Pentagon Revises Casualty Figures Sparking Transparency Debate
The Pentagon has revised down its official casualty figures from the war with Iran, updating the number of US military personnel killed and wounded during the five-month-old conflict.
The move has sparked questions about the Pentagon's methodology and concerns over transparency, from Democratic lawmakers and others.
According to the latest Defense Department figures, as of July 27, 14 US personnel have been killed and more than 400 wounded.
That is fewer than the official Pentagon database showed as of July 21 -- 18 -- a figure that was cited by President Donald Trump on July 23 and again on July 26.
The Defense Casualty Analysis System, which the Pentagon has referred to as the definitive source on casualties, also added a new category called “Overseas Operations.”
That category is for those killed and wounded starting from July 7, officials said. Four servicemen and women – three killed in an Iranian missile attack in Jordan and one killed in Iraq during a mission to detonate Iranian ordinance – appear in this category.
Explanations for the new category are not entirely clear.
To read the full story, click here.
IRGC Says It Prevented 6 Ships From Passing Through Strait Of Hormuz
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) prevented six ships from passing through the Strait of Hormuz on their way out of the Persian Gulf early on July 27, according to reports in Iranian state media.
"In the early hours of this morning, Monday, July 27, six offending ships, by turning off their navigation and positioning systems...intended to pass through the illegal and unsafe route south of the Strait of Hormuz," the Iranian Broadcasting Agency (IBA) wrote on its Telegram channel.
The report refers to the southern part of the Strait of Hormuz near the coast of Oman, which has declared itself subject to international rules for the use of waterways. Iran, on the other hand, insists that ships must navigate along a route determined by the IRGC.
IBA also wrote that one of the six ships "suffered an accident," but no other source has confirmed this news so far.
On July 26, the Tasnim news agency, which is closely affiliated with the IRGC, claimed that an oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz had exploded after hitting a naval mine.
Shipping Slows In Red Sea Following Houthi Attacks On Saudi Vessels
Ship traffic through Bab el-Mandeb fell after Iran-allied Houthi rebels in Yemen attacked Saudi oil installations along the Red Sea coast, adding to the woes caused by separate disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz, shipping data showed.
Kpler, a commodity intelligence company, said 11 commodity vessels passed through the Bab el-Mandeb strait on July 26, the lowest level in months.
Traffic in the Red Sea has been disrupted off the Yemeni coast for the past week by the Houthi rebels, who have announced a blockade of Saudi ports -- a move that has expanded the US-Iran conflict that has already hit oil supplies that normally transit the Strait of Hormuz.
Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said the group had launched missiles at sites belonging to Saudi state oil company Aramco in the cities of Jizan and Yanbu on July 25.
Meanwhile, fewer than 10 commodity vessels passed through the Strait of Hormuz daily over the weekend, even though Washington and Tehran have paused strikes in the Middle East, Kpler data showed.
With reporting by Reuters
Oil Prices Fall Amid Renewed Optimism, Bolstered by Pause In Middle East Attacks
Oil prices dropped sharply at early on July 27 in Asian markets as optimism among traders cautiously grew following three straight nights without tit-for-tat strikes by US and Iranian forces.
The price of a barrel of the benchmark North Sea Brent crude fell 5.6 percent to $91.38, while West Texas Intermediate slid about the same percentage to $84.43.
Energy prices have soared on global markets since the launching of the US-Israeli war with Iran on February 28, causing shocks to the world economy amid fears of long-term disruptions. Prices have fallen on occasional optimism over negotiations between Washington and Tehran, only to rise again on the outbreak of renewed attacks.
Tehran said it had halted retaliatory attacks against US allies in the Middle East as Washington refrained from attacking Iran after 13 straight nights of strikes.
US President Donald Trump ordered a pause in US attacks on Iran to allow space for diplomacy, US Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz told NBC News on July 26.
Trump "is keeping all options on the table," Waltz said. "What the president is doing right now, as we've seen all along, is giving the talks some space. Talks are ongoing. They're happening at every level from the more technical aspect of it, all the way to the highest levels of course."
With reporting by AFP
Statement Attributed to Iran's Supreme Leader Insists Lebanese Integrity, Hezbollah Safety Paramount In US Talks
A statement attributed to Iran's supreme leader stresses that preserving Lebanon's territorial integrity to be the "first condition" of the memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed with the United States.
The statement was circulated by Iranian state media and attributed to Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not been seen in public since the beginning of US-Israeli air strikes on February 28. Khamenei is the son of the previous supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, and was reportedly severely injured in the same attack that killed his father.
The message -- addressed to leadership of the Hezbollah militant organization in Lebanon -- states that Iran considers "preserving Lebanon's territorial integrity and completely and unconditionally eliminating Israeli attacks" against Hezbollah the prime condition of the MOU.
Iran-backed Hezbollah, a militant group and political party that controls much of southern Lebanon, is considered a terrorist organization by the US, while the European Union has blacklisted its armed wing but not its political branch.
The MOU was signed on June 17 by the presidents of Iran and the United States and includes a clause referring to the end of the conflict in Lebanon. Israel launched air and ground attacks against suspected Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon and in the suburbs of the capital, Beirut, after the militant group fired rockets into northern Israel.
The MOU has been on the verge of collapse following Iranian military attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz, followed by new rounds of US attacks on Iran. The US has paused strikes the past two night, leading Tehran to say it was ending attacks on US Gulf allies.
Mojtaba Khamenei made clear prior to the signing of the MOU that he did not agree with the agreement and had placed the responsibility for it on Iranian President Masud Pezeshkian and other members of Iran's Supreme National Security Council.
With reporting by RFE/RL's Radio Farda
Iran Says Ukraine Will Have To Answer For Hitting Its "Commercial Ship"
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi accused Ukraine of attacking a commercial vessel. In his post on X on July 26, Araqchi said a sailor died in the incident.
Earlier reports said the minister spoke to European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas and strongly condemned the incident in the Caspian Sea.
Araqchi also said he discussed the situation with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Sunday, directly blaming Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
"What the freeloader (Zelenskyy) in Kyiv did CANNOT GO UNANSWERED," Araqchi wrote on X.
Ukrainian president said on July 25 that Kyiv's forces had carried out long-range strikes in the Caspian, hitting a Russian warship as well as vessels used to transport military cargo "with the participation of Iran."
Trump Pausing Iran Attacks To Give Talks 'Some Space,' Says US Envoy To UN
President Donald Trump has paused US attacks on Iran to allow space for diplomacy, US Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz told NBC News on July 26.
Trump "is keeping all options on the table," Waltz said. "What the president is doing right now, as we've seen all along, is giving the talks some space. Talks are ongoing. They're happening at every level from the more technical aspect of it, all the way to the highest levels of course."
His comments came after a weekend lull in fighting following 13 consecutive nights of US strikes.
Separately, a senior administration official said Trump had "always been clear that his preference is diplomacy" while warning Iran of the consequences "if they fail to come to the table in a serious way," Reuters reported.
Iran Says It Has Halted Attacks On Washington's Allies, As US Pauses Bombardment
- By RFE/RL
Tehran said it had halted retaliatory attacks against US allies in the Middle East as Washington refrained from attacking Iran for the second night in a row.
A top military official in Tehran, meanwhile, threatened to widen Iran’s attacks across the region, suggesting that Iran-allied Houthi rebels in Yemen could step up attacks on Red Sea shipping traffic.
The overnight lull in attacks on July 26 came two days ahead of a key meeting scheduled in Washington between President Donald Trump and Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu.
That July 28 visit falls exactly five months since US and Israeli forces launched a wide campaign of air strikes on Iranian targets.
Read more here
Houthis Say They Downed Saudi Surveillance Drone
Iran-backed Houthi rebels said on July 26 that they downed a Saudi Arabian drone over northwest Yemen.
A military spokesman said the group "successfully shot down a Turkish-made... armed reconnaissance drone belonging to the Saudi enemy while it was conducting hostile operations."
Saudi Arabia has not yet commented on the claim.
The Yemeni group had earlier claimed on July 25 that they fired a missile at the southern Saudi city of Jizan in retaliation for air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition on the Yemeni province of Hodeidah.
Riyadh said it had targeted sites threatening commercial shipping after the Yemeni rebels announced a blockade of Saudi shipping and claimed to have attacked vessels in the Red Sea earlier this week.
Saudi Arabia has backed Yemen's government against the Houthis since leading a military intervention in 2015, although cross-border hostilities have largely subsided in recent years.
With reporting by AFP
Iran Claims Progress Made In Talks With Oman On Strait Of Hormuz
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said on July 26 that "progress" had been made in discussions between Tehran and Muscat, but did not provide any details.
His comments came after an Omani delegation that had travelled to Tehran for talks on the management of the Strait of Hormuz left Iran early on July 25.
Baghaei said "several rounds of discussions" had been held in Tehran between Iranian and Omani deputy foreign ministers in recent days, during which the two sides "exchanged views on shared principles and operational mechanisms for managing the safe passage of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz while respecting the sovereign rights of the two littoral states."
He added, however, that "there has been no change in the status of navigation through the strait at present."
Iran and Oman are the two states bordering the narrowest part of the Strait of Hormuz, through which about one-fifth of the world's oil and gas supplies normally passes.
Shortly after the outbreak of the war with the United States and Israel in February, Iran effectively halted most traffic through the strait by launching attacks on international shipping. The move has disrupted global energy markets and made reopening the crucial waterway a key focus of subsequent negotiations.