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Opening summary
Welcome to our live coverage of the crisis in the Middle East.
A fresh flare-up in hostilities has seen the US hit Iran with broader and more intense strikes, with Iranian state media reporting 11 people killed in overnight attacks including four people at a wedding.
A four-year-old boy was among those killed at the wedding after a series of US strikes near the Iranian southern port city of Sirik, Iran’s Fars news agency reported. The Iranian Red Crescent said more than 50 people were injured when shrapnel hit a home where the wedding was taking place in Hormozgan province. The US has yet to comment on the reports.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said the US military had “turned the wedding celebration of a young and respectable Sunni couple into a mourning by bombing a residential house in Sirik and reducing it to dust and blood”, according to a statement carried by state media. “In this malicious attack, nearly 70 innocent people were hit, and four of them, including a child, were martyred.”
The IRGC said it responded to the attacks with strikes on US military bases in Kuwait, Jordan, Bahrain and Iraq’s Erbil. The group claimed that a “number” of “enemy” forces were killed and drones were destroyed in a missile and drone attack on Ali Al Salem airbase in Kuwait, which is known to host some US troops, but this has not been confirmed by either the American or Kuwaiti military.
Kuwait said it came under missile fire and drone attacks this morning, with a fire breaking out at a residential complex in the capital. The fire was brought under control, and no casualties were reported. “Kuwaiti air defences are currently responding to hostile missile and drone attacks,” the Kuwaiti army said on X, urging citizens to follow safety instructions.
Donald Trump warned that if Iran retaliated, “they will be hit again at a much harder and higher level”.
“But it will not be the biggest attack of them all, that is waiting in the wings and, when it is over, there will be very little left of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the US president wrote on his Truth Social app last night.
In a subsequent post overnight, he said he was “not trying to force Iran to the bargaining table” and that he “couldn’t care less if they sign a worthless, to them, agreement”.
“I like our position now much better, with almost total control of the Hormuz strait, and their economy totally collapsing,” he added.
In other developments:
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In a call with Fox News, Trump reportedly reiterated that Iran would be “totally wiped out” if it launches retaliatory strikes against the US. “This is a very big hit today. If it goes a third time, they’re going to be totally wiped out as a country,” Fox News quoted the US president as saying. Trump has previously threatened to bomb Iran “back to the stone ages”, and said in April that “a whole civilization will die tonight” if a peace deal wasn’t reached.
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IRGC spokesperson Sardar Mohebi said in a post on X that the US will face “severe punishment” and that it “will regret its new attacks”.
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Jordan’s army said that 10 out of 13 Iranian ballistic missiles were intercepted and the other three fell in remote areas. It followed claims from the IRGC that it had killed “a large number of US forces”, while destroying “several installations and enemy attack helicopters” in a ballistic attack on US Marines’ barracks at Camp Titin, a military site near Aqaba. Reuters and Al Jazeera have since both reported, citing US sources, that there were no injuries or damage to the barracks.
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This phase of fighting began when the US military said it had struck rocket launchers on Larak Island in the strait of Hormuz on Sunday, in its first strikes on Iran since July, after it detected the Iranians were planning to deploy fresh mines in the critical waterway. Tehran responded by launching missiles at US sites in Jordan, which were intercepted, and the UAE, which said it had stopped an Iranian drone over its territorial waters.
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Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian said that if the US returns to a peace deal aimed at ending months of hostilities, Iran “will immediately take reciprocal action”, according to the Iranian presidency’s website. He also thanked Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin for Moscow’s stance on the conflict. Putin and Pezeshkian held talks on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit, attended by over a dozen leaders including China’s Xi Jinping and Indian prime minister Narendra Modi.
Key events
Russia secretly helping Iran develop supersonic cruise missiles - report
Russia has secretly helped Iran build supersonic cruise missiles, according to the Financial Times.
The covert programme, codenamed C340L, reportedly began in 2023 and has continued throughout the US and Israels war on Iran. The newspaper, citing Russian correspondence, travel records and military patents, reported that the programme was “one of the most significant known transfers of strategic military technology from Moscow to Tehran”.
According to the report, some of Russia’s most experienced missile specialists are helping Iran develop a ramjet propulsion system that could allow anti-ship and land-attack cruise missiles to travel at several times the speed of sound, making them more difficult to detect and intercept.
Jim Lamson, a former CIA military analyst, said: “For the Iranians, this would give them a qualitatively new strategic weapon system that could threaten US navy vessels.”
Fabian Hinz, an expert on Iranian missiles and senior analyst with Conflict Armament Research, told the Financial Times that such a programme “would require political clearance from the very top in Russia”.
Julia Kollewe
Ryanair has warned that air fares in Europe will jump next year if the oil price remains high and that some airlines could go bust.
The Irish budget carrier has cut its passenger target for the year to 31 March, down from 216 million customers to 214 million, to help reduce its exposure to “unhedged winter oil” during the unprofitable off season, with jet fuel currently trading at $140 (£104) a barrel.
Ryanair expects passenger numbers between November and March to be broadly flat compared with the same period last year.
The company said: “If high oil prices continue through to summer 2027, Ryanair believes short-haul air fares in Europe will increase materially to reflect higher oil prices, as some less well-hedged competitors will struggle to maintain capacity or even survive this coming winter season.”
Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, touched $97.04 a barrel on Wednesday, the highest since late July, after renewed clashes between the US and Iran fuelled concerns over supply. It later eased back to just below $95.
Read more:
Two people killed in Monday attack on Saudi oil tanker in Hormuz strait, shipping firm says
Two seafarers were killed in an attack on a Saudi Arabia-flagged oil tanker as it transited the strait of Hormuz, a shipping company has confirmed.
The crude carrier Sidr was struck by unknown projectiles on Monday about 16.6 nautical miles (19 miles) north-east of Khasab, Oman, Reuters reported, citing shipping tracking data.
Saudi Arabia’s national shipping company, Bahri, said two Filipino seafarers were killed in the incident.
In a post on X this morning, Bahri said: “The company extends its deepest condolences and heartfelt sympathies to their families, loved ones, and colleagues during this difficult time, and is providing its full support to the families and colleagues affected by the incident.”
The incident comes amid a series of attacks on commercial vessels in and around the strait of Hormuz since the conflict between the US, Israel and Iran began in February, with dozens of attacks and a number of seafarers killed.
Brent crude oil price hits $97
Graeme Wearden
Oil has hit its highest level in almost six weeks today, after the US and Iran exchanged airstrikes.
Brent crude traded as high as $97 a barrel, for the first time since 24 July, having jumped by 4.6% yesterday.
ING analysts told clients:
Developments in recent days brought risks to regional oil supplies back into focus ... We’ve seen oil flow through the Strait of Hormuz despite the stalemate between the US and Iran, but rising tensions clearly put crossings at risk.”
For the latest updates on the financial markets and the world economy, you can follow our business live blog here:
Pakistan said it remains engaged with Iran and US on talks to end war
Pakistan said it remains engaged in diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis in the Middle East as it urged the warring parties to return to the negotiating table.
“Pakistan remains engaged, alongside our brotherly countries, in sincere efforts to resolve the crisis with respects to the standoff between Iran and the United States,” the Pakistani foreign ministry spokesperson, Tahir Andrabi, said in a press briefing.
He said the Pakistani prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, met the president of Iran, Masoud Pezeshkian, on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit, where Sharif “reiterated Pakistan’s sincere commitment to peace through dialogue and diplomacy”.
Andrabi added: “We underscored that the understanding reached under the Islamabad MoU [memorandum of understanding] offers the most viable pathway towards lasting peace and stability in the region.”
The June memorandum of understanding signed in the Pakistan capital declared an end to the fighting, but it left some of the more contentious issues unresolved, leading to a wider 60-day period of negotiations that ultimately expired without a further deal.
IRGC says four personnel killed in US attack
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said four of its personnel were killed in a US attack in the western Iranian province of Kermanshah, according to state media.
The group said the four named personnel were members of the aerospace force in Kermanshah. It did not provide further details.
Iran's top negotiator condemns US after reported fatal attack on wedding
Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s top negotiator, has condemned the reported US attack on a wedding in the south of the country which is said to have killed two children, likening the US to “Satan”.
In a post on X, Ghalibaf listed two other US attacks in Iran in which several children were reported to have been killed, including the bombing of a school in Minab and strikes on a sports hall in Lamerd.
“If a power acts like Satan, picks targets like Satan, and kills like Satan, it’s Satan,” Ghalibaf said.
We have some pictures on the newswires which are believed to be taken in Sirik, southern Iran, where state media reported a US attack killing four people at a wedding. The victims reportedly included a four-year-old boy and a 16-year-old teenager.
Opening summary
Welcome to our live coverage of the crisis in the Middle East.
A fresh flare-up in hostilities has seen the US hit Iran with broader and more intense strikes, with Iranian state media reporting 11 people killed in overnight attacks including four people at a wedding.
A four-year-old boy was among those killed at the wedding after a series of US strikes near the Iranian southern port city of Sirik, Iran’s Fars news agency reported. The Iranian Red Crescent said more than 50 people were injured when shrapnel hit a home where the wedding was taking place in Hormozgan province. The US has yet to comment on the reports.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said the US military had “turned the wedding celebration of a young and respectable Sunni couple into a mourning by bombing a residential house in Sirik and reducing it to dust and blood”, according to a statement carried by state media. “In this malicious attack, nearly 70 innocent people were hit, and four of them, including a child, were martyred.”
The IRGC said it responded to the attacks with strikes on US military bases in Kuwait, Jordan, Bahrain and Iraq’s Erbil. The group claimed that a “number” of “enemy” forces were killed and drones were destroyed in a missile and drone attack on Ali Al Salem airbase in Kuwait, which is known to host some US troops, but this has not been confirmed by either the American or Kuwaiti military.
Kuwait said it came under missile fire and drone attacks this morning, with a fire breaking out at a residential complex in the capital. The fire was brought under control, and no casualties were reported. “Kuwaiti air defences are currently responding to hostile missile and drone attacks,” the Kuwaiti army said on X, urging citizens to follow safety instructions.
Donald Trump warned that if Iran retaliated, “they will be hit again at a much harder and higher level”.
“But it will not be the biggest attack of them all, that is waiting in the wings and, when it is over, there will be very little left of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the US president wrote on his Truth Social app last night.
In a subsequent post overnight, he said he was “not trying to force Iran to the bargaining table” and that he “couldn’t care less if they sign a worthless, to them, agreement”.
“I like our position now much better, with almost total control of the Hormuz strait, and their economy totally collapsing,” he added.
In other developments:
-
In a call with Fox News, Trump reportedly reiterated that Iran would be “totally wiped out” if it launches retaliatory strikes against the US. “This is a very big hit today. If it goes a third time, they’re going to be totally wiped out as a country,” Fox News quoted the US president as saying. Trump has previously threatened to bomb Iran “back to the stone ages”, and said in April that “a whole civilization will die tonight” if a peace deal wasn’t reached.
-
IRGC spokesperson Sardar Mohebi said in a post on X that the US will face “severe punishment” and that it “will regret its new attacks”.
-
Jordan’s army said that 10 out of 13 Iranian ballistic missiles were intercepted and the other three fell in remote areas. It followed claims from the IRGC that it had killed “a large number of US forces”, while destroying “several installations and enemy attack helicopters” in a ballistic attack on US Marines’ barracks at Camp Titin, a military site near Aqaba. Reuters and Al Jazeera have since both reported, citing US sources, that there were no injuries or damage to the barracks.
-
This phase of fighting began when the US military said it had struck rocket launchers on Larak Island in the strait of Hormuz on Sunday, in its first strikes on Iran since July, after it detected the Iranians were planning to deploy fresh mines in the critical waterway. Tehran responded by launching missiles at US sites in Jordan, which were intercepted, and the UAE, which said it had stopped an Iranian drone over its territorial waters.
-
Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian said that if the US returns to a peace deal aimed at ending months of hostilities, Iran “will immediately take reciprocal action”, according to the Iranian presidency’s website. He also thanked Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin for Moscow’s stance on the conflict. Putin and Pezeshkian held talks on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit, attended by over a dozen leaders including China’s Xi Jinping and Indian prime minister Narendra Modi.
