TEHRAN -- Iran's main military command, Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, said on Thursday that no commercial vessel or oil tanker has been, or will be, able to cross the Strait of Hormuz safely without the Iranian armed forces' permission and supervision.
In a video message carried by Iranian media, Ebrahim Zolfaghari, the headquarters' spokesman, said that, as in the past, the Strait of Hormuz is under Iran's full control and management, rejecting U.S. claims about vessels' normal passage through the Strait of Hormuz as being "false and nothing but lies." (Iran-Hormuz Strait-US)
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SANAA -- At least three Yemeni soldiers were killed and 15 others wounded Thursday when Houthi drones struck a base of Yemeni government forces in the country's southeastern oil-rich province of Hadramout, a military official told Xinhua.
The local official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said several Houthi drones targeted a base of the 3rd Division of the Nation Shield Forces in Al-Abr District, a desert area in Hadramout near Yemen's border with Saudi Arabia. (Yemen-Houthis-Attacks)
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ANKARA -- Türkiye plans to launch its lunar spacecraft in the first months of 2027, with the mission powered by a domestically developed hybrid propulsion system, Industry and Technology Minister Mehmet Fatih Kacir said Thursday.
Türkiye had finalized the launch schedule for the lunar mission and completed all testing of the spacecraft's homegrown hybrid propulsion system, Kacir was quoted by Anadolu Agency as saying. He described the mission as a major step toward acquiring technological capabilities possessed by only a limited number of countries. (Türkiye-Lunar Spacecraft-Plan)
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GAZA/JERUSALEM -- The Hamas-run interior authorities in the Gaza Strip said on Thursday that the 43-year-old Gaza Police Chief Jamal Mahmoud Abu Kamil was killed in an Israeli airstrike that targeted his vehicle on Rashid Street, southwest of Gaza City.
Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance crews reported that Israeli aircraft targeted Abu Kamil in his vehicle, killing him instantly and wounding several others who were taken to Al-Shifa Hospital. (Gaza Strip-Israeli Airstrike-Death) ■
