24/04/2026 06:18
The Guardian
US president orders navy to ‘shoot and kill’ boats laying mines in Hormuz and claims ‘total control’ over the straitTrump claims US has total control over strait of Hormuz after Iran seizes two container shipsAnalysis: Trump may talk of regime infighting, but Iran seems united by strategy born of warHere’s a snapshot of the latest Middle East news to bring you up to speed.Donald Trump has ordered the US military to “shoot and kill” small Iranian boats that deploy mines in the strait of Hormuz and claimed that US minesweepers “are clearing the strait right now” amid the standoff over the key waterway. US special forces earlier boarded a stateless oil tanker in the Indian Ocean which the Pentagon claimed was carrying Iranian crude oil, ratcheting up the standoff with Tehran over the strait.The US president also announced that a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon would be extended by three weeks. Trump, speaking to reporters in the Oval Office alongside the participants in the meeting, said he hoped the two countries’ leaders would meet during the additional three-week cessation of hostilities.Trump said the US had “hit about 75% of our targets” in Iran and that a deal had not yet been reached because Iran’s leadership was “in turmoil”.Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, said there were no “hardliners” or “moderates” in Iran, responding to the Trump claim of internal division in Iran’s leadership. Separately, Iran’s foreign minister, Seyed Abbas Araghchi, said Iranian state institutions “continue to act with unity, purpose and discipline”.The US offered up to $10m for information on the leader of a Tehran-backed Shia militia in Iraq. The US state department’s “rewards for justice” program alleged Hashim Finyan Rahim al-Saraji was the leader of the Kata’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada (KSS) and that it was a terrorist group.Israel’s killing of a Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil, 43, in a strike has been met with international outrage as Lebanon’s prime minister described the attack as a “war crime”. Colleagues called it a sustained attack by Israeli forces and said rescuers attempting to dig her out of the rubble of a building were also targeted and prevented from providing life-saving assistance.US journalist Shelly Kittleson, who was freed a week after being kidnapped in Baghdad late last month, has taken to social media to thank people for helping secure her release by the Iran-backed Iraqi militia Kataib Hezbollah. “Thank you all so very, very much,” she said.Italian sports officials say Italy is not interested in replacing Iran at the upcoming World Cup after a suggestion to that effect by a Trump administration official.Pope Leo urged the US and Iran to return to talks to end the war and condemned capital punishment, calling for a new “culture of peace” to replace the recourse to violence. Continue reading...
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