BAGHDAD — Leading Iraqi Shiite figures warned Monday against attempts to pull their country into a war between the U.S. and Iran, saying it would turn Iraq into a battlefield yet again, just as it is on the path to recovery.

The warning came hours after a rocket slammed into Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone, landing less than a mile from the sprawling U.S. Embassy. No injuries were reported and no group immediately claimed the Sunday night attack.

Shortly after, President Donald Trump tweeted a warning to Iran not to threaten the United States or it will face its “official end.”

Last week, the U.S. ordered the evacuation of nonessential diplomatic staff from Iraq amid unspecified threats from Iran and rising tensions across the region. The White House has also sent warships and bombers to the Persian Gulf to counter the alleged Iranian threats.

On Monday, two influential Shiite clerics and a leading politician — all with close ties to Iran — warned that Iraq could once again get caught in the middle. The country hosts more than 5,000 U.S. troops, and is home to powerful Iranian-backed militias, some of whom want those U.S. forces to leave.

Populist Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr said any political party that would drag Iraq in a U.S.-Iran war “would be the enemy of the Iraqi people.”

“This war would mark the end of Iraq,” the black-turbaned al-Sadr warned. “We need peace and reconstruction.”

Qais al-Khazali, the leader the Iranian-backed Asaib Ahl al-Haq, or League of the Righteous group, tweeted that he is opposed to operations that “give pretexts for war” and added that they would only “harm Iraq’s political, economic and security conditions.”

For the Shiite-majority Iraq to be a theater for proxy wars is not new. It lies on the fault line between Shiite Iran and the mostly Sunni Arab world, led by powerhouse Saudi Arabia, and has long been the setting where Saudi-Iran rivalry for regional supremacy played out.

After America’s 2003 invasion of Iraq to oust dictator Saddam Hussein, American troops and Iranian-backed militiamen fought pitched battles around the country, and scores of U.S. troops were killed or wounded by sophisticated Iranian-made weapons.

The office of Hadi al-Amiri, the leader of a coalition of Shiite paramilitary forces backed by both Baghdad and Tehran, released a statement calling on Iraqis to work together “to keep Iraq and the region away from war.”

“If war breaks out ... it will burn everyone,” al-Amiri warned.

Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. </s> Protests by supporters of a powerful Iraqi Shiite cleric turned deadly Saturday in Baghdad.

A police officer was killed and seven others wounded during clashes between supporters of Muqtada al-Sadr and security forces, Baghdad’s security operations command said Saturday.

The cleric has called for the reform of Iraq’s election commission, and demonstrators had gathered in support of him.

Video of the rally shows police firing tear gas at the protesters.

The rally reached outside the fortified Green Zone, an area housing government buildings and foreign embassies.

Later Saturday, rockets fired from eastern Baghdad landed inside the Green Zone, Iraq’s Joint Operations Command Center said, but it’s unclear if that incident was related to the protests. There were no reports of casualties in the rocket firing.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi ordered an investigation into the clashes. </s> President Donald Trump warned Iran early on Monday not to threaten the United States again or it'll face its "official end," shortly after a rocket landed near the US Embassy in Baghdad overnight.

Trump's tweet comes after he seemingly sought to soften his tone on Iran following days of heightened tension sparked by Washington's sudden deployment of bombers and an aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf over still-unspecified threats.

In the time since, officials in the United Arab Emirates allege four oil tankers sustained damage in a sabotage attack. Houthi rebels launched a drone attack on an oil pipeline in Saudi Arabia. US diplomats relayed a warning that commercial airlines could be misidentified by Iran and attacked.

All these tensions are the culmination of Trump's decision a year ago to pull America out of Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers. And while both Washington and Tehran say they don't seek war, many worry any miscalculation at this fraught moment could spiral out of control.

Read more: Pakistan blames US for heightening tensions with Iran

The tweet from Trump early on Monday came just hours after a Katyusha rocket fell in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone near the statue of the Unknown Soldier, less than a mile from the US Embassy, causing no injuries.

Iraqi military spokesman Brig. Gen Yahya Rasoul told The Associated Press that the rocket was believed to have been fired from east Baghdad.

"If Iran wants to fight, that will be the official end of Iran," Trump tweeted. "Never threaten the United States again!" Trump did not elaborate, nor did the White House.

Trump campaigned on pulling the US from the 2015 nuclear accord, which saw Iran agree to limit its enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. Since the withdrawal, the US has re-imposed previous sanctions and come up with new ones, as well as warned nations around the world they would be subject to sanctions as well if they import Iranian oil.

Iran just announced it would begin backing away from terms of the deal, setting a 60-day deadline for Europe to come up with new terms or it would begin enriching uranium closer to weapons-grade levels.

Tehran long has insisted it does not seek nuclear weapons, though the West fears its program could allow it to build atomic bombs.

In an interview aired on Sunday on the Fox News Channel, Trump called the nuclear deal a "horror show".

"I just don't want them to have nuclear weapons and they can't be threatening us," Trump said.

However, the nuclear deal had kept Iran from being able to acquire enough highly enriched uranium for a bomb. UN inspectors repeatedly certified that Iran was in compliance with the accord.

In Saudi Arabia, the kingdom's military intercepted two missiles fired by the Houthi rebels in neighbouring Yemen.

The missiles were intercepted over the city of Taif and the Red Sea port city of Jeddah, the Saudi-owned satellite channel Al-Arabiya reported. The channel cited witnesses for the information.

The Saudi government has yet to acknowledge the missile fire, which other Saudi media also reported. Hundreds of rockets, mortars and ballistic missiles have been fired into the kingdom since a Saudi-led coalition declared war on the Houthis in March 2015 to support Yemen's internationally recognised government.

Between the two targeted cities is Makkah. Many pilgrims are now in the city amid the holy month of Ramazan.

Meanwhile, the US Navy's 5th Fleet on Sunday announced it would begin "enhanced security patrols" in international waters with members of the Gulf Cooperation Council, which includes Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Already, the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, the amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge and others are in the Arabian Sea, waters close to the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a third of all oil traded at sea passes. </s> Top officials from President Donald Trump’s administration will brief the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives about Iran on Tuesday afternoon, congressional aides said, after lawmakers clamored for more information about tension between the two countries.

The briefers will be Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Joseph Dunford and an unnamed representative of the intelligence community, congressional aides said.

Aides had said last week that a Senate briefing was set for Tuesday, but details of the House meeting had not been made final.

President Trump threatened Iran in a tweet on Sunday, raising concerns about a potential U.S.-Iran conflict at a time when tensions between Washington and Tehran have risen.

Concern also rose after a rocket was fired on Sunday into the Iraqi capital Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone, which houses government buildings and diplomatic missions, falling near the U.S. Embassy, but causing no casualties. </s> Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has dismissed US President Donald Trump’s “genocidal taunts” and warned him not to threaten the country.

With tensions rising, Mr Trump tweeted on Sunday: “If Iran wants to fight, that will be the official end of Iran.”

Mr Zarif said the president should look at history. “Iranians have stood tall for millennia while aggressors all gone… Try respect – it works!”

The US has deployed additional warships and planes to the Gulf in recent days.

But Mr Trump’s tweet marked a shift in tone after recent attempts by him to downplay the possibility of a military conflict with Iran. Last week, when asked by reporters if the US was going to war with Iran, he said: “I hope not.”

His warning to Iran was issued hours after a rocket was fired into the heavily fortified Green Zone in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, and hit a building about 0.5km (0.3 miles) from the US embassy.

The US recently evacuated non-emergency staff from the mission because of what it called a “serious” threat reportedly linked to Iran-backed forces in Iraq.

Writing on Twitter on Monday, Iran’s foreign minister said the US president was being “goaded” by what he called the “B Team” – a reference to US National Security Adviser John Bolton, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman.

Mr Trump “hopes to achieve what Alexander [the Great], Genghis [Khan] & other aggressors failed to do. Iranians have stood tall for millennia while aggressors all gone. #EconomicTerrorism & genocidal taunts won’t ‘end Iran’,” he added.

On Saturday, Mr Zarif had insisted that Iran did not want a war. </s> RIYADH (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump issued a new threat to Tehran on Sunday, tweeting that a conflict would be the “official end” of Iran, as Saudi Arabia warned it stood ready to respond with “all strength” and said it was up to Iran to avoid war.

The heightened rhetoric follows last week’s attacks on Saudi oil assets and the firing of a rocket into Baghdad’s heavily fortified “Green Zone” on Sunday, home to government buildings and foreign embassies.

“If Iran wants to fight, that will be the official end of Iran. Never threaten the United States again!” Trump said in a tweet without elaborating.

Riyadh, which emphasized that it does not want a war, has accused Tehran of ordering Tuesday’s drone strikes on two oil pumping stations in the kingdom, claimed by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi group. Two days earlier, four vessels, including two Saudi oil tankers, were sabotaged off the coast of the United Arab Emirates.

In response, countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) began “enhanced security patrols” in the international waters of the Arabian Gulf area on Saturday, the U.S. Navy’s Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet said on Sunday.

Iran has denied involvement in either incident, which come as Washington and the Islamic Republic spar over sanctions and the U.S. military presence in the region, raising concerns about a potential U.S.-Iran conflict.

“The kingdom of Saudi Arabia does not want a war in the region nor does it seek that,” Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel al-Jubeir told a news conference on Sunday.

“It will do what it can to prevent this war and at the same time it reaffirms that in the event the other side chooses war, the kingdom will respond with all force and determination, and it will defend itself and its interests.”

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman on Sunday invited Gulf and Arab leaders to convene emergency summits in Mecca on May 30 to discuss implications of the attacks.

“The current critical circumstances entail a unified Arab and Gulf stance toward the besetting challenges and risks,” the UAE foreign ministry said in a statement.

The U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet said in its statement about increased maritime patrols that GCC countries were “specifically increasing communication and coordination with each other in support of regional naval cooperation and maritime security operations in the Arabian Gulf,” with navies and coast guards working with the U.S. Navy.

Saudi Arabia’s Sunni Muslim ally the UAE has not blamed anyone for the tanker sabotage operation, pending an investigation. No-one has claimed responsibility, but two U.S. government sources said last week that U.S. officials believed Iran had encouraged the Houthi group or Iraq-based Shi’ite militias to carry it out.

The drone strike on oil pumping stations, which Riyadh said did not disrupt output or exports, was claimed by the Houthis, who have been battling a Saudi-led military coalition in a war in Yemen since 2015.

The Houthi-controlled SABA news agency said on Sunday, citing a military source from the group, that targeting Aramco’s installations last week was the beginning of coming military operations against 300 vital military targets.

Targets include vital military headquarters and facilities in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, as well as their bases in Yemen, the source told SABA.

The head of the Houthis’ Supreme Revolutionary Committee, Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, derided Riyadh’s call to convene Arab summits, saying in a Twitter post that they “only know how to support war and destruction”.

A Norwegian insurers’ report seen by Reuters said Iran’s Revolutionary Guards were “highly likely” to have facilitated the attack on vessels near the UAE’s Fujairah emirate, a main bunkering hub lying just outside the Strait of Hormuz.

In Baghdad, Iraq’s military said a Katyusha rocket fell in the middle of the Green Zone without causing any losses.

“We are aware of an explosion in the International Zone (Green Zone) outside of the U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad on May 19. There were no U.S. or coalition casualties, and Iraqi Security Forces are investigating the incident”, said Capt. Bill Urban, spokesman for U.S. Central Command, in a statement.

The Green Zone was regularly targeted by mortars during the U.S. occupation of Iraq that ended in 2011 and rockets have occasionally been fired into it since then.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has dismissed the possibility of war erupting, saying Tehran did not want conflict and no country had the “illusion it can confront Iran”. This stance was echoed by the head of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards on Sunday.

“We are not pursuing war but we are also not afraid of war,” Major General Hossein Salami was cited as saying by the semi-official news agency Tasnim.

Washington has tightened economic sanctions against Iran, trying to cut Tehran’s oil exports to zero, and beefed up the U.S. military presence in the Gulf in response to what it said were Iranian threats to United States troops and interests.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman discussed regional developments, including efforts to strengthen security and stability, in a phone call with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the Saudi Media Ministry tweeted on Sunday.

“We want peace and stability in the region but we will not sit on our hands in light of the continuing Iranian attack,” Jubeir said. “The ball is in Iran’s court and it is up to Iran to determine what its fate will be.”

He said the crew of an Iranian oil tanker that had been towed to Saudi Arabia early this month after a request for help due to engine trouble were still in the kingdom receiving the “necessary care”. The crew are 24 Iranians and two Bangladeshis.

Saudi Arabia and Shi’ite Iran are arch-adversaries in the Middle East, backing opposite sides in several regional wars. In a sign of the heightened tension, Exxon Mobil evacuated foreign staff from an oilfield in neighboring Iraq.

Bahrain on Saturday warned its citizens against travel to Iraq and Iran and asked those already there to return. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration has issued an advisory to U.S. commercial airliners flying over the waters of the Gulf and the Gulf of Oman to exercise caution. </s> WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday he will send about 1,500 American troops to the Middle East, mostly as a protective measure, amid heightened tensions with Iran.

However, the Republican leader played down the potential for military conflict in the region, saying he believed Iran did not want a confrontation with the United States.

“We want to have protection in the Middle East. We’re going to be sending a relatively small number of troops, mostly protective,” Trump said as he left the White House for a trip to Japan.

The Pentagon said only about 900 of the 1,500 troops will be newly deploying and that 600 are already in the region and will be extended. It said they include Patriot missile battery personnel, manning for surveillance aircraft and engineers.

“Right now, I don’t think Iran wants to fight. And I certainly don’t think they want to fight with us,” Trump said.

“But they cannot have nuclear weapons,” he continued. “They can’t have nuclear weapons. And they understand that.”

The U.S. military deployed a carrier strike group, bombers and Patriot missiles to the Middle East earlier this month in response to what Washington said were troubling indications of possible preparations for an attack by Iran.

Rhetoric between Tehran and Washington has escalated in recent weeks as the United States tightened sanctions with what it said was the goal of pushing Iran to make concessions beyond the terms of its 2015 nuclear deal.

Trump withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and six major powers a year ago and now is seeking to block all Iranian oil exports.

Washington believes a series of recent attacks in the region may have been inspired by Iran, including a rocket attack in Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone and what Saudi Arabia described as armed drone attacks on two oil pumping stations and the sabotage of four vessels including two Saudi oil tankers.

Trump warned on Monday that Iran would be met with “great force” if it attacked U.S. interests in the Middle East. </s> BAGHDAD (AP) — The U.S. Embassy in Iraq is advising U.S. citizens against traveling to the country amid what it called “heightened tensions,” reflecting worsening strains between Washington and Tehran. The advisory was posted on…

BAGHDAD (AP) — The U.S. Embassy in Iraq is advising U.S. citizens against traveling to the country amid what it called “heightened tensions,” reflecting worsening strains between Washington and Tehran.

The advisory was posted on Twitter on Sunday night. The U.S. has long advised its citizens against travel to Iraq, but the renewed warning followed Washington’s deployment of the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and B-52 bombers to the Persian Gulf in response to unspecified “threats” by Iran.

The warning follows a surprise visit to Baghdad by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last week which he said was aimed at demonstrating U.S. support for the Iraqi government, as the U.S. says it has been picking up intelligence that Iran is threatening American interests in the Middle East.

During his visit, Pompeo also said he wanted to underscore Iraq’s need to protect Americans in the country.

Tensions between the U.S. and Iran have rocketed since President Donald Trump pulled his country out of the 2015 nuclear treaty with Iran and re-imposed severe sanctions on Iran’s energy and finance sectors.

The strain has tested Iraq’s leaders as they try to balance relations between the two rivals. Iraq sees billions of dollars in cross-border trade with Iran and has close ties with Tehran after it stepped in to fill the political vacuum following the 2003 U.S. invasion.

But Iraq is also host to more than 5,000 U.S. servicemen and women invited by the Iraqi parliament in 2014 to assist in the war against the Islamic State group.

Copyright © 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed. </s> Amid Iran tensions, a look at Mideast's powers and proxies

As long-simmering tensions heat up between the United States and Iran in the Middle East, a look at the various countries or players involved, and what could happen:

The U.S. has tens of thousands of troops scattered across military bases in the Middle East. It recently sent the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier and strike group to the region, as well as B-52 bombers. That complements the warships of the 5th Fleet in Bahrain, the soldiers of U.S. Army Central in Kuwait, the drones and fighter jets stationed in the United Arab Emirates and the forward headquarters of the U.S. military's Central Command in Qatar. President Donald Trump has threatened Iran with attack if it first launches an assault on U.S. interests. However, Trump also has sought at times to soften his tone amid his maximum pressure campaign against Tehran, to go with additional sanctions that Washington has imposed after withdrawing from the 2015 nuclear deal that Iran reached with world powers. Analysts fear the chance of a miscalculation by either Iran or the U.S. amid the tensions. The U.S. also has developed cyberwarfare capabilities.

Although Israel has been silent amid the recent tensions, it has played a key role in getting the region to this point. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who considers Iran to be his country's greatest enemy, welcomed Trump's withdrawal from the nuclear deal and encouraged renewed economic sanctions. Israeli officials have portrayed the standoff as a matter between Iran and the U.S. But if fighting breaks out, Israel could be targeted by Iran's regional proxies, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon or Islamic Jihad in Gaza. Israel has the Middle East's most powerful and advanced military, with F-15 and F-16 warplanes, as well as the next-generation F-35 fighter jet. It also has warships, submarines and long-range missiles. Israel has a missile-defense system capable of intercepting anything from long-range missiles to short-range rockets fired from Gaza or Lebanon. Israel is widely believed to have a nuclear arsenal, which it neither confirms nor denies. Israel has acknowledged carrying out scores of attacks on Iranian targets in neighboring Syria, sometimes drawing retaliation. Israel, which has conducted pre-emptive bombings of nuclear facilities in Iraq and Syria, has vowed to never allow Iran to obtain an atomic weapon. It also has developed cyberwarfare capabilities.

The Sunni rival to Shiite Iran, Saudi Arabia long has watched Tehran with suspicion since its 1979 Islamic Revolution. Relations have cooled and warmed in the last four decades. The U.S. push for the 2015 nuclear deal drew Saudi anger. Since the rise of King Salman and his assertive, 33-year-old son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom has taken a far-more militant line. It launched the war in Yemen, targeting Iranian-allied Houthi rebels. Prince Mohammed also compared Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to Nazi Germany's Adolf Hitler. "We won't wait for the battle to be in Saudi Arabia," the prince told the Saudi-owned broadcasting company MBC in 2017. "Instead, we will work so that the battle is for them in Iran, not in Saudi Arabia." A top Saudi diplomat said the kingdom does not want war but won't hesitate to defend itself against Iran. Saudi Arabia has a fleet of over 250 fighter jets capable of launching a strike on Iran.

The seven sheikhdoms of the United Arab Emirates have long historical ties to Iran, but diplomatic relations between Abu Dhabi and Tehran have worsened in recent years. Analysts believe Abu Dhabi's powerful crown prince, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, largely runs day-to-day affairs and military strategy. In U.S. State Department cables released by WikiLeaks, Sheikh Mohammed painted a dire picture of Iran in multiple meetings. He told U.S. diplomats in 2009 he believed "'all hell will break loose' if Iran attains the bomb, with Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Turkey developing their own nuclear weapons capability and Iran instigating Sunni-Shia conflict throughout the world." He also described a "near-term conventional war with Iran as clearly preferable to the long term consequences of a nuclear-armed Iran." The UAE under Sheikh Mohammed has rapidly modernized and expanded its military, with its special forces getting experience in Afghanistan. It now fights alongside Saudi Arabia against Yemen's Houthi rebels, has reportedly hired Colombian mercenaries and has over 130 fighter jets.

Iran has both a standing military and its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard. Estimates put its troop strength at over 500,000, with hundreds of thousands more in reserve. Its air force has suffered from Western sanctions, now having a fleet of mostly pre-1979 American fighter jets. However, the Guard maintains an arsenal of ballistic missiles capable of reaching across the wider Middle East, as well as increasingly modern drone fleet. Iran mustered human wave attacks during its 1980s war with neighboring Iraq. It also has additional reach through proxy forces throughout the region and has used that to its advantage over the years. It also has developed cyberwarfare capabilities.

Hezbollah, the most powerful and effective among Iranian-backed militias in the region, has kept quiet in recent days as tensions have spiked. Its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, however, has said in the past that Iran would not stand alone in any future confrontation with the U.S. The group, formed to combat Israel following its invasion of Lebanon in 1982, has tens of thousands of rockets and missiles that can reach deep into Israel, as well as thousands of disciplined and battle-hardened fighters. Hezbollah has fought alongside government forces in Syria for more than six years, gaining more experience and expanding its reach. Iran could mobilize Hezbollah to strike at Israel, which would dramatically expand the battlefield but likely draw retaliation that would be devastating for Lebanon. Hezbollah says it is not seeking another war with Israel, and it is not likely to join in any regional confrontation — at least not in the early stages — unless provoked. Hezbollah has lost hundreds of fighters in Syria, exacting a heavy toll on the Shiite community from which it draws most of its support. It is also feeling the crippling U.S. sanctions imposed on the group and its sponsor, Iran.

Iran can count on the loyalty of tens of thousands of Shiite fighters in Iraq, militias collectively known as the Popular Mobilization forces, or Hashd al-Shaabi in Arabic. Trained, financed, and equipped by Iran, the militias battled U.S. forces in the years after the 2003 invasion and remobilized to battle the Islamic State group a decade later. The groups include Asaib Ahl al-Haq, Kataeb Hezbollah and the Badr Organization, all three led by men with close ties to Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the leader of Iran's elite Quds Force and the architect of Tehran's regional strategy. The militias were incorporated into Iraq's armed forces in 2016. Together they number more than 140,000 fighters, and while they fall under the authority of Iraq's prime minister, the PMF's top brass align politically with Iran. U.S. forces and the PMF fought side-by-side against IS militants after Iraq's parliament invited the U.S. back into the country in 2014. But now that the war is largely concluded, some militia leaders are calling on U.S. troops to leave again, threatening to expel them by force if necessary. On Sunday, a rocket was fired into Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, landing less than a mile from the U.S. Embassy. No group claimed responsibility, but an Iraqi military spokesman said the rocket was fired from eastern Baghdad, where many Iran-backed groups are based.

Yemen's Houthi rebels seized the country's capital, Sanaa, in 2014. It later pushed the country's internationally recognized government nearly into the sea in Aden before a Saudi-led coalition launched a war against them in March 2015. Since then, the Houthis have been effective guerrilla fighters with small arms, but also have launched ballistic missiles into neighboring Saudi Arabia. They've flown drones into Patriot missile batteries and exploded bomb-carrying ones over a military parade and a Saudi oil pipeline from a distance. U.N. experts believe their newest drone likely has a range of up to 1,500 kilometers (930 miles). They also have arms seized from Yemeni military barracks, including missiles fired at an Emirati ship, commercial boats and even once against a U.S. warship.

Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Karam reported from Beirut and Federman reported from Jerusalem.
A rocket explodes inside the heavily fortified Green Zone sector of Iraq's capital, landing less than a mile from the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad amid heightened tensions in the region between the United States and Iran.