Mena Today

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday Iran had shot down a U.S. Apache helicopter that was patrolling the Strait of Hormuz overnight and vowed to respond, but gave no other details.

The rescue of two U.S. Army helicopter crew members by a Navy drone has spotlighted Task Force 59, the U.S. Navy's first dedicated unmanned systems unit, based in Bahrain and part of Naval Forces Central Command (NAVCENT), which oversees U.S. naval operations in the Middle East. 

Israel struck the historic port city of Tyre in southern Lebanon on Tuesday, killing at least eight people, in an escalation that adds strain to efforts to broker a peace deal to end the wider Middle East war.

President Donald Trump declared early Tuesday that US diplomacy was in the "final efforts" of securing a deal with Iran to end the conflict in the Gulf, suggesting an agreement could be reached within days.

Tehran will turn the naval blockade established by the United States into another defeat for the "enemy", Iran's top negotiator Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said in a message posted on his Telegram channel on Monday. 

In launching renewed strikes on Iran on Monday in apparent open defiance of Donald Trump, Israel has tried to make its case to have a say at the peace negotiating table, where it has so far been kept at arm's length by the U.S. president.

U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi called on Iran on Monday to "re-engage" with him so inspections can resume at sites the U.S. and Israel bombed a year ago, as the U.S. led a push for a resolution to that effect at the agency's board.

Iran's military announced on Monday that its first wave of attacks on Israel since a ceasefire in April was now over, although it threatened to resume the strikes if Israel continued attacks on Lebanon.

Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis said on Monday that they would ban ships linked to Israel from the Red Sea after Israel renewed its military attacks on Iran, adding to concerns about global shipping and energy flows.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that both Israel and Iran are looking to "do an immediate ceasefire", and that final negotiations on "peace" are proceeding. 

Iran launched approximately 30 ballistic missiles at Israel since Sunday evening, an Israeli military official said Monday afternoon, in the latest escalation of the conflict between the two countries.

Israel has carried out nearly 3,500 air strikes on Lebanon and hundreds of controlled explosions since the U.S. announced a ceasefire for the country on April 16, Lebanon's Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said on Monday.