Middle East crisis live: Trump says US destroyed Iranian mine-laying vessels and vows action if any found in strait of Hormuz | US-Israel war on Iran

Middle East crisis live: Trump says US destroyed Iranian mine-laying vessels and vows action if any found in strait of Hormuz | US-Israel war on Iran

Trump says US destroyed 10 ‘inactive mine laying vessels’

In a swift flip of occasions, Donald Trump has stated that the US has hit and “completely destroyed” 10 inactive mine-laying vessels, warning that extra would comply with.

It comes not lengthy after the US president initially said there had been “no reports” of Iran inserting mines in the strait, however warned that if Iran had positioned mines in the essential waterway, they have to be moved “IMMEDIATELY” or Iran would face navy penalties “at a level never seen before”.

US officers earlier told CBS News that Iran could also be getting ready to deploy naval mines in the strait to additional disrupt the essential delivery lane. According to CNN, a couple of dozen mines have been laid in current days.

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Key occasions

The day up to now

  • Donald Trump stated the US has hit and “completely destroyed” 10 inactive mine-laying vessels, warning that extra would comply with. It got here shortly after the US president initially said there had been “no reports” of Iran inserting mines in the strait, however warned that if it had, they have to be moved “IMMEDIATELY” or Iran would face navy penalties “at a level never seen before”. US officers earlier told CBS News that Iran could also be getting ready to deploy naval mines in the strait to additional disrupt the essential delivery lane. According to CNN, a couple of dozen mines have been laid in current days.

  • White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed that the US Navy has not escorted an oil tanker by means of the strait of Hormuz, after the US vitality secretary Chris Wright stated it had occurred in a swiftly deleted X submit. Leavitt additionally stated that the US navy is “drawing up additional options” to maintain strait open.

  • Leavitt additionally stated that the US and Israel’s war gained’t finish till Iran’s “complete and unconditional surrender” and when Trump decides his goals have been met and determines that Iran doesn’t pose a direct menace. She informed reporters that the US navy is “making tremendous strides towards achieving our military objectives”, and is now shifting to “dismantle Iran’s missile production infrastructure”.

  • Meanwhile, the Trump administration is reportedly contemplating the deployment of particular forces into Iran to safe its stockpile of extremely enriched uranium (HEU), which consultants say may very well be used to make not less than 10 nuclear warheads. The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has informed Congress that “people are going to have to go and get it”. Here’s our story.

  • The United States reportedly requested Israel to halt strikes on Iran’s vitality infrastructure, marking the primary time the US has reined in its ally since they went to war 11 days in the past. It comes after an Israeli bombing of gas storage services blanketed Tehran – a metropolis residence to some 10 million folks – in toxic black smoke and acid rain over the weekend, elevating pressing well being warnings for peculiar Iranians.

  • Russia denied sharing intelligence with Iran on US military belongings in the Middle East, Trump’s particular envoy Steve Witkoff stated. It follows reports on Friday that Moscow was offering Tehran with concentrating on info that included places and actions of US warships and plane in the area. “Yesterday on the call with the president, the Russians said that they have not been sharing,” Witkoff stated when requested if Washington thought Moscow had shared intelligence in regards to the location of US navy belongings with Tehran. “We can take them at their word. But they did say that. And yesterday morning, independently, Jared [Kushner] and I had a call with [Kremlin aide Yuri] Ushakov who reiterated the same.”

  • Iran’s international minister Abbas Araghchi dismissed repeated claims from the Trump administration that Iran was planning a preemptive or preventive strike towards the US or its navy forces as “a sheer and utter lie”. “The sole purpose of that lie is to justify Operation Epic Mistake, a misadventure engineered by Israel and paid for by ordinary Americans,” Araghchi stated in a submit on X – riffing on the US’s identify for the navy operation, Operation Epic Fury.

  • Approximately 140 US service members have been wounded for the reason that begin of the US-Israeli war on Iran, based on the Pentagon, eight of them severely.

Trump says US destroyed 10 ‘inactive mine laying vessels’

In a swift flip of occasions, Donald Trump has stated that the US has hit and “completely destroyed” 10 inactive mine-laying vessels, warning that extra would comply with.

It comes not lengthy after the US president initially said there had been “no reports” of Iran inserting mines in the strait, however warned that if Iran had positioned mines in the essential waterway, they have to be moved “IMMEDIATELY” or Iran would face navy penalties “at a level never seen before”.

US officers earlier told CBS News that Iran could also be getting ready to deploy naval mines in the strait to additional disrupt the essential delivery lane. According to CNN, a couple of dozen mines have been laid in current days.

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Iran says claims that it was planning to strike US or US forces ‘a sheer and utter lie’

Iran’s international minister Abbas Araghchi has dismissed repeated claims from the Trump administration that Iran was planning a preemptive or preventive strike towards the US or its navy forces as “a sheer and utter lie”.

In a post on X, Araghchi – riffing on the US’s identify for the navy operation, Operation Epic Fury – added:

double citation markThe sole goal of that lie is to justify Operation Epic Mistake, a misadventure engineered by Israel and paid for by peculiar Americans.

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Around 140 US service members wounded since begin of US-Israeli war on Iran, Pentagon says

Approximately 140 US service members have been wounded for the reason that begin of “Operation Epic Fury”, based on chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell.

double citation markThe overwhelming majority of these accidents have been minor, and 108 service members have already returned to obligation. Eight service members stay listed as severely injured and are receiving the best stage of medical care.

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Julian Borger

Julian Borger

The Trump administration is reportedly contemplating the deployment of particular forces into Iran to safe its stockpile of extremely enriched uranium (HEU), which consultants say may very well be used to make not less than 10 nuclear warheads.

Preventing Iran from buying a bomb is one of Trump’s acknowledged war goals, and the 440kg HEU stockpile represents the best nuclear menace because it may very well be became weapons-grade uranium comparatively simply. The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has informed Congress that “people are going to have to go and get it”.

Rubio didn’t go into higher element, however there have been US and Israeli studies on discussions between the 2 international locations on how such a mission could be carried out by particular forces from both or each militaries. But nuclear consultants say the complexity and danger concerned can be appreciable.

Rafael Grossi, the director normal of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), stated on Monday that the UN watchdog physique believed that 200kg of Iran’s HEU stockpile was in deep tunnels at its nuclear complicated outdoors town of Isfahan. He added that there was one other “amount” of HEU in one other nuclear centre at Natanz, the place Iranians have constructed a brand new fortified and deeply buried facility known as Kuh-e Kolang Gaz La, recognized to western analysts as Pickaxe Mountain.

Trump warns Iran about inserting mines in strait of Hormuz

Donald Trump has stated there are “no reports” of Iran inserting mines in the strait of Hormuz, and warned that if Iran has positioned mines in the important thing waterway off its coast, they have to be moved “IMMEDIATELY” or Iran will face navy penalties “at a level never seen before”.

US officers earlier told CBS News that Iran could also be getting ready to deploy naval mines in the strait to additional disrupt the essential delivery lane.

Trump wrote on Truth Social:

double citation markIf Iran has put out any mines in the Hormuz Strait, and now we have no studies of them doing so, we wish them eliminated, IMMEDIATELY! If for any cause mines had been positioned, and they don’t seem to be eliminated forthwith, the Military penalties to Iran will likely be at a stage by no means seen earlier than. If, on the opposite hand, they take away what could have been positioned, will probably be an enormous step in the fitting route!”

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Tehran residents say the Iranian capital has endured what they described as its worst evening of aerial bombardment, because the US protection secretary, Pete Hegseth, adopted Donald Trump’s suggestion on Monday the war may quickly be over with a warning of extra strikes to come back, writes William Christou in Beirut, Deepa Parent and Hannah Ellis-Petersen in Dubai.

“We are under heavy bombardment and I can hear back-to-back explosions. The place they hit has caught fire. It’s not clear where it exploded, but the buildings are shaking,” Niloufar, who lives in east Tehran stated early on Tuesday, talking beneath a pseudonym for safety causes. “They are destroying Iran,” they added, saying there have been low-flying jets above.

Israel, which launched an air marketing campaign towards Iran with the US on 28 February, on Tuesday stated it had hit a weapons growth facility amongst a wave of strikes.

Other residents informed the Guardian of rolling blackouts, and that a lot of Iran’s communications had been down.

The World Health Organization has urged Iranians to remain inside, saying “black rain” falling after strikes on oil services may trigger respiratory issues.

One Tehran resident described town as “the last stop before hell”.

At least 1,245 civilians have been killed, together with 194 kids, by the US-Israeli war on Iran, based on the US-based Human Rights Activists in Iran group.

Israel will allocate a particular finances of tens of billions of shekels for additional defence spending to finance the air war with Iran, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and finance minister Bezalel Smotrich stated in a joint assertion.

Smotrich stated the cupboard was assembly on Tuesday evening to approve the particular war finances.

“This is not an expense, it’s an investment,” he stated.

US asks Israel to cease strikes on Iran’s vitality infrastructure – report

The United States has requested Israel to halt strikes on Iran’s vitality infrastructure, Axios reports, citing three sources aware of the matter, marking the primary time the US has reined in its ally since they went to war 11 days in the past.

Washington despatched the message at a senior political stage and to IDF chief of employees Eyal Zamir, Axios studies, citing an Israeli official.

Per Axios’s report, the Trump administration gave three causes for the request, together with a aim to cooperate with Iran’s oil ‌sector after the war (as Trump has executed with Venezuela); fears that the ⁠strikes would hurt the ​Iranian public; and considerations that it may set off ​large Iranian retaliatory assaults on vitality infrastructure throughout Gulf states.

It comes after an Israeli bombing of gas storage services blanketed Tehran – a metropolis residence to some 10 million folks – in toxic black smoke and acid rain over the weekend, elevating pressing well being warnings for peculiar Iranians.

Iran has appealed to to the United Nations to sentence the US and Israel for a “manifest environmental crime”.

Fire burns and smoke rises from Aqdasieh Oil Depot in Tehran after being hit by an Israeli strike on 7 March. Photograph: Social Media/Reuters
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Karoline Leavitt additionally claimed that Americans will see oil and fuel costs “drop rapidly” as soon as the US navy’s nationwide safety goals are “fully achieved” in Iran.

double citation markThe current improve in oil and fuel costs is momentary, and this operation will end result in decrease fuel costs in the long run.

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Asked how lengthy the US-Israeli war on Iran will final, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt echoed Donald Trump’s feedback that the operation is forward of schedule, however added that the war won’t finish till Iran’s “complete and unconditional surrender, whether they say it or not”.

Trump would be the one to find out when Iran doesn’t pose a direct menace, she added.

US Navy has not escorted a vessel by means of strait of Hormuz, White House confirms

Karoline Leavitt was additionally simply requested why Trump’s vitality secretary earlier claimed that the US Navy had escorted an oil tanker by means of the strait of Hormuz “to ensure oil remains flowing to global markets”, earlier than deleting the X submit a couple of minutes later.

She replied:

double citation markI do know the submit was taken down fairly shortly, and I can affirm that the US Navy has not escorted a tanker or a vessel presently, although of course that’s an possibility the president has stated he’ll completely make the most of if and when vital on the applicable time.

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US navy ‘drawing up further choices’ to maintain strait of Hormuz open, says White House

Karoline Leavitt stated that Donald Trump is dedicated to permitting the free circulation of oil by means of the strait of Hormuz, and reiterated that the US president has provided for the navy “to escort tankers when necessary”.

The US military is drawing up additional options following the president’s directive to continue keeping the strait of Hormuz open,” Leavitt stated.

double citation markI can’t broadcast what these choices appear like, however simply know the president isn’t afraid to make use of them.

White House says US navy shifting to ‘dismantle Iran’s missile manufacturing infrastructure’

At the White House briefing, Donald Trump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt has informed reporters that the United States is “making tremendous strides towards achieving our military objectives”.

double citation markMore than 5,000 enemy targets have been struck up to now.

Iran’s ballistic missile assaults are down greater than 90%, and their drone assaults are down by roughly 85%.

She stated the US navy is now shifting to “dismantle Iran’s missile production infrastructure”.

double citation markOur unbelievable B-2 bombers just lately dropped dozens of 2,000-pound penetrator bombs on deeply buried missile websites.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt briefs the media on Tuesday. Photograph: Alex Brandon/AP
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