Iran drones hit Bahrain after U.S. strikes, Lebanon deal

June 28, 2026

2–3 minutes

Summary

Iran struck Bahrain with drones after U.S. attacks on Iranian targets, while Hezbollah rejected a new Israel-Lebanon framework.

Why this matters

The developments underscored the fragility of the U.S.-Iran ceasefire and the risk of wider regional escalation. They also raised new questions about shipping security in the Strait of Hormuz and the viability of diplomacy over Lebanon.

Iran launched drones at Bahrain on Saturday, hours after U.S. strikes on Iranian targets, as tensions also rose over a U.S.-backed framework between Israel and Lebanon.

Bahrain said a “number of Iranian drones” targeted the country and called the attack “a flagrant threat to the security of citizens and residents.” Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said it had targeted locations “of the U.S. terrorist army in the region,” without naming them. The strike came after U.S. forces hit four targets in Iran on Friday in response to what a U.S. official said was an Iranian drone attack on a cargo vessel in the Strait of Hormuz a day earlier.

U.S. Central Command said Friday’s strikes hit Iranian missile and drone storage sites, along with radar facilities. Vice President JD Vance wrote on social media, “Iran signed a ceasefire agreement. We have honored it. If they have disagreements about how the MOU is being applied, they can pick up the phone. But violence will be met with violence.”

President Trump called Iran’s attack on the ship a “foolish violation” of the ceasefire. He had not publicly commented on Saturday’s strike on Bahrain.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio also announced Friday a framework agreement between Israel and Lebanon. Hezbollah, which was not part of the negotiations, rejected it Saturday as a “humiliation” and a “disgrace.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the agreement allowed Israel to keep a security zone in southern Lebanon “as long as it is required for security.” Defense Minister Israel Katz said Israel would remain there until Hezbollah was disarmed.

Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem said the agreement was “null and void” and said the group would continue to press for Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon. The deal appeared to conflict with a 14-point memorandum of understanding signed earlier this month by Iran and the United States, which both Iran and Hezbollah said required an end to fighting “on all fronts, including in Lebanon,” and support for Lebanon’s territorial integrity.

Shipping tensions also persisted in the Strait of Hormuz. The U.K. Maritime Trade Operations said Saturday a tanker reported being hit by an “unidentified projectile” and suffered damage to its bridge, but no injuries were reported.

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Asia

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Chinese exporters to those firms must apply for special licenses, submit risk assessment reports on the Japanese companies, and provide written pledges that the items will not be used for military purposes.

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World

Iran president says $6B in Qatar funds to be freed

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Iran’s president said Monday that $6 billion in frozen Iranian assets held in Qatar would be released, as attacks in the Persian Gulf raised new questions about ongoing talks with the United States.

President Masoud Pezeshkian made the remarks in comments published by the state-run IRNA news agency, calling the interim deal “a great victory for the Iranian people.”

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Asia

Pakistan strikes in Afghanistan kill 36, officials say

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Pakistani ground operations and strikes overnight killed at least 36 civilians and injured more than 160 others in Afghanistan, Afghan officials said Monday, as tensions between the neighbors escalated.

Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said Pakistani security forces carried out a ground operation along the border late Sunday, followed by strikes on militant hideouts and safe havens, killing 29 fighters. He said the operation was launched after multiple militant attacks in Pakistan.

Afghanistan condemned the strikes. Hayatullah Mohajer Farahi, deputy minister for publications at the Ministry of Information and Culture, said Afghanistan would respond “in due time.”

“The military regime in a cowardly manner bombed Paktia, Paktika, and Kunar provinces last night,” Farahi said. “This will definitely be retaliated against in due time. The decisions of the regime are not made based on emotions, but rather serious measures are taken at the right time.”

Hamdullah Fitrat, deputy spokesperson for Afghanistan’s Taliban government, said Pakistani forces struck a home in Paktia’s Chamkani district, killing an elderly man and a child and injuring other family members. He said that when residents gathered to rescue people, the area was struck again, killing 28 villagers and wounding 158.

Fitrat said six people, mostly women and children, were killed in a village in Giyan district, Paktika province, when another home was hit. A civilian home in Kunar province was also struck, he said, with no casualties reported but about 30 livestock killed.

Tarar posted three videos on X that he said showed projectiles hitting camps and safe havens of Jamaat-ul-Ahrar and Fitna al-Khwarij in Paktia, Paktika, and Kunar. He said the strikes killed militants and destroyed weapons and ammunition stockpiles.

India denied any involvement after Pakistan accused Indian-backed militants.

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Europe

Ukraine drones hit refinery, Putin cites hard period

Russia’s Defense Ministry said it shot down 213 Ukrainian drones overnight over Russia, occupied Crimea, and the Black and Azov seas. Ukraine’s air force said Russia attacked with 142 drones and eight missiles, and that 125 drones and seven missiles were downed.

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Ukraine continued a large drone attack on Russia overnight, setting fire to an oil refinery in the south and killing at least two people, Russian authorities said Sunday, as President Vladimir Putin said the country was going through a “difficult period.”

Ukraine has increased long-range strikes on Russian military industry and energy facilities in recent months. President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Telegram that two refineries were hit.

“Our ‘long-range sanctions’ reached two oil refineries in Russia,” Zelensky wrote Sunday. “Each (strike) means a reduction in the resources that fuel the Russian war machine, and another step toward peace.”

Debris from downed Ukrainian drones caused a fire at the refinery in Slavyansk-na-Kubani in Russia’s Krasnodar region, east of occupied Crimea, according to Gov. Veniamin Kondratyev. Local authorities said one person was killed in Sloviansk and another was wounded in a nearby village.

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“Naturally, we are adjusting certain plans in light of the current situation, but all strategically important (domestic) development programs will undoubtedly be implemented in full,” Putin said.

Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said Russia was reviewing fuel export agreements to protect domestic supply. In Siberia’s Irkutsk region, Gov. Igor Kobzev said drivers would be limited to 50 liters (13 gallons) of fuel per vehicle per day at state-run Rosneft stations.

In other attacks Sunday, a Russian aerial bomb killed two people and injured 16 others, including two children, in Zaporizhzhia, according to regional administration head Ivan Fedorov. In Russia’s Belgorod region, Ukrainian drone strikes killed one person and injured another, acting Gov. Alexander Shuvayev said.
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The aircraft went down at about 11 a.m. local time in a grassy area near the runway at the Nancy-Essey aerodrome, according to Yves Seguy, prefect of the Meurthe-et-Moselle region, and Agence France-Presse.

Seguy told reporters near the scene that emergency services responded immediately and that authorities were gathering witness statements.

Tomblaine Mayor Hervé Féron told BFMTV that no homes were hit. “There was no collateral damage, but unfortunately all the people who were inside died,” he said.
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Military & National Security

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A U.S. Marine assigned to the USS Anchorage went missing during a training exercise off the Southern California coast, and the Navy said the effort had shifted to a recovery operation.

The Makin Island Amphibious Ready Group began the search at about 1:21 a.m. Thursday after the Marine was reported missing during integrated training with the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit, according to the Navy.

The search-and-rescue effort transitioned to a search-and-recovery operation at about 9 p.m. Friday, the Navy said.

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The USS Anchorage is an amphibious transport dock assigned to the Makin Island Amphibious Ready Group.
US

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Three firefighters died and two were injured while responding to fires on the Colorado-Utah border, the U.S. Wildland Fire Service said Sunday.

The agency, which was created earlier this year to coordinate firefighting and fire reduction across public lands, said the firefighters were part of an interagency response to the Knowles and Gore fires on Saturday.

“The U. S. Wildland Fire Service stands united with the USDA Forest Service in grief and in our unwavering support for the loved ones left behind. Their bravery, dedication, and sacrifice will never be forgotten,” the agency said in a Facebook statement.

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Gov. Spencer Cox said in a social media post that the situation was bleak, while thanking crews for what he called “several miraculous stops and saves.”

Alyssa Mason, a spokesperson assigned to the fire, said cliffs and steep slopes had slowed the response.

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US Politics

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New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Sunday he did not support changing the Constitution’s requirement that presidents be natural-born U.S. citizens.

Mamdani, a 34-year-old democratic socialist who was born in Uganda, made the comment during an appearance on ABC’s “This Week.” Host Jonathan Karl noted that Mamdani would soon meet the Constitution’s age requirement to run for president, but would remain ineligible because of his birthplace.

Asked whether the requirement should change, Mamdani laughed and said, “I think the Constitution looks good the way it is.”

Mamdani’s national profile has grown after three House candidates he backed won elections over two incumbents and another candidate backed by the party establishment. Two of those candidates were also democratic socialists.

Mamdani has focused his policies on economic issues. He also supports the Palestinian cause and has criticized Israel, as did the three candidates who won Tuesday.

He said some socialist ideals could help revive the Democratic Party after its 2024 losses.

“I think what the Democratic party can win on nationally is a focus on working people, and I think that what I saw from Darializa when I would walk the streets of her district was a focus on what she describes as the politics of life. She would talk about how we have to invest in babies, not bombs,” he said, referring to the congressional campaign of democratic socialist Darializa Avila Chevalier.

On Tuesday, Avila Chevalier defeated incumbent Rep. Adriano Espaillat, D-N.Y., in the Democratic primary.

“She’s now going to represent what is one of the poorest districts in the United States of America, and what people in that district are exhausted by is a politics that has justified the spending of tens of billions of dollars in killing civilians overseas, while working people are struggling just to do the basics,” Mamdani said on ABC.

President Trump and other lawmakers have criticized Mamdani’s socialist policies by linking them to communism. “The Communists are finally making their move. I’ve been waiting and preparing for this for a long time,” President Trump wrote on Truth Social on Friday.

“It’s easy to be a Communist — All you have to do is say, ‘I’ll give you everything,’ but that means you’re taking it away from others that have earned it,” Trump added. “Over thousands of years, that Ideology has not worked once. The game is on. Enjoy watching!”