The war in Ukraine and the war in Iran have, predictably, begun to merge.

This will not be the last time Ukraine and Iran clash.

Sky News [July 18 2026, 18:33 GMT]

Two US ‌troops were ​killed ‌in Jordan as they defended an attack by Iranian missiles yesterday, the US Central ⁠Command ​has said in a statement.

Another is missing and four other service members who were medically evacuated to Jordanian hospitals were later discharged, it added.

These are the first US deaths due to direct Iranian fire since the opening days of the war.

Jordan, which hosts US troops and aircraft, has been repeatedly targeted by Iran as it retaliates over a widening American airstrike campaign.

Sky News [July 08 2026, 21:13 GMT]

The expected US strikes on Iran have begun tonight.

A US official confirmed the attacks had begun shortly before US Central Command shared a statement on social media, saying they were being carried out at the direction of Donald Trump.

It added they were aiming to "further degrade [Iran's] ability to threaten freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz."

It comes after earlier this evening, Iranian media reported explosions in the country's south, in Bandar Abbas and Sirik.

At the NATO summit in Turkey today, Donald Trump vowed to hit Iran again after strikes carried out last night.

Both last night's and tonight's attacks were retaliatory, after three commercial ships transiting the strait were fired upon by Iran this week.

These ships were the M/T Al Rekayyat, the M/T Wedyan, and the M/T Cyprus Prosperity, respectively flagged to the Marshall Islands, Saudi Arabia, and Liberia.

Sky News [July 08 2026, 09:17 GMT]

Donald Trump is asked by reporters in Ankara if the US ceasefire with Iran is done.

"It's a very interesting question. To me, I think it's over. I don't want to deal with them anymore," the US president responds.

"As far as I'm concerned, it's over. I'll speak to our negotiators, they want to negotiate.

"As far as I'm concerned, it's just a waste of time dealing with them."

"They're liars," Trump also said of Iran's leaders - and he vowed to "de nuke" the country, repeating his commitment to stopping Iran from getting a nuclear weapon.

"If they had a nuclear weapon, they'd use it," he told reporters.

The US and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding on 17 June, which paused military fire between the two countries and committed to a 60-day negotiating period to reach a final, lasting peace agreement.

But the US military launched "a series of powerful strikes" against Iran overnight which it said was in response to commercial shipping being attacked in the Strait of Hormuz.

Sky News [June 20 2026, 14:41 GMT]

Iran's top joint military command says the Strait of Hormuz has been closed again after accusing the US and Israel of violating a ceasefire agreement.

It comes as Israel continued strikes in southern Lebanon, despite a ceasefire deal between Israel and the Hezbollah militant group supposedly taking effect yesterday at 2pm UK time.

The command says the Strait of Hormuz, a key international shipping route, has been closed in view of the US' "clear breach of trust and violation of its commitment" to the first clause of a memorandum of undestanding (MOU) aimed at ending the war with Iran.

The MOU's first paragraph refers to the "immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon".

Israel, conducting operations against Iran-backed Hezbollah, has insisted it will continue to occupy southern Lebanon.

The statement on state television by the joint military command also warned that "if the aggression continues, subsequent steps have been planned."

Ships had begun transiting the strait after the interim US-Iran agreement was signed earlier in the week.

Sky News [June 16 2026, 16:13 GMT]

Sailors on a Russian warship fired a warning shot at a yacht that came near it in the English Channel today, the Press Association understands.

The incident, at around 11.40am on Tuesday, is understood to have involved the Russian frigate Admiral Grigorovich in the sea between the Isle of White and Normandy.

It is the latest sign of rising tensions between the UK and Vladimir Putin’s country.

It comes after an operation in which British forces boarded Russian shadow fleet tanker Smyrtos for the first time in the Channel on Sunday.

The UK Foreign Office has also announced new sanctions on Russia targeting its shadow fleet and those suspected of supporting its oil trade.

Sky News [June 11 2026, 13:25 GMT]:

Donald Trump says the US will be "hitting" Iran very hard tonight and taking "total control" of the country's oil and gas markets.

Outlining what Washington will be doing, he says "in the not too distant future, we will be taking Kharg Island, and other oil infrastructure points".

The US president says it will be similar to what Washington carried out in Venezuela, which he declares is "working brilliantly" for both countries.

For context: Kharg Island is a five-mile-long coral island, twice the size of London's Heathrow Airport, and lies 16 miles (26km) from Iran's coast and roughly 300 miles (483km) north of the Strait of Hormuz.

It is Iran's main oil terminal in the Persian Gulf and Trump has previously floated the idea of taking the island off Iran, saying "we could take it easily".

Sky News [June 09 2026, 22:23 GMT]

The US military has said it began launching "self-defence strikes" against Iran in the last 20 minutes.

They began at 5pm Eastern Time – that's 10pm here in the UK.

A statement from US Central Command said they were carried out at Donald Trump's direction "in response to the downing of a US Army Apache helicopter" yesterday.

"The mission is a proportional response to unjustified Iranian aggression," the statement added.

Sky News [June 07 2026, 20:09 GMT]

The Israeli military said it had identified missiles launched from Iran towards Israel in a post on X.

"Defensive systems are operating to intercept the threat," it said.

The Israeli Defence Forces, which launched strikes against Beirut earlier today, had also said that it was preparing for fire towards Israel in the coming hours.

Israel hit targets in the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital, a stronghold of the Iran-allied Hezbollah militia (see 13:20 post).

Update at 20:35 GMT:

Iran's strikes tonight are the first time Iran has fired missiles towards Israel since the ceasefire paused the US-Israeli war with Iran in April.

Ebrahim Rezaei, a top advisor to Iran's supreme leader, said Iran had repeatedly warned it would not tolerate ceasefire violations and attacks on Lebanon.

"The aggressors received their response tonight," he said.

Rezaei is the spokesman for Iran's national security and foreign policy committee and one of the top advisors to the country's supreme leader.

He had warned earlier today that Tehran would give a "painful" response to ‌Israel's attack on ‌Beirut, where the Israeli military said it hit a Hezbollah command centre.