AP News52%
Live updates: Two US aircraft went down in Middle East and one crew member is missing 0%
By Verda Subzwari0% Menelaos Hadjicostis0%
4/4/2026, 6:01:09 AM
BS Summary: This article contains 20 faulty reasoning types, including Unattributed Quote, Appeal to Emotion, and Negativity Bias, with Appeal to Authority as the most egregious example at 18.4% saturation with 333 hits. Analysis detected 1,618 faulty-reasoning hits from 1,814 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 0% and a BS Rank of 0% (0 of 16,813 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 100.00% of the article peer group.
Iran downed a U.S. military plane Friday, with one service member rescued and at least one missing.
It was the first time a U.S. aircraft has been downed in the conflict and came just two days after President Donald Trump said in a national address that the U.S. has “beaten and completely decimated Iran” and was “going to finish the job, and we’re going to finish it very fast.”
Another plane crashed and Iran claimed it was also shot down.
An explosion hit Tehran and Iran fired on targets across the region, setting Kuwait’s Mina al-Ahmadi oil refinery on fire and damaging a desalination plant.
Such plants provide most drinking water for Gulf states and have become a major target.
A U.S. strike on Thursday on a major Iranian bridge that was under construction killed eight people celebrating the close of Persian new year.
Iran decried the strike on civilian infrastructure, while Trump cheered the bridge’s collapse and threatened, “Much more to follow.”
Trump is asking Congress to boost defense spending to $1.5 trillion, the largest such request in decades.
The remains of three Indonesian United Nations peacekeepers, who were killed while on escort duty supporting U.N. operations in southern Lebanon, arrived in Jakarta on Saturday evening, where President Prabowo Subianto led a solemn welcome ceremony.
The caskets were received at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport’s VIP terminal, draped in Indonesia’s red-and-white national flag, as military honor guards stood at attention.
Devastated families leaned against the caskets.
Wives rested their foreheads on the flags covering the caskets, their sobs breaking the silence of the military honors.
Prabowo, accompanied by senior government officials and top military commanders, bowed his head and observed a moment of silence.
He offered condolences to the families before the caskets were returned to their hometowns for official military funerals.
Jakarta has condemned the Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon that killed the peacekeepers as the border area became another flashpoint in Israel’s war.
Iran’s government is detaining family members and threatening to seize property of Iranian opposition figures in exile, some tell The Associated Press, in the latest crackdown on dissenting voices as the war rages on.
Activists overseas play a key role in tracking the crackdown, which is complicated by the internet shutdown imposed earlier this year during massive nationwide protests against the Islamic theocracy.
Watchdogs say security forces shot and killed thousands of people.
The war with the United States and Israel has intensified authorities’ threats against anyone speaking to outside media or activists.
Now that pressure appears to be expanding to intimidate activists in exile.
Mediators from Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt are still working to bring the United States and Iran back to the negotiating table, according to two regional officials.
The regional powers are working on a compromise to bridge the gap between the American and Iranian demands to stop the war and reopen the crucial Strait of Hormuz, they said.
They said the yet-to-be finalized compromise aims at paving the way for both sides to meet in Pakistan.
It includes a cessation of hostilities for a certain period of time to allow a diplomatic settlement, according to a regional official involved in the efforts and a Gulf diplomat briefed on the matter.
They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss closed-door diplomacy.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Saturday reiterated his government’s willingness to restart talks in Pakistan, but said they seek a “conclusive and lasting” end of the conflict.
Araghchi said he spoke by phone Friday with Turkey’s foreign minister to discuss the latest developments.
Meloni assured Qatar’s leader during a visit Saturday that Italy would contribute to restoring Qatari energy infrastructure damaged by Iranian bombing, noting its natural gas production is critical to global energy security, her office said in a note.
Meloni is the first EU, G20 and NATO leader to visit the Gulf region since the start of the U.S.-Israel war on Iran.
She began her two-day visit Friday in Saudi Arabia and is also scheduled to visit the United Arab Emirates.
The start of the visit was unannounced due to security concerns.
Meloni and Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, also reaffirmed the necessity of opening the Strait of Hormuz, which has blocked for weeks by the conflict, stranding numerous oil tankers.
Israel’s military said it had detected missiles from Iran launched toward the country.
Austrian Foreign Minister Beate Meinl-Reisinger said she underscored to her Iranian counterpart Abbas Aragchi “the need to halt the strikes on neighboring countries and restore freedom of navigation in the Strait Hormuz.”
Meinl-Reisinger said in a social media post on Saturday that navigation through the Gulf was especially important “regarding the humanitarian aspect of glob food security with a focus on fertilizers and other essential goods.”
She added her country’s support for forging a new deal on Iran’s nuclear program and restoring the country’s full cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The United Arab Emirates said on Saturday its air defense systems engaged 23 ballistic missiles and 56 drones from Iran.
Azerbaijan’s state news agency Azertac said on Saturday ten trucks with 200 tons of food, medicine and medical supplies were sent to Iran.
Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev posted on social media that his country and Iran would “continue to stand by each other in both good and difficult times.”
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi posted on social media on Saturday that radioactive fallout from further attacks on the Bushehr nuclear power plant would have disastrous repercussions in regional capitals, not Tehran.
Araghchi accused Western governments of remaining silent regarding repeated attacks on the Bushehr plant, located some 465 miles (750 kilometers south of Iran’ capital.
The facility uses low-enriched uranium from Russia, along with Russian technicians, to supply about 1,000 megawatts of power for Iran.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a social media post on Saturday that his country has “never refused to go to Islamabad.”
Araghchi said what Iran cares about are the terms “of a conclusive and lasting END to the illegal war that is imposed on us.”
Pakistan said last week that it would soon host talks between the U.S. and Iran.
It is not clear when or if the talks will take place.
The finance ministers of Spain, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Italy say that a European Union-wide tax on energy companies’ profits would distribute the burden more fairly.
The call, made public in a letter on Saturday, comes amid concerns that surging oil and gas prices driven by the Iran war will fuel inflation and strain households.
Europe is largely dependent on imported oil and gas, leaving it vulnerable to external shocks.
Omar al-Waeli, head of Iraq’s Border Ports Authority, said on Saturday that the strike on the Shalamcheh border crossing killed one person and wounded five others.
Authorities did not offer further details on the strike.
The Iraqi government said it was directing traders and travelers to alternative crossings.
The Israeli military says it has completed its latest wave of strikes Saturday on the Iranian capital.
The office of Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni said on Saturday that she discussed with Saudi Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman defensive military assistance that Italy is providing against Iranian reprisals to U.S.-Israeli attacks.
The statement did not specify what type of assistance Italy is providing.
It also said the two discussed diplomatic efforts to end the war and the importance of opening the Strait of Hormuz.
Meloni will continue her visit in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
It’s the first time that a European Union leader has visited the Gulf since the war started.
Bahrain’s Defense Ministry reported the tally in a social media post on Saturday.
This brings the total number of projectiles fired at the country since the start of the war to 188 missiles and 453 drones.
Bahrain hosts the U.S.
Navy’s 5th Fleet.
Israel’s military says Iran has launched missiles toward the country.
The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran said in a social media post on Saturday that apart from killing a guard, the airstrike also damaged a support building.
The International Atomic Energy Agency posted on social media that “no increase in radiation levels was reported” following the strike.
The Bushehr nuclear power plant uses low-enriched uranium from Russia, along with Russian technicians, to supply about 1,000 megawatts of power for Iran.
Its pressurized-water reactor can power hundreds of thousands of homes and other businesses and industries.
But it contributes only 1% to 2% of Iran’s total power needs.
Iran has been trying to expand the facility to multiple reactors.
In 2019, it began a project that ultimately plans to add two additional reactors to the site, each adding another 1,000 megawatts apiece.
JUST IN: Iran says a strike has hit close to its Bushehr nuclear facility, killing a guard.
Iran’s official English-language newspaper Tehran Times reported on Saturday that an airstrike hit a facility belonging to Iran’s Agriculture Ministry in the western city of Mehran.
The newspaper said another air raid struck the Mahshahr Special Petrochemical Zone in the southwestern Khuzestan province.
The semiofficial Fars news agency reported that several explosions were heard late Saturday morning at the facility.
Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf made the veiled threat in a social media post last Friday, asking about how busy the Bab-el-Mandeb strait is.
The 20-mile wide strait links the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean and is one of the busiest chokepoints in global trade, with more than a tenth of seaborne global oil and a quarter of container ships passing through it.
Iran has already greatly disrupted the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz, sending fuel prices skyrocketing and jolting the world economy.
Israel’s rescue services said on Saturday the man is being treated for glass shrapnel wounds following an Iranian missile strike in the central city of Bnei Brak.
The damage was caused on Saturday from an apparent Iranian drone strike.
The United Arab Emirate’s media office in Dubai called the damage to the building’s facade “a minor incident caused by debris from an aerial interception.”
But footage verified by the Associated Press outside the UAE showed that the damage resembled a direct hit to the building.
Dubai officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard had threatened Oracle.
The Iranian judiciary’s Mizan news agency said on Saturday the two men who were hanged were members of the group Mujahedeen-e-Khalq.
The agency said Abul-Hassan Montazer and Vahid Bani-Amirian were convicted of “being members of a terrorist group.”
This brings to six the total number of MEK members executed since the start of the war.
Activists and rights groups say Iran routinely holds closed-door trials in which defendants are unable to challenge the accusations they face.
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