The U.S. will send hundreds of additional troops and a dozen fighter jets to the Middle East in the coming weeks to counter what the Pentagon said is an escalating campaign by Iran to plan attacks against the U.S. and its interests in the region. And for the first time, Pentagon officials on Friday publicly blamed Iran and its proxies for recent tanker bombings near United Arab Emirates and a rocket attack in Iraq. Source: Associated Press
A Russian ‘Air Force plane’ has reportedly landed in Venezuela, according to photos and flight tracker reports. In March, a similar event sparked a heated war of words between Moscow and Washington. The plane arrived at Venezuela’s “main airport” on Monday, Reuters reported, referring to the Simon Bolivar International Airport outside of the Venezuelan capital of Caracas. The agency did not provide any further details about the aircraft. Source: RT
Possible deployment of US missiles on the ground near Russian borders may trigger a missile crisis identical in scale to the Caribbean one, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told the Federation Council during debates on a bill on the suspension of Russia’s participation in the treaty on the elimination of intermediate and shorter range missiles (INF Treaty). Source: Tass
Yemen’s Houthi rebels have launched an attack on Abha civilian airport in southern Saudi Arabia that killed one person and wounded seven others, the Saudi-led coalition battling the group in Yemen has said. Source AlJazeera
