Saudi Arabia carried out multiple covert strikes on Iran following attacks targeting the kingdom during the West Asia war, Reuters reported, citing two Western and Iranian officials.
The Saudi attacks, which weren’t recorded previously, mark the first time the nation is known to have directly launched strikes on Iranian soil and indicate a bold shift in the country’s commitment to defend itself against its main regional rival.
The two Western officials said the attacks by the Saudi Air Force were determined to have been carried out in the last weeks of March. They were “tit-for-tat strikes in retaliation for when Saudi (Arabia) was hit,” one of the officials said.
The kingdom has traditionally depended on the United States military for protection, having a strong military relationship with the US. However, the months-long war left the country comparatively vulnerable to attacks on its US bases.
Israeli drone strikes hit Beirut, killing 8, including 2 children
Israeli drones struck three vehicles on the main highway south of Beirut on Wednesday, killing eight people, including a woman and her two children, the Lebanese Health Ministry said.
The Israeli military said it struck Hezbollah infrastructure in several areas in southern Lebanon, hours after telling residents of six southern villages to evacuate.
Lebanon and Israel are scheduled to hold another round of direct talks in Washington on Thursday as the Trump administration pushes for a breakthrough between the two neighbours that have been at a state of war since Israel was created in 1948.
The Health Ministry confirmed in a statement the three strikes, but didn’t detail the number of people in each vehicle.
Two of Wednesday’s drone attacks hit a highway linking Beirut with the southern port city of Sidon, while a third, reported the state-run National news agency, struck the town of Saadiyat, near the busy freeway. A fourth strike on Sidon’s northern entrance happened in the early afternoon, hitting a car, according to state media.
An Associated Press photographer saw the bodies of three people killed in two of the strikes near the coastal towns of Barja and Jiyeh.
In southern Lebanon, Israeli airstrikes were reported in different towns and villages while Hezbollah claimed launching more attacks on Israel as both sides keep exchanging fire despite a US-brokered ceasefire that went into effect on April 17.
Americans’ financial struggles not a motivating factor to end war: Trump
United States President Donald Trump on Tuesday, May 12, said that Americans’ financial struggles were “not even a little bit” a motivating factor in his decision-making while negotiating with Iran to end the war. To him, preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon outweighs other issues.
When asked by a reporter to what extent Americans’ financial situation was encouraging him to strike a deal, Trump said, “Not even a little bit.”
“The only thing that matters, when I’m talking about Iran, they can’t have a nuclear weapon,” Trump told reporters moments before departing for China. “I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation. I don’t think about anybody. I think about one thing: We cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. That’s all. That’s the only thing that motivates me.”
Trump to land in Beijing on Wednesday for talks with Xi
China is all set to welcome US President Donald Trump on Wednesday for his state visit during which he will discuss a host of global issues, including the Gulf war with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The leaders of the world’s two largest economies will hold their seventh face-to-face talks. They last met face-to-face in October 2025 in Busan, South Korea.
China has geared up to receive Trump on his second visit in nine years to clinch a trade deal, to end the frictions over tariffs that affected its over USD 525 billion exports to the US.
Trump, who would be accompanied by top CEOs, was the last US president to visit China in 2017, during his first term.
President Trump would arrive in Beijing on Wednesday evening and attend a welcome ceremony and a bilateral meeting with Xi on Thursday, US Principal Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly said on Sunday.
According to reports, the talks are likely to focus on trade and tariffs, Artificial Intelligence and technology, Taiwan and US’ arms sales to Taipei, Iran and West Asia East security and rare earths and supply chains.
Another car hit on Lebanon’s motorway
China is all set to welcome US President Donald Trump on Wednesday for his state visit during which he will discuss a host of global issues, including the Gulf war with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The leaders of the world’s two largest economies will hold their seventh face-to-face talks. They last met face-to-face in October 2025 in Busan, South Korea.
China has geared up to receive Trump on his second visit in nine years to clinch a trade deal, to end the frictions over tariffs that affected its over USD 525 billion exports to the US.
Trump, who would be accompanied by top CEOs, was the last US president to visit China in 2017, during his first term.
President Trump would arrive in Beijing on Wednesday evening and attend a welcome ceremony and a bilateral meeting with Xi on Thursday, US Principal Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly said on Sunday.
Israeli military targeted a second vehicle near the Jiyeh area along the motorway running from Beirut to southern Lebanon, the country’s National News agency reported.
Visuals from the site show the car severely damaged, charred and torn apart.
Iran executes man accused of spying for Israel
Iran has executed a man convicted of spying for Israel’s intelligence service after the Supreme Court upheld the death sentence.
According to rights group HRANA, the 32-year-old accused, Ehsan Afrashteh, was apprehended in 2024 and sentenced to death in 2025 based on confessions that were reportedly fabricated.
Lebanese motorway targeted in recent strike
An Israeli strike targeted a car on a highway connecting Beirut to Lebanon’s south, National News Agency reported.
The attack took place in the Jiyeh area, around 20 kilometres south of Beirut, which is the third such strike targeting cars on the same motorway since Saturday.
Israeli attacks despite a ‘ceasefire’ in southern Lebanon have left many injured or dead. On Tuesday, a strike killed two Lebanese paramedics and injured a third, from Lebanon’s Civil Defence.
Ceasefire only in name in southern Lebanon
According to field reporters associated with Al Jazeera, the ongoing conflict is taking a huge toll on the civilians living in southern Lebanon. The conflict is “only escalating,” they were quoted as saying, adding that the Israeli military issued yet another forced evacuation order for Aabbasiyyeh.
It is one of the few remaining hospitals in the area, with only three others left in the entire district of Tyre. The area contains at least 1,00,000 people still living there. The reporters have described the attacks as “relentless,” whether in Nabiteh district or Tyre.
Hamas condemns Israel’s ‘field executions’ in occupied West Bank
Condemning the killing of Palestinian Zakaria Ali Muhammad Qadis by Israeli forces, Hamas said such attacks add to the “record of brutal Zionist crimes that are escalating at a dangerous pace.
The group released a statement saying these crimes would not be successful in “breaking the will of our people but will only increase the price that the occupation will pay.”
“We call upon our people and our revolutionary youth to escalate the state of mobilisation and confront the crimes of the occupation and its settlers,” the group said.
Trump’s proposed ‘Golden Dome’ estimated to cost USD 1.2 trillion
President Donald Trump’s plan to put weapons in space, pitched as a “Golden Dome for America” missile defense program, is estimated to cost USD 1.2 trillion over a 20 year period, according to a new analysis from the Congressional Budget Office, a far heftier sum than the initial USD 175 billion price tag he gave last year.
The nonpartisan CBO report, published Tuesday, is described as an analysis that reflects “one illustrative approach rather than an estimate of a specific Administration proposal.”
The futuristic system was ordered by Trump in an executive order during his first week in office. He said then that he expected the system to be “fully operational before the end of my term,” which wraps up in January 2029.
“Over the past 40 years, rather than lessening, the threat from next-generation strategic weapons has become more intense and complex with the development by peer and near-peer adversaries of next-generation delivery systems,” Trump said in his executive order, justifying the need for the missile defense system.
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