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international military intervention

Vance says 'things happen' after US strike kills four at Iran wedding

Illustration accompanying article: Vance says 'things happen' after US strike kills four at Iran wedding
  • US Vice President JD Vance told reporters at the White House on Thursday that "sometimes things happen" when asked whether a US strike killed four people, including a child, at a wedding celebration in southern Iran.
  • The Iranian Red Crescent reported the strike hit Kuhestak in Sirik county on the Strait of Hormuz, killing four people and wounding more than fifty others.
  • Vance said he was "extremely skeptical" of Iranian reporting on the strike, which US Central Command said was part of a broader package targeting Iranian air defenses, radar systems and maritime assets.
  • A February 28 US strike on a school compound in Minab, roughly 23 miles from Kuhestak, killed at least 156 people — most of them schoolchildren — in what a preliminary US inquiry attributed to outdated targeting coordinates.
 2026-09-03 · 5 MIN READ

Pentagon keeps 50,000 troops in Mideast as Trump weighs declaring war over

Illustration accompanying article: Pentagon keeps 50,000 troops in Mideast as Trump weighs declaring war over
  • Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has extended U.S. troop deployments in the Middle East into 2027, according to people familiar with the matter.
  • The Pentagon is maintaining about 50,000 troops in the region, according to people familiar with the matter, and a Navy official said the U.S. has 19 warships in Middle East waters, including two aircraft carriers and 13 guided-missile destroyers.
  • Army air defenders, destroyer crews and paratroopers are deploying for a year or longer, with standard air-defense tours extended from nine to twelve months, the people familiar said.
  • President Trump is privately weighing whether to declare the war over while pursuing an economic pressure campaign alongside open-ended military operations, U.S. officials said.
 2026-09-03 · 4 MIN READ
Illustration accompanying article: Europe presses Russia with sanctions, Ukraine aid after Leipzig drone plot