A US air attack on a Houthi target in February 2024
A coalition vessel successfully engaged one anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM), which was launched from the Iranian-backed Houthi "terrorist-controlled areas" in Yemen over the Gulf of Aden, the US military said in a statement on Thursday.
"The ASBM was likely targeting the MV Yorktown, a US-flagged, owned, and operated vessel with 18 US and four Greek crew members," it said.
"There were no injuries or damage reported by US, coalition, or commercial ships," it added.
Yemeni Houthis armed and supported by the Islamic Republic of Iran have been targeting commercial vessels in the Red Sea area since last November, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei called on Muslims earlier that month to blockade Israel in response to its invasion of Gaza.
US Central Command, CENTCOM, also reported drone launches from Yemen either targeting naval vessels or commercial ships in the region.
Earlier, Houthis said they targeted the Maersk Yorktown ship and an American warship destroyer in the Gulf of Aden as well as targeting the Israeli ship MSC Veracruz in the Indian Ocean, the Iran-aligned group's military spokesman Yahya Sarea said in a televised speech on Wednesday.
The United States and the United Kingdom have launched several air strikes against the Houthis in retaliation for their missile and drone strikes targeting vessels.
Israeli artillery and fighter jet hit around 40 targets in southern Lebanon on Wednesday as intense fighting continued to escalate, with Hezbollah firing dozens of rockets at an Israeli border village.
The first large-scale conflict between the Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel since 2006 broke out immediately after war erupted in Gaza last October, stirring concern about the risk of a wider and more destructive conflict between the heavily armed foes.
The Israeli military said the strikes around Ayta al-Shaab, about 3 km (1.6 miles) inside the Lebanese border, had hit infrastructure including storage facilities and weapons in an area it said was used extensively by Hezbollah forces.
"There is continuous offensive action by IDF forces in all of southern Lebanon as well as in other parts of Lebanon. The operational results are very impressive," Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said in a statement following an operational meeting at the military's Northern Command.
He said half of Hezbollah's commanders in southern Lebanon had been killed by Israeli forces.
A Hezbollah official dismissed the assertion as "completely worthless" and aimed only to boost Israeli morale. He said the group regularly published pictures and biographical details of fighters killed in the fighting.
On Wednesday, the movement held a funeral for a senior commander, Hussein Azkoul, killed earlier this week by Israel.
Speaking at the funeral, senior Hezbollah politician Hassan Fadlallah indicated that Azkoul had played a role in developing Hezbollah's drone and missile capabilities, taking the battle with Israel into "a new phase".
Israeli strikes have killed some 250 Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon since October 7, in addition to a further 30 killed in Israeli strikes in neighbouring Syria. Overall, this exceeds Hezbollah's losses in the 2006 war with Israel.
One of the few female members of the Islamic Republic parliament has said that the April 13 missile attack on Israel will unify Iranians and help attract foreign investments.
Fatemeh Mohammad Beigi, a medical doctor by training, belongs to the hardliner faction of the outgoing parliament and has been re-elected for the next four years.
“Undoubtedly, the significant feat by the Revolutionary Guard’s aerospace force against Israel has brought people's hearts closer together. In the light of this solidarity, other challenging issues in the country…can also be resolved,” Beigi told a local website. As one of the challenges, she mentioned the declining legitimacy of the Islamic government.
However, her reference to a potential increase in foreign investment contradicts recent decisions by the United States and Europe to expand sanctions on individuals and entities helping the Islamic Republic in its weapons proliferation activities and support for militant networks.
Also, contrary to her claim about stronger solidarity among the people, Many Iranians criticized the attack against Israel. Even some regime insiders and commentators warned of dire economic and security consequences.
Beigi is known for odd statements and actions. In February, during the electoral campaign for parliamentary elections she wrote a letter to the governor in her local constituency, reminding him that she is known by nice different names, and this should be considered during the counting of write-in ballots.
She provided a list of these nine names to the governor in a letter. One of these names was “Ms. Doctor”. Beigi said that if a voter simply writes “Ms. Doctor”, that would be a vote for her.
Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei reiterated his support for Palestinian terror groups and militant proxies just days after the country's aerial bombardment aimed at Iran's archenemy Israel.
"Is a Palestinian defending his home a terrorist? Are we, the resistance front, terrorists?" he said.
The comments come amid the ongoing Gaza war, triggered by Iran-backed Hamas when on October 7 thousands of its militants invaded Israel killing 1,200 mostly civilians and kidnapping over 250 more.
Iran has long funded, armed and trained Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups, spearheaded by the supreme leader in his mission to annihilate the Jewish state. Iran has proxies across the region in which the regime invests billions of dollars each year.
In his Wednesday speech, he also defended Iran's backing of Hezbollah, which is currently waging war on Israel's northern front. Over 100,000 Israelis are currently displaced after more than 3,100 projectiles have been fired into Israeli territory since October 7 in support of Hamas in Gaza.
During his speech on Wednesday, Khamenei also responded to the intensified sanctions on Iran from the EU, UK and US in the wake of the aerial bombardment, which saw over 350 drones and missiles fired towards Israel, most of which were intercepted by Israel and a US-led coalition.
"The sanctions will not bring down the Iranian nation because it does not rely on external help," he stated, in spite of the fact that over one third of Iranians now live below the poverty line as the regime funds war over feeding its people.
On Monday, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell announced that the new sanctions would expand the catalog of prohibited items related to drone and missile production, a move building on measures connected to Iran's role in supplying drones to Russia.
Iran claims the aerial assault was a move of self defense after an alleged Israeli air strike earlier this month on Iran's consulate in Damascus in which one senior Quds Force commander was assassinated along with several other IRGC personnel.
The Argentine government has requested Interpol to issue a red alert for the arrest of Iran's Interior Minister in connection with the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, killing 85 people.
The foreign ministry disclosed its request on Tuesday while Ahmad Vahidi is traveling as part of a presidential delegation visiting Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
The bombing at the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) is among the deadliest terrorist attacks in Argentina and remains unresolved, with the involvement of the Iran-backed group Hezbollah suspected by both Argentina and Israel.
Following recent court findings that officially implicated Iran and Hezbollah in the attack, the Argentine government is intensifying efforts to bring those responsible to justice.
"Argentina seeks the international arrest of those responsible for the AMIA attack of 1994, which killed 85 people, and who remain in their positions with total impunity. One of them is Ahmad Vahidi, sought by Argentine justice as one of those responsible for the attack against AMIA," said the statement by the foreign ministry.
In addition to Interpol, Argentina has reached out to the governments of Pakistan and Sri Lanka, urging them to detain Vahidi.
The statement from the foreign ministry emphasized the pursuit of justice for the AMIA bombing, describing it as a "crime against humanity" and criticizing the continued impunity of those involved.
The US military called on Iraq's government on Tuesday to take steps to safeguard American troops in both Iraq and Syria after failed attacks a day earlier by Iran’s proxy militias.
The drone and rocket fire were the first such incidents since a near three-month pause in what had been almost daily attacks that culminated in the January killing of three US soldiers at the Tower 22 outpost in Jordan.
Meanwhile, the Biden administration on Tuesday announced criminal charges and sanctions against four Iranians over an alleged multi-year cyber campaign targeting more than one dozen American companies, the Treasury Department and the State Department said.
Sanctions were also announced against two companies, Mehrsam Andisheh Saz Nik and Dadeh Afzar Arman, that according to the Treasury Department employed the individual defendants and were front companies for Iran's Revolutionary Guard cyber command.
“The IRGC-CEC is one of the Iranian government organizations that has been responsible for, through a series of front companies, malicious cyber activity against the US and several other countries…The United States will not tolerate malicious cyber activities victimizing US companies,” the State Department said in a statement.
With US-Iran tensions soaring after the Jordan attack in January, and some calls from Republican lawmakers in Washington for a direct US response against Iran, a senior Iranian commander had called on militia to halt their attacks at the end of January.
The US retaliated againstthe attack in Jordan in early February, hitting multiple bases of Iranian proxies in Syria and Iraq,
Speaking at the Pentagon, Air Force Major General Patrick Ryder, a spokesperson, did not speculate about what triggered the renewal in attacks. But he called on Baghdad to act.
"These attacks put coalition and Iraqi personnel at risk. We call on the government of Iraq to take all necessary steps to ensure the safety of U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria against attacks from these groups," Ryder told a news briefing.
"If these attacks continue, we will not hesitate to defend our forces, as we have done in the past."
The US has some 2,500 troops in Iraq and 900 in eastern Syria on an advise-and-assist mission.
Although Washington has sanctioned many individuals and entities engaged in nefarious activities on Iran’s behalf, the Biden administration has not enforced the oil sanctions against Tehran, which is the main source of its income.
The United States helped Israel shoot down a massive wave of Iranian drone and missiles on April 14 fired by Tehran in retaliation for an April 1 Israeli strike against an Iranian diplomatic facility in Syria.
Washington has blamed Iran in the past for funding and directing militia in Iraq and Syria that attack US forces.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, wary of his country becoming a battleground for fighting between the United States and Iran, met President Joe Biden earlier this month to turn a new page in US-Iraqi relations despite soaring regional tensions.
The US invaded Iraq in 2003 and toppled strongman leader Saddam Hussein, withdrawing in 2011 before returning in 2014 at the head of an international military coalition at the Baghdad government's request to help fight Islamic State insurgents.
