DUBAI: The US Navy held a joint drone drill with the United Kingdom on Friday in the Arabian Gulf, testing the same unmanned surveillance ships that Iran twice has seized in recent months in the Middle East.
The exercise comes as the US Navy separately told commercial shippers in the wider Mideast that it would continue using drones in the region and warned against interfering with their operations.
The drone drill — and the American pledge to keep sailing them — also comes as tensions between the US and Iran on the seas remain high amid stalled negotiations over its tattered nuclear deal with world powers and as protests sweep the Islamic Republic.
Friday’s drill involved two American and two British warships in the Arabian Gulf, as well as three Saildrone Explorers, said Cmdr. Timothy Hawkins, a spokesman for the Navy’s Mideast-based 5th Fleet.
The drones searched for a target on the seas, then sent the still images its cameras captured back to both the warships and the 5th Fleet’s command center in the island kingdom of Bahrain. There, an artificial intelligence system worked through the photos.
The 5th Fleet launched its unmanned Task Force 59 last year. Drones used by the Navy include ultra-endurance aerial surveillance drones, surface ships like the Sea Hawk and the Sea Hunter and smaller underwater drones that resemble torpedoes.
But of particular interest for the Navy has been the Saildrone Explorer, a commercially available drone that can stay at sea for long periods of time. That’s crucial for a region that has some 8,000 kilometers (5,000 miles) of coastline from the Suez Canal, down the Red Sea to the Gulf of Oman, the Strait of Hormuz and into the Arabian Gulf.
It’s a vast territory that stretches the reach of the Navy and its allies and has seen a series of attacks amid the atomic accord’s collapse. It also remains crucial to global shipping and energy supplies, as a fifth of all oil traded passes through the Strait of Hormuz.
“No matter what forces you have, you can’t cover all that,” Hawkins told The Associated Press. “You have to do that in a partnered way and an innovative way.”
But Iran, which long has equated America’s presence in the region to it patrolling the Gulf of Mexico, views the drones with suspicion. In August and September, Iranian regular and paramilitary forces seized Saildrones in both the Arabian Gulf and the Red Sea, alleging without providing evidence that the drones posed a danger to nearby ships.
Iran ultimately released the drones after the US Navy arrived to the sites. Cameras on the Saildrones involved in the Red Sea incident went missing.
Iranian state-run media did not acknowledge the drill Friday. Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“Recent events notwithstanding, we have been operating these systems safely, responsibly and in accordance with international law and will continue to do so,” Hawkins said.
The Navy underscored its plan to keep operating the drones in notices sent to shippers and sailors in the region beginning Thursday. It said that the drones would continue to broadcast their location via their Automatic Identification System trackers.
Ships are supposed to keep their AIS trackers on, but Iranian vessels routinely turn theirs off to mask their movements as Tehran faces international sanctions over its nuclear program and human rights abuses.
“US Navy (drones) are US government property and will lawfully operate in international waters and through straits in accordance with internationally recognized rights and freedoms,” the Navy said in the notice. “Any interference with US Navy (drones) will be considered a violation of the norms of international maritime law.”
US, UK hold drone drill in Arabian Gulf after Iran seizures
https://arab.news/vje8g
US, UK hold drone drill in Arabian Gulf after Iran seizures
- Drill involved two American and two British warships in the Arabian Gulf, as well as three Saildrone Explorer
- Iran, which long has equated America’s presence in the region to it patrolling the Gulf of Mexico, views the drones with suspicion
Iraq drone attacks wound 5 Kurdish security personnel
IRBIL: Five Iraqi Kurdish security personnel were wounded in two drone attacks in northern Iraq in less than 48 hours, authorities in the autonomous Kurdistan region said on Tuesday.
Authorities blamed a “terrorist group” for the separate attacks in a region that has seen repeated clashes between Turkish forces and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party.
“A terrorist group launched two separate drone attacks yesterday (Monday) and this morning targeting peshmerga bases” in Dohuk province, the region’s security council said. The attacks wounded five peshmerga, it added.
Kamran Othman of the US-based Community Peacemakers Teams, who monitor Turkish operations in Iraqi Kurdistan, confirmed the attacks but was unable to identify the perpetrators.
He added that the peshmerga were establishing a new post in a “sensitive area” that has long been the site of tension between the PKK and Turkish forces. There was no immediate claim for the attacks, which came weeks after the PKK announced a ceasefire with Turkiye in response to their jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan’s historic call to the group to dissolve and disarm.
Blacklisted as a “terrorist group” by the EU and the US, the PKK has fought the Turkish state for most of the past four decades.
US hit more than 1,000 targets in Yemen since mid-March
- Since March 15, “USCENTCOM strikes have hit over 1,000 targets, killing Houthi fighters and leaders...,” Parnell said
- CENTCOM on Sunday had put the figure at more than 800 targets
WASHINGTON: US forces have struck more than 1,000 targets in Yemen since Washington launched the latest round of its air campaign against the Houthi militants in mid-March, the Pentagon said Tuesday.
The Houthis began targeting shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden in late 2023 and the United States responded with strikes against them starting early the following year.
Since March 15, “USCENTCOM strikes have hit over 1,000 targets, killing Houthi fighters and leaders... and degrading their capabilities,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement, referring to the military command responsible for the Middle East.
CENTCOM on Sunday had put the figure at more than 800 targets hit since mid-March, saying hundreds of Houthi fighters had been killed as a result.
Hours after that announcement, Houthi-controlled media said US strikes had hit a migrant detention center in the city of Saada, killing at least 68 people, while a United Nations spokesperson later said preliminary information indicated that those killed were migrants.
A US defense official said the military is looking into reports of civilian casualties resulting from its strikes in Yemen.
Attacks by the Iran-backed Houthis have prevented ships from passing through the Suez Canal — a vital route that normally carries about 12 percent of the world’s shipping traffic.
The militants say they are targeting shipping in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, which has been devastated by Israel’s military after a shock Hamas attack in October 2023.
Iran fire contained after blast at key port; 70 killed
TEHRAN: Firefighters have brought under control a blaze at Iran’s main port, following a deadly explosion blamed on negligence, authorities said.
The explosion, heard dozens of kilometers away, hit a dock at the southern port of Shahid Rajaee on Saturday.
At least 70 people were killed and more than 1,000 others suffered injuries in the blast and ensuing fire, which also caused extensive damage, state media reported.
Red Crescent official Mokhtar Salahshour told the channel that the fire had been “contained” and a clean-up was underway.
State television aired live footage on Tuesday showing thick smoke rising from stacked containers.
Iran’s ILNA news agency quoted Hossein Zafari, spokesman for the country’s crisis management organization, as saying the situation had improved significantly since Monday.
However, “the operation and complete extinguishing process may take around 15 to 20 days,” the agency reported.
Iran’s customs authority said port operations had returned to normal, according to the IRNA news agency.
The port of Shahid Rajaee lies near the major coastal city of Bandar Abbas on the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway through which one-fifth of global oil output passes.
Hormozgan provincial governor Mohammad Ashouri ruled out sabotage.
“The set of hypotheses and investigations carried out during the process indicated that the sabotage theory lacks basis or relevance,” he told state television.
The port’s customs office said the blast may have started in a depot storing hazardous and chemical materials.
Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni said there were “shortcomings, including noncompliance with safety precautions and negligence.”
Gaza’s vital community kitchens may soon shut, halt free meals
- Malnutrition cases rising, hitting children, pregnant women as critical lifeline faces threat
CAIRO/GAZA/GENEVA: It took five hours of queuing at a community kitchen in Gaza’s Nuseirat district for displaced grandmother Um Mohammad Al-Talalqa to get one meal to feed her hungry children and grandchildren.
But finding food may be about to get even tougher: Gaza’s community kitchens — lifelines for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians after 18 months of war — may soon have no more meals to provide.
Multiple aid groups said that dozens of local community kitchens risk closing down, potentially within days, unless aid is allowed into Gaza, removing the last consistent source of meals for most of the 2.3 million population.
“We are suffering from famine, real famine,” said Talalqa, whose house in the Gaza town of Mughraqa was destroyed by Israel. “I have not eaten anything since this morning.”
At the Al-Salam Oriental Food community kitchen in Gaza City, Salah Abu Haseera offers what he fears could be one of the last meals for the 20,000 people he and his colleagues serve daily.
“We face huge challenges in keeping going. We may go out of operation within a week, or maybe less,” Abu Haseera told Reuters by phone from Gaza.
Since March 2, Israel has completely cut off all supplies to the 2.3 million residents of the Gaza Strip, and food stockpiled during a ceasefire at the start of the year has all but run out. It is the longest such closure the Gaza Strip has ever faced.
“The community kitchens, which the population in Gaza are relying more on, because there are no other ways to get food, are at a very big risk to shut down,” Juliette Touma, spokesperson for the UN Palestinian refugee agency, UNRWA, said.
About 10,000 cases of acute malnutrition among children have been identified across Gaza, including 1,600 cases of severe acute malnutrition, since the start of 2025, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a report.
The Gaza Health Ministry said at least 60,000 children were now showing symptoms of malnutrition.
“We are seeing pediatric cases with moderate or severe acute malnutrition, and we are seeing also pregnant, lactating women that have difficulties breastfeeding; they themselves are malnourished or have a very insufficient calorie intake,” Julie Faucon, Medical Coordinator at Doctors Without Borders, said.
The Hamas-run Gaza government media office said famine is no longer a looming threat and is becoming a reality.
Fifty-two people have died due to hunger and malnutrition, including 50 children, it added.
Abu Haseera said food is being sold at “fictional prices.” Prices have risen 1,400 percent compared to during the ceasefire, the World Food Programme said, adding that its stocks were now depleted.
Israel has previously denied that Gaza is facing a hunger crisis and says there is still enough aid to sustain the enclave’s population, but it has not made clear when and how aid will be resumed.
Arab League chief says Baghdad summit will bolster Arab solidarity, address Gaza crisis
- Ahmed Aboul-Gheit met with crown prince of Kuwait at Bayan Palace
LONDON: Kuwait’s Crown Prince Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah received Ahmed Aboul-Gheit, the secretary-general of the Arab League, at Bayan Palace.
Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Abdullah Al-Yahya, permanent representative of the Arab League, Talal Al-Mutairi, and other senior officials, attended the meeting.
Aboul-Gheit is visiting Kuwait, where he delivered a lecture at the Saud Al-Nasser Al-Sabah Kuwait Diplomatic Institute on Tuesday about the challenges of maintaining stability in the Arab region.
He stressed the significance of the upcoming Arab League summit in Baghdad next month to address challenges in the region, most importantly the Israeli war in Gaza, the KUNA agency reported.
He said that the Baghdad summit would be a platform to strengthen Arab solidarity and to address development in Gaza, Syria, Yemen, and Libya. He said assistant secretary-general Hossam Zaki would visit Baghdad to assess the arrangements for the Arab League summit, KUNA reported.
Aboul-Gheit said the Arab League is pursuing diplomatic efforts to promote the two-state solution, an issue expected to be discussed at a conference at the UN in June as part of a Saudi-French initiative aimed at drumming up support for the establishment of a Palestinian state.
