What to know about the Iran war today:
A U.K. navy agency said a second tanker was hit by a projectile in the Strait of Hormuz early Friday, hours after reporting another vessel coming under attack in the vital waterway. Iran claimed to have struck a ship attempting an “illegal crossing” of the strait.President Trump said Thursday he is poised to make a “big decision” on whether to launch a major assault to “annihilate” the Iranian regime. “It’s a big decision,” Mr. Trump told Axios ahead of a planned meeting with Persian Gulf leaders next week. “Anything could happen with me.”There are “reasonable grounds” to believe two U.S. strikes on Iran early in the war constitute war crimes, a U.N.-commissioned panel of human rights experts said Thursday.
Saudi Arabia issues air raid alert in Riyadh as explosions heard
Explosions were heard in the Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh on Saturday local time, an Agence France-Presse journalist reported, after an air raid alert was issued by Saudi authorities, who have been regularly targeted in recent days by attacks from the Iranian-backed Houthi militant group in Yemen.
“The area is under a hostile aerial threat,” a message received by residents of the Saudi capital read.
This is the first time the capital has been directly affected since the conflict in neighboring Yemen intensified in July.
Commercial ships still transiting Bab el-Mandeb Strait after Houthis take islands
Container ships and oil tankers continued to transit the Bab el-Mandeb Strait at the entrance to the Red Sea after the Yemen-based Houthi militant group said it is only targeting Saudi-linked vessels.
But a dip in traffic has been reported over the last week after a lightning advance by Houthis on islands in the waterway since last week.
About 26-35 vessels per day have transited this week, down from the 35-40 daily average of the prior eight weeks, according to Dimitris Ampatzidis, Maritime Risk & Compliance Manager at Kpler.
Many shipping companies abandoned the route after Houthi attacks on Israeli-linked vessels began in 2023, though vessels from Russia and China appear to have no trouble.
“Traffic remains severely impaired and increasingly selective,” said Mohamed Kotb with United Insurance Brokers in London.
Saudi Arabia launched 26 strikes in Yemen over 24 hours, Houthis say
Yemen’s Houthis said on Friday that Saudi Arabia had launched 26 strikes against areas under their control in the past 24 hours, as the pro-Iran group and Yemen’s Riyadh-backed government clash in the country’s revived civil war.
The number of Saudi strikes on its positions had reached 300 over the last week, saying they targeted areas across Houthi-held Yemen, the group said.
The fighting in the southwestern part of Yemen has increased in intensity over the last week as the Iran-backed Houthis pushed toward the coast of the Red Sea in a surprise campaign.
The Saudis have assisted the Yemeni government forces in trying to take back some of that ground. Saudi interests in Yemen are high as it takes millions of barrels of oil out through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the southern exit of the Red Sea.
Yemen’s Mokha gripped by fear after Houthi takeover
Life has ground to a halt for locals in the Yemen city of Mokha since Houthi fighters seized the strategic Red Sea port city last week, with shops closed, schools deserted and families confined to their homes.
“I haven’t gone out to work for a week. If I do go out, it’s only to go to the grocery shop out of necessity,” resident Mahmoud, 34, told AFP by phone.
The bus driver spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals by the Houthis, who took control of the southwestern city in a lightning offensive this month against the internationally recognized government’s forces.
Large numbers of civilians have fled the city, also spelled Mocha, which once played a key role in the coffee trade and gives its name to the eponymous drink.
Shops that used to stay open in the evenings now close much earlier, said Mahmoud.
“People are afraid. There is electricity, but at 8 p.m. the whole city is plunged into darkness,” he said.
U.S. blockade has now redirected 105 vessels, military says
The U.S. blockade on the Strait of Hormuz has now redirected 105 commercial vessels heading into or out of Iranian ports, according to U.S. Central Command.
The total is an increase of one ship in the past 24 hours.
It’s been learned that over 30 million barrels of Iranian, or likely Iranian, crude has been kept in the Persian Gulf by the U.S. blockade.
There’s another 60 million-plus barrels of Iranian oil valued at nearly $9 billion on sanctioned vessels outside the Gulf, avoiding the blockade. That oil is being unloaded, but at a much lesser pace than would be the case normally.
Nearly 3,000 people have fled Yemen for Djibouti this week, U.N. says
Thousands of people in Yemen are fleeing across the Bab el-Mandeb Strait to the African country of Djibouti as the war in the Middle East expands and the Iran-backed Houthi militia fights Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces.
Nearly 3,000 people, more than half women and children, have fled Yemen in less than a week amid intensified fighting between the two sides, according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. The report said thousands more people are waiting to cross the narrow waterway that has become the center of fighting.
“At reception centres in Djibouti, new arrivals recount fearing for their lives in Yemen having fled sudden bombardment, shelling and gunfire,” the UNHCR said in its press release. “Mothers quickly gathered their children and whatever they could carry before heading to the coast and boarding small boats.”
More than 100,000 people have already been internally displaced, according to UNICEF, and UNHCR said it was preparing for an additional 10,000 people to make their way to Djibouti.
Fighting between the Houthis and government forces restarted in recent weeks after breaking a truce that was signed in April 2022. The fight this time centered on the Houthis beginning to target Saudi oil tankers exiting the Red Sea through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait in solidarity with Iran’s blockade on the Strait of Hormuz.
Houthi forces quickly overran the army of the internationally recognized Yemeni government and took control of the coastal city of Mokha, which overlooks the strait, earlier this week.
Traffic in Bab el-Mandeb Strait lagging well behind prewar numbers
Saudi exports through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait continue to suffer, with weekly traffic since the start of August at under a third of this year’s seven-day average, data shows.
Traffic through Bab el-Mandeb has been disrupted following recent Houthi gains on the Red Sea coast, hitting Saudi exports particularly hard.
The Iran-backed group now controls the narrow Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a vital artery for Saudi oil exports, as the wider Middle East war also chokes off the Strait of Hormuz shipping route.
Data from maritime tracking firm Kpler shows just five laden vessels carrying Saudi products have left the Red Sea via the vital route in the past seven days.
The figure has not been higher since the week of July 24, when 11 vessels laden with Saudi products exited the Red Sea through the strait.
The Houthis say there is no threat to navigation in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait except for Saudi vessels, but any attacks in the waterway have the potential to make it less attractive to shippers.
Kpler data suggests commodity tanker traffic through the strait over the past seven days was lower than usual but had not stopped.
Israeli, Lebanese armies face off in village after Israel advances
Israel’s military moved forward on Friday in a south Lebanon village, facing off against a Lebanese army position after deploying tanks and detonating stun grenades, according to an AFP news agency photographer and other media in the area.
Israel has been occupying a swath of southern Lebanon since war broke out in March against Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah. The Lebanese army is supposed to gradually take control of the area under a framework agreement between the two countries, moderated by the U.S.
Under the deal, Hezbollah is meant to disarm and Israel to withdraw from Lebanon, but progress has been slow, with Israel warning it will stay put as long as its foe remains a threat.
In the village of Deir Mimas on Friday, located on the edge of territory occupied by Israel, two Israeli tanks advanced along a road toward the settlement, the AFP photographer saw.
The tanks stopped in front of a barricade made from earth, beyond which Lebanese army vehicles were stationed.
“An Israeli force advanced on the outskirts of the village of Deir Mimas, up to a junction near a recently established Lebanese army position,” where they launched “six stun grenades in the surrounding area,” Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported.
According to the AFP photographer, the Lebanese army then withdrew by about 100 meters but remained in a position facing the Israeli tanks.
Credit: Yahoo News