Interim summary

In case you are just joining us, here is a quick recap of the latest. It is 9.30am in Tehran and 2am in Washington DC.

The US military said it completed a heavy wave of strikes against Iran on Thursday in retaliation for Tehran targeting American bases in Jordan, as intensified fighting fueled the risk of a return to all-out war in the region.
The new strikes were launched hours after Donald Trump vowed to hit Iran very hard after a days-long pause in violence between the two sides.
Jordans military said later it had foiled an Iranian attempt to target the kingdom with five missiles, the state news agency reported. There were no casualties.
US forces struck dozens of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps targets including military command centres, US Central Command said.
Irans state news agency Irna reported strikes on several cities in the south-western Khuzestan province, as well as on Qeshm island in the Gulf. Areas around the cities of Abadan, Shadegan, Arvandkenar and Ahvaz - all in Khuzestan - were struck, Irna said, citing provincial authorities.

Earlier, the US partnered with Saudi Arabia to strike Iran-backed militias in neighbouring Iraq on Wednesday, killing at least 20 fighters and six Iranian advisers. Saudi Arabia had reported two days of drone attacks targeting crude facilities.
Drone strikes ignited fires on two natural gas vessels in Egypts port of Damietta, British maritime security firm Ambrey said. It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the strikes on a US-owned floating storage facility and a Greek-owned tanker.
The Israeli military accused Iran-backed Hezbollah of a truce violation in Lebanon, saying it had fired a drone at an Israeli vehicle.
Oil prices erased some of their previous gains despite the escalating attacks around the Gulf, with Brent futures falling 1.06% to $89.78 a barrel as of 0418 GMT Thursday. US West Texas Intermediate crude fell 0.76% to $83.82 a barrel.

Key events

1h agoIran strike on Chinese company building in Kuwait kills worker, says Kuwaiti defence ministry
2h agoPakistan says US-Iran talks are ongoing
3h agoInterim summary
4h agoJordan says it has foiled Iranian missile attack
5h agoQatari LNG gas tanker transits strait of Hormuz
6h agoUS says heavy wave of strikes against Iran completed
7h agoUS-Saudi strikes in Iraq push region into uncharted territory
8h agoBlasts heard on Irans Qeshm island - report
8h agoOpening summary: US launches new strikes on Iran

The Egyptian government said a fire at the port of Damietta was caused by a drone attack.

Two natural gas vessels caught fire after an explosion at the port yesterday. The office of the Egyptian prime minister said initial investigations showed the fires on the two ships had been caused by a drone.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, although US president Donald Trump suggested Iran was behind it. He told reporters in the Oval Office that the incident was more of the same and that the US was going to be hitting them very hard, because it is our turn to hit them.

Iran strike on Chinese company building in Kuwait kills worker, says Kuwaiti defence ministry

An Iranian attack struck a Chinese company building in the north of Kuwait, killing a worker, the countrys defence ministry said.

In a statement posted on the Kuwaiti armys X page, ministry spokesperson Saud Abdulaziz al-Otaibi said the attack caused significant material damage to the building.

Iran has launched a series of missile strikes and drone attacks against several Arab countries in the Middle East, including Kuwait and Jordan, claiming to target US bases in those locations.

Here are some images on the newswires this morning after the US military announced a heavy wave of strikes against Iran:

Pakistan says US-Iran talks are ongoing

Pakistan said negotiations between the US and Iran are ongoing despite escalating attacks in the Middle East.

Pakistans foreign ministry spokesperson, Tahir Andrabi, said Islamabad was doing its utmost to bring the warring parties back to the negotiating table under the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed by the US and Iran in June.

Negotiations between the parties are ongoing, Andrabi said at a press briefing today.

We are doing our utmost to bring the parties back to the Islamabad MoU.

Iran state media reported that the US military attacked three cities in the southern Bushehr province overnight.

Quoting a local governor, the official IRNA news agency said the cities of Bushehr, Jam and Khormoj were targeted in airstrikes and missile attacks.

Irans only civilian nuclear power plant is located in Bushehr, which Iranian authorities say has come under repeated US attacks.

Interim summary

In case you are just joining us, here is a quick recap of the latest. It is 9.30am in Tehran and 2am in Washington DC.

The US military said it completed a heavy wave of strikes against Iran on Thursday in retaliation for Tehran targeting American bases in Jordan, as intensified fighting fueled the risk of a return to all-out war in the region.
The new strikes were launched hours after Donald Trump vowed to hit Iran very hard after a days-long pause in violence between the two sides.
Jordans military said later it had foiled an Iranian attempt to target the kingdom with five missiles, the state news agency reported. There were no casualties.
US forces struck dozens of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps targets including military command centres, US Central Command said.
Irans state news agency Irna reported strikes on several cities in the south-western Khuzestan province, as well as on Qeshm island in the Gulf. Areas around the cities of Abadan, Shadegan, Arvandkenar and Ahvaz - all in Khuzestan - were struck, Irna said, citing provincial authorities.

Earlier, the US partnered with Saudi Arabia to strike Iran-backed militias in neighbouring Iraq on Wednesday, killing at least 20 fighters and six Iranian advisers. Saudi Arabia had reported two days of drone attacks targeting crude facilities.
Drone strikes ignited fires on two natural gas vessels in Egypts port of Damietta, British maritime security firm Ambrey said. It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the strikes on a US-owned floating storage facility and a Greek-owned tanker.
The Israeli military accused Iran-backed Hezbollah of a truce violation in Lebanon, saying it had fired a drone at an Israeli vehicle.
Oil prices erased some of their previous gains despite the escalating attacks around the Gulf, with Brent futures falling 1.06% to $89.78 a barrel as of 0418 GMT Thursday. US West Texas Intermediate crude fell 0.76% to $83.82 a barrel.

To recap on their closed-door meeting earlier at the White House, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu explored all possible paths to curb Irans nuclear program, including diplomacy, economic pressure and force, a senior Israeli official told Reuters.

The Israeli prime minister did not tell Trump that Israels preference now was for further attacks on Iran, the official said in briefings with reporters after the meeting on Tuesday. In the end, it is his decision, the official said of Trump while speaking on condition of anonymity.

The US president had three options and all were discussed at length, said the official, listing them as a negotiated deal, continuing the blockade and economic pressures, and a massive strike. Netanyahu also added unspecified new ideas to the mix, the official added.

Trump had voiced irritation with Netanyahu ahead of their meeting, complaining that details had surfaced publicly about the Israeli prime ministers plans to talk about new intelligence on Pickaxe Mountain, a deep-underground, nuclear-linked facility that Trump has threatened to bomb.

Pushing back against any notion of tensions over the issue, the official said the two allies readily share intelligence, denied that Netanyahu had pushed Trump to escalate militarily against Iran and left open the possibility of a diplomatic solution.

At the same time, the Israeli official acknowledged that Trump was the senior partner while Netanyahu was the junior partner in the allies conflict with Iran.

Oil prices erased some of their previous gains on Thursday despite the escalating attacks around the Gulf as investor focus shifted to supply flows through the key chokepoints in the region.

Brent futures fell 1.06% to $89.78 a barrel as of 0418 GMT. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude fell 0.76% to $83.82 a barrel.

Brent settled up 7.91% in the previous session and WTI up 6.56% in one of the sharpest spikes of the Iran war, reversing a 5% plunge on Tuesday after a pause in hostilities in the five-month conflict, Reuters reports.

Prices surged as Donald Trump threatened on Wednesday to hit Iran very hard after an Iranian missile attack on Tuesday on a US base in Jordan. The US on Thursday said it carried out two hours of reprisal attacks on Iran.

Trumps hit hard rhetoric caused the price spike immediately but looks like the market has fully priced that in and is considering the Taco possibility right now, said Lin Ye, vice-president of commodity markets, oil, at Rystad Energy, referring to the acronym Trump always chickens out.

Ye said the market was following a pattern: geopolitical headlines were triggering rapid price spikes, but those gains were often short-lived as actual supply flows and parallel diplomatic efforts tended to determine how long those upward price moves persisted.

Rystad Energy estimates about 13m barrels a day of oil from the Gulf is still reaching markets.

Jordan says it has foiled Iranian missile attack

Jordans military is saying it has foiled an Iranian attempt to target the kingdom with five missiles, the state news agency reports.

The agency quoted the armed forces as saying interception measures were carried out and there were no casualties.

The military said it maintained the highest levels of readiness to deal firmly with any threat targeting the countrys security and its citizens, the Jordan News Agency posted on social media.

Earlier today the US military launched a heavy wave of new strikes on Iran in response to Tehrans attack on American military installations in Jordan on Wednesday.

Qatari LNG gas tanker transits strait of Hormuz

A liquefied natural gas tanker controlled by QatarEnergy exited the strait of Hormuz overnight - the first such vessel visible on ship-tracking data to leave the waterway since 11 July, data from analytics firms showed on Thursday.

The Al Areesh tanker, which loaded a cargo at Qatars Ras Laffan terminal around 4-6 July, sailed out of the strait overnight on 29 July, according to Kpler and LSEG data.

LSEG data shows it is currently heading to Port Qasim, Pakistan, with an estimated arrival date of 31 July. Its departure marks the first time a QatarEnergy-controlled LNG tanker exited the strait of Hormuz since the Al Rekayyat was struck in early July, Reuters reports.

The previous LNG tanker to exit was the Al Hamra, which left on 11 July carrying a cargo loaded at the United Arab Emirates Das Island, according to Kpler data.

Separately, the Mraweh LNG tanker, which was last detected outside the strait of Hormuz in ballast on 24 July, reappeared inside the strait on Thursday, according to Kpler and LSEG data. The vessel - controlled by Adnoc Gas - remained in ballast, Kpler data showed.

Twelve commodity ships passed through the Hormuz strait on Wednesday, with six entering and six exiting, Kpler data showed - an increased number from the previous two days.

The fresh US strikes after the days-long lull in its attacks on Iran came after Donald Trump vowed to hit the country very hard in response to its targeting of American forces in Jordan, raising the risk of a return to all-out war in the region.

Iranian state media said two people were injured in attacks on the island of Qeshm in the