Rumors of US F-15E crash in Iran are false, CENTCOM says

Lufthansa has extended the suspension of flights to and from Dubai and Abu Dhabi through Tuesday, and to and from Tehran until May 1 due to the situation in the Middle East, the airline group said on Thursday.

“The Lufthansa Group continuously monitors and assesses the security situation in the Middle East and is in close contact with the authorities,” it said in a statement.

Flights to and from Larnaca, Tel Aviv, Beirut, Amman and Iraq’s Erbil are also suspended until later dates in March.

An Iranian remote-controlled boat laden with explosives was used to target and damage the Bahamas-flagged crude oil vessel Sonangol Namibe anchored in Iraqi waters, two Iraqi port security sources told Reuters.

The small boat exploded after hitting the vessel and marked the first recorded attack inside Iraq’s exclusive economic zone, the sources said, describing it as an escalation of threats to commercial shipping in the Persian Gulf.

The Revolutionary Guards said on Thursday they had hit a US vessel in the northern part of the Persian Gulf and that it was on fire.

An oil vessel suffered an explosion off the coast of Iraq, damaging part of the ship and signaling widening risks to shipping deeper into the Persian Gulf, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday.

The Sonangol Namibe was approached by a small boat near Khor Al Zubair and its crew later heard a loud bang, Bloomberg cited Sonangol Marine Services as saying. The company said the hull appeared to have been breached and that the vessel was losing water from a ballast tank used for stability.

There were no reports of pollution and no cargo was on board, easing earlier concerns about a spill. A UK naval group had earlier reported oil in the water nearby.

Iran’s IRIB News reported that an oil vessel was struck early on Thursday by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Navy but did not identify the ship, Bloomberg said.

The incident marks one of the farthest points north in the Persian Gulf where vessels have been hit since the US and Israel began bombing Iran over the weekend, and follows other strikes including one on a container ship in the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said a recent missile incident in Turkey was serious and showed the alliance remains vigilant, but added that Article 5 was not in order.

Rutte told Reuters NATO supports US President Donald Trump for taking out Iran’s nuclear and missile capabilities and stressed that Iran must no longer pose a threat.

He said it was difficult to assess how the situation in Iran would end, but added that his sense was the US “knows what it is doing.”

An Iranian conservative political activist has questioned the push to quickly select a new supreme leader, arguing that such a move could deepen divisions at a time when the country faces external military pressure.

Mohammad Mohajeri, writing on Wednesday, said Iran’s leadership institution should remain a symbol of national unity and warned that any decision that weakens the interim leadership council established under Article 111 of the constitution could undermine stability.

He said the country’s immediate priority should be defending Iran amid attacks by the United States and Israel, adding that political disputes over selecting a new leader should be avoided during the current crisis.