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Recent fighting with Iran used up more of the US military's already diminished stockpiles of advanced missile interceptors, potentially putting American troops at more risk if hostilities resume, a new analysis says. Shrunken inventories of Patriot and THAAD interceptors may force the US and its Middle Eastern allies to take more risks to conserve those air defences, according to the analysis from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank. For example, it said, American forces may launch fewer missiles against incoming Iranian drones and missiles, raising the chance of one getting through. "That percentage may not go up a lot, but it goes up a little," said Mark Cancian, a retired Marine colonel and now senior adviser at CSIS who co-authored Monday's report with research associate Chris H Park. The nation's advanced weapons stockpiles have become a flashpoint in the five-month-long conflict, along with the threat to the lives of American service ...
American and Saudi forces struck sites used by Iran-backed militias in Iraq to carry out attacks in recent days, the US military said Tuesday. "US 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," US Central Command said in a statement, using an acronym for Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard. It said the Revolutionary Guard "and its terrorist proxies must cease these attacks to avoid further US military response." Saudi Arabia said earlier Tuesday that it for a second day shot down drones fired by Iran-backed militias in Iraq, which had attempted to target petroleum facilities in the nation's eastern region. Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi ordered security agencies to investigate after the Saudis alleged a similar attack on Monday.
The US military announced Thursday that it is conducting the 13th night of strikes against Iran as clashes escalate over shipping routes. Earlier Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels said they attacked two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea, potentially widening the Iran war as international oil topped USD 100 a barrel. US Central Command said the latest attacks are designed to "further degrade Iran's ability to threaten civilian mariners and commercial vessels transiting regional waters" as the Americans push to regain control over the Strait of Hormuz and restore the flow of international shipping. Meanwhile, the Houthis threatened to shut down another key trade route, with the world economy already reeling from Iran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz. The threat came as Iran and the US have stepped up attacks as they vie for control of the strait, through which a fifth of the world's oil and gas transited in peacetime, setting off a scramble for alternative routes. President Donald Tru
The US military has confirmed that a third service member is believed to be dead in Friday's attack on a base in Jordan and identified them as Sgt Angel S Rampersad, 28, of New York. The confirmation brings the death toll to 18 US service members killed since the war began. On Monday, the Pentagon identified 1st Lt Tyler James Feehan, 25, of Ewa Beach, Hawaii, and Pvt Isabella Gonzales, 19, of Carrollton, Texas, as the two other soldiers who were killed in Jordan in Friday's attacks. The soldiers were killed by Iranian ballistic missile and drone attacks in the first troop deaths from direct Iranian fire since the opening days of the war. They were deployed to support a US mission against the Islamic State group, a US Central Command statement said. After the attack, US Central Command announced that two servicemembers were killed and another was missing. The following day, the military command said that troops found unidentified remains and that an examination process to verify the
The US military said it completed the 11th night of strikes on Iran early Wednesday as attacks across the Middle East overshadowed diplomatic efforts in Pakistan to salvage an interim ceasefire deal that has collapsed. US Central Command said targets included aircraft hangars and drone storage sites. The newest barrage came after President Donald Trump telegraphed that strikes would be intensifying. Before the latest strikes, Iranian Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni visited Pakistan, a key mediator in the conflict seeking to revamp diplomacy. But it was unclear what new arrangement might be reached to end the war, which lately has become a battle for control over the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway vital to world energy supplies. Speaking from the Oval Office on Tuesday, Trump gave a dim view on possible talks, saying the US had "no interest in meeting." He signalled that US forces could soon target an area of Iran close to one of its main sites for enriching uranium. With negotiatio
The US military said Sunday that it launched new airstrikes against Iran to "swiftly punish" the country's Revolutionary Guard for an attack in Jordan that killed two American service members, left one missing and four requiring hospitalization. The strikes were designed to further degrade Iran's ability to restrict the traffic of oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, US Central Command said. The waterway accounted for roughly 20 per cent of global oil supplies before the war. An area near Sirik, on the Strait of Hormuz, was targeted around 1:30 am local time, according to Iran's state-run IRNA news agency, which cited local authorities in southern Hormozgan province. The new strikes came after the U.S. military announced its first troop deaths from direct Iranian fire since the opening days of the war, following a drone and missile attack on a base in Jordan on Friday. The dead were not identified, and Central Command wouldn't offer any further details on the deaths. Since the
The US military will leave Iraq by the end of September, American and Iraqi officials have said, following a 23-year presence that started with the 2003 invasion against Saddam Hussein and ended with much smaller operations against the Islamic State group. President Donald Trump, standing alongside Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi at the White House on Tuesday, said "we don't think we need the military there anymore" and noted Iraq's growing relationships with oil companies. "The relationship is a whole big relationship where we don't need the military," Trump said. "We're there to help them. We're there to protect them if need be. But we don't think that's going to be necessary." Speaking through an interpreter, al-Zaidi said "US forces will be out of Iraq" by Sept. 30, "while US companies will be inside Iraq." The Pentagon said in a subsequent statement that it was reaffirming a 2024 agreement with Iraq to end its mission against IS fighters. Many of the US troops still serving
The US military's official tally of deaths in the Iran war has risen to 14 service members, with the death of a Navy pilot in a helicopter crash in early July in the Arabian Sea. The number of wounded troops from the conflict also has grown to more than 400 as of Monday. Capt. Tim Hawkins, spokesman for US Central Command, said the majority of them suffered traumatic brain injuries. The Navy initially described the July 1 crash as an emergency landing and said there was "no indication the emergency was caused by hostile action". The remaining three sailors aboard the helicopter were rescued shortly after the mishap. The Pentagon's war casualty count added one non-hostile death in July. It is the first death recorded since 13 service members were killed in separate incidents in March at the beginning of the war. The first was an Iranian drone strike on a command centre in Kuwait that killed six soldiers. Then one soldier died more than a week after initially being wounded in an atta
The US has restored the name of the US Indo-Pacific Command to the US Pacific Command, reversing an eight-year-old decision. The US Department of Defence announced the decision on Tuesday, stating that the designation honours the Command's deep historical roots, established in 1947 by then-President Harry Truman. The US Pacific Command extends from the US West Coast to India's western border. "Originally established on January 1, 1947, by President Harry S. Truman, the command operated under the USPACOM banner for over 70 years, standing as the oldest and largest of the United States' unified combatant commands," the Department of Defence said in a statement. The US Pacific Command was renamed as the US Indo-Pacific Command in 2018 during US President Donald Trump's first term in office. "Restoring the legacy USPACOM designation honours the command's deep historical roots, fostering a sense of pride and collective spirit among all who serve in the Pacific," the Department of Defen
President Donald Trump said Friday that a "swift and lethal kinetic" US strike has killed Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, whom he called "the infamous leader" of the Tren de Aragua gang. Tren de Aragua has been labelled by the United States as a terrorist organisation. Guerrero Flores was charged in a New York federal court with racketeering conspiracy and other crimes, including lending support to terrorists in crimes that stretched more than a decade, authorities announced in December.
The US military said Wednesday it began another round of strikes against Iran after President Donald Trump warned that Tehran would "pay the price" for stalled negotiations. The escalating attacks threatened to derail efforts to end the war. US Central Command said in a social media post that the military was striking "multiple targets in Iran," attacks that were "in response to Iran's unwarranted and continued aggression". The second day of American strikes came hours after Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan - all of which host US troops - came under Iranian fire. It was the third time this week that back-and-forth strikes have tested a two-month ceasefire. They also came a day after the US struck Iran following the crash of an Army helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz that Trump blamed on the Islamic Republic. Trump has urged Iran to sign a deal to end the war and suggested earlier this week that an agreement could be reached in a matter of days. Iranian media reported that explosions we
The US military said Tuesday that it carried out strikes on Iran following the crash of an Army helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz that President Donald Trump blamed on the Islamic Republic. Tehran vowed to respond. The strikes were "a proportional response to unjustified Iranian aggression", US Central Command said on social media. Iranian state media reported that explosions were heard on Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz, a critical shipping lane that Iran has effectively closed during the war, before saying the wave of American attacks in the south had "subsided". Trump said earlier in a social media post that Iran had shot down the aircraft while it was on patrol over the strait and declared that the US "must, of necessity, respond to this attack". Iran's top diplomat said foreign military forces near its territory "are at constant risk" and later vowed that there would be a response to the new US strikes. Iranian forces "will leave no attack or threat unanswered", Iranian