose its ‘toughest sanctions in history’ to ‘collapse’ Iran’s government, warning of consequences for countries that maintain economic ties with Tehran.

US president says Iran should ‘put up the white flag of surrender’ as the two nations’ MoU expired on Monday.

US president’s words come as Treasury chief says US will use economic measures against Iran that have ‘never been seen’.

President Trump again insists the US has ‘total control’ of the strait, while Tehran is resolute that Washington must meet its demands.

Qatar says negotiations between Oman and Iran over the future of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz are making major progress.

Ahmed al-Jubouri and a close associate were arrested on charges of misusing contract funds in Saladin province.

The former governor of Iraq’s Saladin province, Ahmed al-Jubouri, also known as Abu Mazen, has been arrested on corruption charges, Iraqi media say.

Al-Jubouri was arrested in Baghdad on Saturday after allegedly embezzling funds from Saladin province contracts, a senior government source told the Iraqi News Agency said. The news was widely confirmed by other Iraqi media.

The politician served as governor of Saladin from 2013 to 2014, followed by a tenure as minister of state for provincial affairs between 2014 and 2015. He is currently secretary general of the National Masses Party, which holds three seats in Iraq’s parliament and is part of the ruling coalition.

Businessman Mohammed al-Hajaf, who has been described as al-Jubouri’s close associate, was arrested in Saladin province under the same charges.

The source did not reveal the amount of money that had been taken. Al-Jubouri and al-Hajaf have not publicly commented on the allegations.

The National Masses Party posted a photo of al-Jubouri on Facebook, captioned: “You can take pride in what you have done for sick and poor people.”

Both arrests come days after the State Administration Coalition, which consists of parties that form and support the government, reaffirmed the need to continue the anti-graft campaign and to support the prime minister’s efforts.

Earlier this year, new Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi assumed office amid growing United States pressure on Baghdad to tackle corruption and disarm Iran-backed armed groups that have targeted US facilities in Iraq.

Security forces arrested 47 prominent Iraqi politicians, lawmakers and officials in June, leading to the seizure of tens of millions of dollars and bringing renewed attention to the decades-long issue of corruption.

Al-Jubouri was previously arrested in November 2019 after his parliamentary immunity was revoked over alleged criminal activity related to the construction of student dormitories at Tikrit University. According to local media, he was later released on bail.

The KC-135 Stratotanker aerial refueling jet involved in a deadly midair collision with another tanker over Iraq in March is now undergoing full repairs at Tinker Air Force Base. The Oklahoma installation hosts the only unit specifically designed to repair battle damage to the Air Force’s fleet of aerial refuelers and strategic bombers.

The collision on March 12 killed the entire crew of the tanker, which had the call sign Zeus 95. Maj. John A. Klinner, Capt. Ariana G. Savino and Tech. Sgt. Ashley B. Pruitt were assigned to the 6th Air Refueling Wing, MacDill Air Force Base, Fla. Capt. Seth R. Koval, Capt. Curtis J. Angst and Master Sgt. Tyler H. Simmons (who was posthumously promoted) were assigned to the 121st Air Refueling Wing at Rickenbacker Air National Guard Base, Columbus, Ohio.

After the incident, the surviving jet, serial 63-8017, landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport. Images emerged showing that half its tail was sheared off.

Little more was known publicly about the jet – assigned to the 314th Air Refueling Squadron at Beale Air Force Base, California – until it arrived at RAF Mildenhall in the United Kingdom on Aug. 2 with a replacement tail. Local aviation photographer Andrew McKelvey was kind enough to share images he took of the aircraft, one of which you can see below.

Serial 63-8017 left Mildenhall and finally arrived at Tinker on Aug. 3.

After McKelvey sent us the pictures, we reached out to the Air Force to find out how the aircraft was repaired and what would happen to it next. In addition, Mildenhall, as we have previously reported, was also a pit stop for at least two KC-135 tankers that returned from the Middle East full of patch mark repairs from shrapnel damage incurred during Iranian attacks.

“The aircraft are being inducted for programmed depot maintenance, where any damage patched by an Expeditionary Depot Maintenance (EDMX) unit will be fully repaired in conjunction with regularly scheduled 5-year maintenance,” an Air Force spokesperson told us Thursday afternoon. Located at Tinker, the EDMX is “responsible for maintaining the Air Force’s sole source for Aircraft Battle Damage Repair (ABDR) rapid repair capabilities for the entire tanker and bomber fleets,” according to the Air Force.

“Timelines for when the aircraft will fully return to the fleet ultimately depends on the extent of any additional defects or engineering issues identified during the inspection portion of the programmed depot maintenance,” the Air Force spokesperson added. “The current average for this regularly scheduled maintenance is 155 days, but it is reasonable to assume the timeline may be extended based on findings.”

The repair process to keep these aircraft able to maintain full mission capability can be much quicker, the Air Force spokesperson explained.

“Several damaged KC-135 Stratotankers were repaired by members of the 76th Aircraft Maintenance Group’s Expeditionary Depot Maintenance Flight [EDMX], allowing the aircraft to maintain full mission capability to complete deployed missions,” the Air Force added. The EDMX “completed more than 200 repairs over the course of three weeks; effective patches that also allowed the aircraft to return to Tinker Air Force Base for comprehensive repairs.”

The Air Force declined to provide details about the number of aircraft that arrived at Tinker to be repaired after being damaged in the war on Iran and did not immediately provide additional information about the work done on 63-8017 in Israel to enable it to fly again in the first place.

Whether coincidental or not, a few weeks after the mishap in March over Iraq, the Air Force pulled a Stratotanker out of storage and brought it to Tinker.

“At the request of the KC-135 System Program Office, the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group regenerated KC-135R, tail number 58-011, to support operational requirements,” the Air Force told us back in April. “The aircraft departed on April 2, 2026, en route to the Oklahoma Air Logistics Complex at Tinker AFB, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.”

The Air Force at the time declined to say if 58-011 was being used specifically to repair jets damaged during Epic Fury.

In addition to the tanker involved in the midair collision, an Iranian attack on Prince Sultan Air Base (PSAB) in Saudi Arabia is said to have damaged five tankers. However, the full destruction inflicted by it and subsequent strikes on PSAB remains murky, as do potential impacts to facilities and aircraft located across the region. The lack of regular satellite imagery from U.S. providers of the Middle East has made it harder to understand what has occurred, but as we state repeatedly, satellite images would not show more minor damage to aircraft, such as the shrapnel holes in images of two KC-135s that made a temporary stop at Mildenhall before heading to Tinker.

As we noted earlier in this story, on April 12, a KC-135, serial 59-1444, belonging to the Ohio Air National Guard’s 121st Air Refueling Wing, arrived at the air base in England covered in patches installed over shrapnel damage. You can see that jet’s arrival in the following photograph.

A little more than a month later, another Stratotanker, serial 63-8028, assigned to the Alaska Air National Guard’s 168th Wing, arrived at Mildenhall also peppered with temporary shrapnel damage repairs. The following photograph shows the aircraft at the base.

The damaged tankers are among at least 40 aircraft damaged or destroyed during the U.S. conflict with Iran. Our last tabulation is from April 10. There have been several other Iranian attacks on air bases in the region housing U.S. aircraft since then, but U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) has declined to discuss battle damage. So it is possible, if not likely, that there have been additional assets destroyed or damaged.

The Air Force is seeking money to replace some of these aircraft.

“We hope to be able to address this in a supplemental for the aircraft that we’ve lost,” Air Force Chief of Staff Kenneth S. Wilsbach told Congress in April. “And the procurement going forward is meant to increase the number of tails we have, especially in the fighter force, but it will also include bombers and tankers as well. So both the supplemental and the ’27 budget is supposed to address those losses.”

You can get an idea of the extent of U.S. aircraft losses from our graphic linked here.

The fact that these tankers, which have all been in service for more than 60 years, were able to return to flight is a testament to the crews that fixed them. How much repair work they still have to undergo remains unclear.

Tankers are critical assets in high demand, and in this case of these jets, there may be at least one positive side effect from the damage. Executing a battle damage repair plan in the field to get a KC-135 back in the air is a good real-life exercise, one that could prove vital if a future conflict in the Pacific were to erupt. Lessons will certainly be learned on many levels from the war on Iran. And some of these lessons unfortunately, and perhaps needlessly, came the hard way.

Contact the author: howard@twz.com

Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi had cancelled an earlier Saudi trip after deadly July 29 US-Saudi strikes on Iraq.

Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi ⁠and Saudi Arabian Intelligence chief Khalid bin Ali Al Humaidan have met in Baghdad in an attempt to resolve the governments’ ties strained by deadly cross-border strikes weeks earlier.

Al-Humaidan extended a renewed invitation for al-Zaidi to visit Riyadh in the meeting on Friday, the prime minister’s office said, after the latter’s earlier trip was called off in protest following a joint Saudi-US operation on July 29. The attacks killed 20 fighters of Iraqi armed groups, including five Iranians.

According to al-Zaidi’s office, the two focused on how Baghdad and Riyadh can better coordinate security issues as regional tensions simmer.

Al-Zaidi restated a pledge that Iraqi soil would not become a launchpad for attacks on any other country, and that Baghdad remains determined to guard its sovereignty.

The two countries have had a tense few weeks of diplomacy.

Saudi Arabia justified last month’s strikes on Iraq as retaliation for drone attacks on its oil infrastructure, which it blamed on the same pro-Iranian Iraqi armed groups.

Iraq’s National Security Council rejected the kingdom’s claim outright, calling the operation a breach of national sovereignty. In the days that followed, Iraqi authorities quietly tightened security across the country and along its borders to head off any retaliation.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq – the Iran-aligned network of armed groups that has clashed rhetorically with Riyadh in recent weeks – had promised to retaliate for the US-Saudi strikes.

But it announced on Friday that it was postponing a retaliatory strike, crediting the climbdown to lobbying from Hadi al-Amiri, one of the most powerful pro-Iran voices in Iraq, along with pressure from other unnamed political figures.

The group did not say what it had been preparing to hit.

Al-Zaidi, who took office earlier this year with Washington’s backing, has pledged to bring armed groups under state control and set a September 30 deadline for them to disarm.

His call has since faced opposition from powerful factions.

Iraq has long struggled to balance its ties with both the United States and Iran. The rivalry between Washington and Tehran has repeatedly turned the country into a proxy battleground.

US President Donald Trump expects the conflict with Iran to end “pretty soon”, while Tehran reports that an agreement with Oman to reopen the Strait of Hormuz is “on the verge of being finalised” following a route agreement between both nations.

Barzani meets Syria’s al-Sharaa in Damascus to discuss Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) integration and Kurdish rights in post-Assad Syria.

Nechirvan Barzani, president of Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish region, has held talks with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, in the first visit by a Kurdish leader to Syria since the fall of ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

On Monday, Barzani led a high-level delegation to Damascus, where he was received at the People’s Palace. According to Syria’s state news agency SANA, the two sides discussed bilateral relations between Erbil and Damascus, as well as several key regional issues of mutual concern to strengthen cooperation and coordination across various fields.

The visit to Syria’s capital comes after months of diplomatic engagement between the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq and Syria’s new administration. Barzani and al-Sharaa previously met twice on the sidelines of the Antalya Diplomacy Forum, first on April 11, 2025, and again on April 17, 2026. According to a statement from the Kurdistan Region Presidency, the second meeting covered the development of economic ties and the agreement between the Syrian government and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

The integration of the SDF into Syrian state institutions is a central focus of the talks. The SDF, a Kurdish-led force that controls much of northeastern Syria, has been in negotiations with Damascus over its future status. The Syrian government has sought to integrate the force into its military structures, while Kurdish representatives have pressed for guarantees of political and cultural rights.

According to news reports from Al Hadath, Barzani and al-Sharaa discussed mechanisms for entrenching the constitutional rights of Kurds in Syria, particularly language rights and administrative autonomy. Implementation of Decree No. 13, which pertains to Kurdish language rights, was also on the agenda. Syrian officials have expressed interest in benefitting from the Kurdistan Regional Government’s experience in Kurdish-language education, curriculum development and teacher training.

Barzani’s itinerary also includes meetings with Kurdish officials in Syria, including SDF commanders and Kurdish members of the Syrian parliament, according to Kurdish media reports.

The visit follows a series of diplomatic exchanges, including a trip by Syria’s education minister to Erbil and efforts to reopen the Syrian consulate in Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish region. Barzani has previously hosted SDF commander Mazloum Abdi and delegations from northeastern Syria in Erbil.

For the Kurdistan Regional Government in Erbil, which shares a 1,100km (684-mile) border with Syria and hosts tens of thousands of Syrian refugees, the engagement carries vital security imperatives. Ensuring a stable, inclusive Syria reduces the risk of the resurgence of ISIL (ISIS), limits future refugee flows, and enhances Erbil’s diplomatic leverage with both Baghdad and Ankara.

The talks come at a sensitive time, during ongoing clashes between Syrian forces and Kurdish fighters in the northeast.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday vowed to retaliate for Iran’s surprise attack on U.S. forces in Jordan launched Tuesday. His comments came a day after fighting in the region erupted anew after a several-day pause in U.S.-Iranian tit-for-tat actions. After the Iranian barrage, the U.S. and Saudi Arabia hit Iranian-backed militia groups in Iraq. That was in response for previous strikes from Iraq on U.S. and Saudi assets. Meanwhile, the Houthis are reportedly considering imposing a toll on Bab al-Mandeb Strait transits, adding to the region’s heightened tensions.

“We’re going to beat the fucking shit out of them,” Fox News reporter Troy Yingst says the president told him this morning, referring to Iran. “We’ll be hitting them hard. They’re going to get a beating.”

Yingst also said Trump told him that “U.S. forces had just minutes to shoot down these incoming Iranian ballistic missiles. The president says he has reviewed video of the shootdown, and it was U.S. forces conducting this operation to defend that area. He said it was real time; they were calling out coordinates and ensuring that none of this incoming Iranian fire got through.”

“In terms of possible talks with the Iranian regime, the president says ‘we’re going to let them keep talking,’” Yingst added. “…those talks are taking place as we speak behind the scenes.”

On Tuesday, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) “launched multiple ballistic missiles from Iran in an attempted surprise attack on U.S. forces based in the Middle East,” U.S. Central Command stated on X. “All Iranian missiles were successfully intercepted. U.S. forces remain vigilant and at a high state of readiness.”

The attack began at 5:45 p.m. ET, according to CENTCOM.

The official Iranian Press TV media outlet released video it claims showed a missile attack on Muwaffaq Salti Air Base (MSAB) in Jordan. As we have pointed out in the past, the base has been frequently targeted by Iranian missiles and drones. Three U.S. Army soldiers were killed in an attack there on July 17.

Trump also addressed the combined U.S.-Saudi strike on Iraqi militias linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The action appears to marke the first publicly known instance of the U.S. and Saudi Arabia joining forces to carry out attacks in this conflict.

The president “says those strikes were coordinated with the Iraqi government,” Yingst explained. “He called these Iran-backed militias a cancer on the world, and says he is considering additional warnings against Iranian proxies and their link to the Iranian regime.”

Hours before Trump spoke with Yingst, Iraqi militia groups condemned the action.

Harakat al-Nujaba (HaN), an armed group in the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), said those would be avenged, Al Jazeera reported. The PMF said at least 20 of its members were killed and 32 wounded in the U.S.-Saudi airstrikes, which took place across Iraq.

In a statement, HaN demanded the expulsion of U.S. forces from the country, saying their continued presence “has become an imminent threat to the country’s security and stability,” the outlet added. The group also called for an end to cooperation with Saudi Arabia and for the deployment of advanced air defense systems and threatened retaliatory attacks against U.S. and Saudi interests.

Prominent Iran-backed Iraqi Shia militia Al-Nujaba says it will not allow the U.S. and Saudi Arabia “to defile Iraqi soil without exacting a heavy price from them,” following joint U.S.-Saudi strikes on Iran-backed militias in Iraq overnight. https://t.co/r9euaiH60u

— Ariel Oseran أريئل أوسيران (@ariel_oseran) July 29, 2026

Meanwhile, influential Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr urged the IRGC and allied armed groups to stop launching attacks from Iraq.

“Since this holy land was not a launching point for bombing the Islamic Republic, then our brothers in the Revolutionary Guard must not bomb our independent and holy lands,” al-Sadr posted on X. “Likewise, the rogue militias must not give our brothers in the Gulf Arab states a pretext to target our holy land.”

“Everyone must embrace the spirit of brotherhood and peace and not be drawn into the schemes of the Zionist-American enemy to drag brothers into fighting and conflict,” the cleric added. “While I condemn the targeting of the holy Iraqi lands by all countries and parties, and I condemn the shameless actions of the militias to drag Iraq into a pointless war, I call upon the Iraqi government to establish security, enforce sovereignty, and work diligently for the safety of the Iraqi people and their holy sites, and not to be drawn into the abhorrent sectarian myths.”

CENTCOM on Tuesday said its forces, along with the Saudi Arabian Armed Forces, “conducted precision strikes in Iraq, July 28, against Iran-aligned terrorists that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) directed to attack U.S. forces and Saudi energy infrastructure.”

“U.S. and Saudi fighter aircraft struck multiple terrorist logistics and weapons sites across eastern Iraq in a strong response to over 30 IRGC-directed aerial drone attacks in the last 72 hours. The unwarranted attacks against U.S. forces were not successful,” CENTCOM added. “From February through April 2026, there were more than 600 attempted attacks on U.S. citizens and facilities by Iran-aligned terrorist militias in Iraq. The IRGC and its terrorist proxies must cease these attacks to avoid further U.S. military response.”

A U.S. official told TWZ Tuesday night that the combined U.S.-Saudi attacks came after the Iranian barrage.

“To be clear, the IRGC-directed attacks at our forces and our Saudi partners since over the weekend came without any provocation,” the official added. “This is a clear message that we will not let those attempts go unanswered.”

U.S. troops are adding to the danger they face by posting cellphone videos of attacks online, CENTCOM commander Adm. Cooper warned, according to Reuters. The command is also considering having some personnel surrender their phones, the outlet added.

Cooper, in a previously unreported letter, “said Iran was benefiting from being able to see the success or failure of its strikes in near real-time by searching news reports or online posts by journalists referencing ‘reactions, photos, and footage from the cellphones of our troops,’” Reuters stated.

The CENTCOM commander appeared to reference the following video in his letter, Reuters suggested.

“The direct, unavoidable cost of this open-source intelligence could be measured ​in the lives of American service members and civilian residents in targeted Gulf countries,” Cooper wrote in his July 28 letter, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters.

He ​called on troops to “redouble our focus on operational security,” without prescribing specific steps in the memo,” the news organization further noted.

“Admiral Cooper’s top priority is the well-being and protection of over 50,000 American service members operating in the Middle East,” CENTCOM spokesman Navy Capt. Tim Hawkins told TWZ in response to our questions about the letter. “His guidance to troops about operational security reinforces this priority.”

Cooper’s letter follows moves by U.S. satellite companies like Vantor and Planet Labs to delay posting imagery from the region out of similar concerns about operational security.

Cooper’s memo underscores the mounting tensions between real-time news reporting on the war, often aided ⁠by satellite imagery and first-person accounts, and the desire by the U.S. military to restrict any information that could aid Iran as it tries to kill and wound U.S.… https://t.co/0OBN2o1rtg

— Phil Stewart (@phildstewart) July 29, 2026

Amid the renewed U.S.-Iran hostilities, the Houthi rebels of Yemen are considering imposing fees on ships transiting the Red Sea, according to Reuters. The move follows the group’s imposition of a blockade on Saudi ships and its firing on Saudi vessels. It mirrors a similar effort Iran is trying to impose on ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz.

“The Houthis were looking into imposing fees on most traffic through the narrow Bab el-Mandeb [BAM] gateway,” Reuters noted, citing sources. The narrow waterway, between Yemen and Djibouti, links the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden. “No timeframe was given ​at this stage for implementation,” the sources added.

The Houthis’ media office did not respond to a request for comment.

July 29 (Reuters) – Yemen’s Houthi group is considering imposing fees on commercial ships sailing through the southern Red Sea, a week after declaring a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia, regional sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

— Tala Ramadan (@TalaRamadan) July 29, 2026

As we have frequently detailed, Houthi actions in the BAM threaten to add far greater pressure on oil exports from the Middle East, already drastically affected by the Iranian closure of the Strait of Hormuz and the resumption of the U.S. blockade on Iranian ports. The Yemeni rebel group has already expanded its target set, hitting oil terminals and infrastructure Saudi Arabia is using to pump supplies to tankers in the Red Sea. The kingdom has diverted millions of barrels of oil per day through pipelines to its Yanbu port on the Red Sea in an effort to minimize the energy shortages due to the hostilities in the Persian Gulf. Even with the BAM closed, oil exports could still head to the West, via the Suez Canal. But if the infrastructure used to convey these energy products is put out of action, the consequences could be even more severe, with far less or even no energy supplies from Saudi Arabia moving out of the Red Sea. The closing of the BAM, and the possible imposition of tolls, also raises the specter of the U.S. having to get as involved as it did during the previous Houthi campaign against shipping that ended last September, which could pull resources away from Iranian-focused operations.

Despite the increased risks, transits through both straits are trending upward, according to the Kpler risk management firm.

“Daily monitoring shows stronger transit volumes across the Strait of Hormuz and Bab el-Mandeb, with 12 and 41 confirmed crossings respectively on 28 July,” Kpler noted on X. “Yet higher traffic should not be mistaken for lower risk. Hormuz routing remains concentrated outside traditional traffic separation patterns, while Bab el-Mandeb continues to present elevated operational and compliance challenges through dark transits, sanctioned vessels and shadow fleet movements.”

“With 62 confirmed maritime security incidents recorded by the IMO as of 27 July and geopolitical tensions still unresolved, vessel behavior remains a more meaningful indicator than crossing volumes alone,” Kpler added. “For operators and markets alike, transparency, routing choices and emerging disruptions remain the key signals to watch over the coming days.”

Traffic rises, risks persist

Daily monitoring shows stronger transit volumes across the Strait of Hormuz and Bab el-Mandeb, with 12 and 41 confirmed crossings respectively on 28 July. Yet higher traffic should not be mistaken for lower risk. Hormuz routing remains concentrated… pic.twitter.com/fwUxZyUaf8

— Kpler (@Kpler) July 29, 2026

In the wake of new fighting in the region and threat of Houthi tolls on the BAM, oil prices are once again trending upward. The per barrel price of Brent Crude has risen to nearly $90, according to OilPrice.com. It had fallen to just over $83 per barrel yesterday when the pause in hostilities was still holding.

As we have previously noted, the U.S. and Iran had stopped firing at each other late last week, leading to a pause after 13 straight days of continuous tit-for-tat operations. U.S. President Donald Trump hadn’t ordered a U.S. strike on Iranian territory since last Thursday. This was ostensibly to give another round of diplomacy a chance. However, lingering concerns over the supply of munitions, especially air defense interceptors, reportedly played a role in Trump’s thinking.

The U.S. has burned through hundreds of Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) and Patriot interceptors since a shaky ceasefire went into effect on April 8, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) latest assessment. CSIS was updating a previous analysis of munitions expenditures during Epic Fury that you can read more about here.

According to CSIS, the U.S. had about 2,300 Patriot interceptors in its inventories before Epic Fury, 1,030 by the time the ceasefire was agreed to and between 759 and 827 as of July 27.

As for THAADs, there were 452 interceptors in the U.S. inventory before Epic Fury, between 232 and 262 on the date of the ceasefire and between 234 and 278 as of July 27.

The report authors noted that “[e]stimated inventories today account for additional interceptor use and new deliveries since the April 8 ceasefire. THAAD deliveries during the ceasefire outpaced estimated use over the same period, resulting in higher inventories today than in April. Patriot calculations include the latest MSE variant and PAC-3s. Several hundred PAC-2s, not represented in the chart, are estimated to remain in the U.S. inventory.”

New estimates of American Patriot PAC-3 and THAAD anti-ballistic missile interceptor stockpiles in American inventory from CSIS.

Roughly a third of pre-war Patriot interceptors are estimated to remain. pic.twitter.com/fa986PkBQM

— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) July 29, 2026

The lack of sufficient magazine depth is an issue that TWZ has raised frequently for years, and especially in regard to America’s air and missile defenses, in particular. In fact, we laid out in detail these exact concerns and how they would be a major issue in war with Iran just prior to the conflict starting in a feature you can read in full here.

Given Trump’s threat against Iran today, those concerns may be set aside out of a need to respond to the ballistic missile attack. The coming hours should give us a better picture of how all this will develop.

UPDATE: 1:16 PM EDT –

Two vessels were struck by drones in the Egyptian port of Damietta, according to the Ambrey maritime security firm.

One of the ships was a U.S.-owned and operated, Marshall Islands-flagged liquefied natural gas (LNG) floating storage facility and the other was a Greek-owned and operated, Bermuda-flagged LNG tanker, Ambrey stated.

“Reportedly, the incident occurred during LNG discharge operations, with the strike causing a fire on board” the floating LNG storage facility, Ambrey said in an alert. “Ambrey was aware that a second vessel reportedly experienced a fire in connection with the incident. AIS data indicated that the vessel was subsequently towed by two tugs to a position 2.9 NM northeast of the port, accompanied by a fire-fighting vessel.”

The security firm added that it “was aware that the crew had been evacuated and that the fire had subsequently been brought under control. At the time of writing, no party had claimed responsibility. No casualties, damage to port infrastructure or pollution had been reported in connection with the incident.”

After being struck by a drone and experiencing a fire, the Greek-owned and operated Bermuda-flagged LNG tanker “departed and anchored in a position approximately 10.2 NM northwest of the port,” Ambrey noted. 

A maritime security specialist told us that the U.S.-owned and operated, Marshall Islands-flagged floating gas storage facility was the Energos Winter while the other ship was the Gaslog Salem.

Fire involving two LNG vessels disrupts Damietta terminal

A fire involving the Energos Winter floating storage and regasification unit and the LNG carrier GasLog Salem has disrupted activity at Egypt’s Damietta LNG terminal. Following the incident, both vessels were moved… pic.twitter.com/3weeuJ4YvS

— MarineTraffic (@MarineTraffic) July 29, 2026

TWZ cannot confirm claims about the drone attacks, however, NASA FIRMS shows two thermal anomalies within the port limits near the vessels’ berths.

Video emerging from the scene shows what is purported to be smoke wafting from the Energos Winter after the attack.

A drone struck the U.S.-owned floating gas storage tanker Energos Winter while it was unloading cargo at Egypt’s Damietta Port, sparking a fire that spread to a second vessel, GasLog Salem. The crews were evacuated, the fire was brought under control, and no injuries were… pic.twitter.com/JwyNSywv8t

— Moshe Schwartz (@YWNReporter) July 29, 2026

UPDATE: 4:38 PM EDT-

Asked during a press conference whether Iran was behind the drone attack on Egyptian port, Trump said “it’s a little more of the same, but it’s going to be straightening out, it’s going to be straightening out. But in the meantime, we are going to be hitting them very hard, because it is our turn to hit ’em. They know it’s coming, they are asking us not to do it.”

“We’re going to hit them very hard.”

President Trump warns adversaries that the U.S. is prepared to respond forcefully following a drone attack on an LNG tanker off the coast of Egypt.

Trump signaled that retaliation is imminent despite requests from adversaries to hold back.… pic.twitter.com/SMOUuj5qGT

— Fox News (@FoxNews) July 29, 2026

UPDATE: 8:33 PM EDT –

As promised by Trump, the U.S. is hitting Iran tonight.

“U.S. forces began launching strikes against Iran at 8 p.m. ET today,” CENTCOM announced on X. “The strikes are a powerful response to yesterday’s attempted Iranian attacks on U.S. forces based in the Middle East.”

U.S. forces began launching strikes against Iran at 8 p.m. ET today. The strikes are a powerful response to yesterday’s attempted Iranian attacks on U.S. forces based in the Middle East.

— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) July 30, 2026

UPDATE: 10:37 PM EDT –

In a post on X, CENTCOM announced that at 10 PM ET, its “forces successfully completed a heavy wave of strikes against Iran in response to yesterday’s attempted missile attacks on U.S. forces.”

“CENTCOM assets struck dozens of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) targets in Iran, including military command centers, missile and drone facilities, coastal surveillance and defense sites, and maritime capabilities,” the command stated. “The strikes aimed to further diminish threats posed by Iran and its proxies to American forces, commercial shipping, and neighboring Gulf countries.”

CENTCOM says it struck dozens of targets in a “heavy wave” of airstrikes on Iran overnight in response to yesterday’s Iranian missile attacks on U.S. forces.

Newly released strike footage: pic.twitter.com/47V0nlAKFu

— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) July 30, 2026

Contact the author: howard@twz.com

US and Saudi forces launched coordinated airstrikes targeting Iran-backed Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) bases across Iraq, reportedly killing 20 fighters. Videos show the aftermath of the strikes,which were launched in response to alleged drone attacks on Saudi oil facilities.

The US and Saudi Arabia launched joint air strikes on Iraq, targeting ‘Iran-aligned’ groups after drone attacks targeted US forces in the region and Saudi oil facilities. Saudi Arabia says it acted in self-defence, while Iraq’s Popular Mobilisation Forces reported at least 20 killed.

July 28 (UPI) — The United States and Saudi Arabia attacked Iran-backed proxies in Iraq on Wednesday after Saudi air defense systems intercepted days of attacks launched from Iraq against the kingdom’s petroleum facilities.

U.S. Central Command said in a statement that it struck logistics and weapons sites across eastern Iraq, describing the joint attack as a “strong response” to the more than 30 drone strikes directed at Saudi Arabia’s energy infrastructure over the last 72 hours.

The joint attack was the first U.S. military operation during a five-day pause in direct strikes on Iran intended to allow diplomacy to resume. The pause followed 13 consecutive nights of CENTCOM strikes on Iran.

Saudi Arabia’s Defense Ministry confirmed the joint strikes, describing them as “precise and targeted strikes.”

It was unclear if any of the Iraq-launched drones hit their intended targets, though Saudi Arabia said several drones targeting its petroleum facilities in the Eastern Province and Riyadh region had been intercepted and destroyed.

According to CENTCOM, more than 600 “attempted attacks” targeting U.S. assets in the region were launched by Iranian proxies in Iraq between the start of the war in late February and the announcement of the now-collapsed cease-fire in April.

“The unwarranted attacks against U.S. forces were not successful,” it said.

The United States and Iran have been at war since late February, though fighting halted under a fragile cease-fire reached in April. The cease-fire collapsed earlier this month, leading to nearly a fortnight of nightly U.S. attacks against Iran.

Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi is leading a high-level delegation to Turkiye, in his first visit to the neighbouring country since taking office in May.

Accompanied by ministers and senior officials, al-Zaidi’s visit on Tuesday will focus on “strategic cooperation” between the two countries, as well as issues related to security, water and the economy, according to government spokesman Haider al-Aboudi.

Relations between Iraq and Turkiye have fluctuated over the past decade but remained a priority for both sides, particularly for Iraq in relation to oil and water resources.

And the launch of the US-Israel war on Iran in February and the subsequent closure of the Strait of Hormuz have elevated Ankara’s importance for Baghdad, prompting it to press Turkish authorities to resume and increase the exporting of oil through the Iraqi-Turkiye pipeline after years of suspension.

New oil agreement

The two countries are seeking to sign an oil pipeline agreement that governs the export of Iraqi oil after the expiration of the previous deal on Monday.

A source from Iraq’s Ministry of Oil told Al Jazeera that a technical delegation arrived in Ankara late last week to finalise a one-year extension of the old oil-exporting agreement until a new deal is concluded.

“The new Turkish terms regarding a new agreement are very difficult to be accepted by Iraq. For this reason, no one other than the Iraqi council of ministers is to take such a decision regarding this issue,” said the official on condition of anonymity.

”Turkiye wants to increase the interest from $1.35 for each barrel to $7, and the export capacity must not be less than 1.5 million bpd [barrels per day], whether Iraq can reach this level or not,” the source added.

Part of al-Zaidi’s plan is to find new energy deals and secure alternate routes to export Iraqi crude via Turkiye and Syria and to the Mediterranean Sea.

Iraq signed energy deals estimated at $200bn with US companies during al-Zaidi’s visit to the United States earlier this month, and the government aims to increase its oil and gas production, as well as to diversify exporting options.

“There is an urgent need to find new export outlets away from the Strait of Hormuz, which no longer meets Iraq’s requirements. We must expedite and shorten the timeframe for negotiations and contracting in order to establish new export routes,” said Iraqi Oil Minister Basim Khudair.

Development Route 

During his visit, al-Zaidi is also expected to pursue the establishment of strong trade, development and economic ties while seeking to draw from Turkiye’s experience across different industries.

A government source told Al Jazeera that the prime minister will highlight the importance of utilising Turkish expertise in the energy, infrastructure and transport sectors to boost Iraq’s development initiatives.

Among the main projects is the so-called Development Route – a vital transport project that connects Iraq’s al-Fao port in the south all the way north to the Iraq-Turkiye-Syria border triangle through a 1,200km (746-mile) rail and a highway network that passes through 10 Iraqi provinces.

Abd al-Jabar Ahmad, a professor of political science, said continued attacks by armed groups “have effectively derailed” the project.

He also cast doubt al-Zaidi visit’s will yield major results in relation to it, pointing to Ankara’s involvement in a transport corridor seeking to link Turkiye to Jordan through Syria and then Saudi Arabia.

“In my view, the Saudi project stripped Iraq’s Development Road Project of much of its economic and investment appeal,” he added.

Water and security   

Water management is also expected to be prioritised during al-Zaidi’s discussions in Turkiye.

Iraq blames Turkiye for building dams that have affected the flow of water from its two main rivers – the Tigris and the Euphrates – which originate in Turkish territory.

“Iraq views it as an issue that impacts the future of millions of Iraqis,” said the government source.

But the most complicated and sensitive issue concerns security – particularly, the presence of Turkish forces on Iraqi soil to fight the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which Turkiye, the US and European Union have designated as a “terrorist” group.

Military estimates suggest that Turkiye has about 50 small and big bases in three Iraqi provinces – Erbil, Duhok and Nineveh – hosting some 5,000 soldiers and weaponry, including artillery and armoured vehicles, as well as heavy and medium arms.

In mid-2025, the PKK announced it had taken its first steps towards disarmament as part of a wider peace deal with Ankara to end 40 years of war against the Turkish state in a conflict that has killed more than 40,000 people. Still, Turkiye continues to view the armed group’s presence in different mountainous areas in northern Iraq as a national security threat.

But despite the challenges, there is wide support in Iraq to strengthen relations with Turkiye, driven by the belief that ties with the neighbouring country remain important and serve Iraq’s national interests.

“There is a strong Iraqi desire to deepen relations with Turkiye in many aspects, especially in oil as Turkiye becomes one of the most important countries in the region in terms of transit routes for exporting oil to Europe and the rest of the world,” said Issam al-Faily, a political science professor.

“The problem lies in the nature of the Iraqi political climate, which is affected by the ongoing power struggles. The covert Turkish–Iranian rivalry may be one of the reasons that could prevent al-Zaidi from achieving his aspirations in relations with Turkiye. He should balance these very critical issues, if he wants this visit to be successful,” added al-Faily.

Drones launched at Saudi, Jordan and Iraq suggest Iran, or linked groups, may be testing US as it mulls new strategy.

Saudi Arabia has reported intercepting drones that targeted oil facilities in its eastern province and Riyadh.

Saudi’s Foreign Ministry said it “reserves the right to respond” to the attack, which it attributed to Iran-backed armed groups in Iraq.

Separately, Yemen’s Houthi rebels said in a statement on Monday that they had targeted Saudi crude oil transport infrastructure.

It remains unclear whether the two incidents were coordinated or separate.

The attack comes amid a lull in hostilities between the United States and Iran, with mediators suggesting the chances of a return to negotiations have risen.

Following two weeks of intense hostilities, US officials have spoken of a change in strategy, and Washington has paused strikes on Iran.

Iran has said it has also paused its attacks on US allies across the Gulf region.

However, the drone attacks on Saudi and elsewhere suggest that Tehran may be testing the new US stance, and that the armed groups believed to be linked to Iran are not ready to follow suit.

Aside from Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Iraq also reported drone attacks on Monday. Amman said it shot down two drones, while Iraqi security sources reported strikes on camps housing Iranian-Kurdish opposition fighters in the country’s north.

The officials did not identify the source of either attack, but Jordan and northern Iraq were locations in which four US service members were killed over the past fortnight of conflict.

The Houthis announced later on Monday that nine of its fighters had been killed amid escalating military confrontations with Yemeni government forces backed by the Saudi-led coalition in recent days.