Here's the latest
• NATO-style pact: Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan signed a mutual defense pact that stipulates an attack against any one of them “shall be regarded as an attack against them all.” A senior Iranian official warned the pact will not guarantee Saudi Arabia’s security.
• Regional strikes: Iranian-backed proxies have been targeting Saudi Arabia, expanding the sprawling conflict. The Houthis targeted a Saudi base in Yemen and Najran, a Saudi region near the border. Separately, Iranian-backed militias in Iraq postponed retaliatory attacks for deadly US-Saudi strikes on the country.
• US dilemma: US sources told CNN that the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. Dan Caine, has privately made clear that the US needs to find an off-ramp from the war with Iran — because the military options on the table to escalate the conflict could backfire.
Iran displays wreckage of downed US and Israeli aircraft
Iran is showing off some of the US and Israeli aircraft it has brought down during the almost six-month war in the Persian Gulf.
State-run Press TV posted images on social media Friday of the remnants of a US Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jet, several drones and what appear to be the engines of an MC-130J Commando special operations aircraft.
The F-15 and MC-130 wreckage are likely from the only incident where those two types of aircraft were lost in Iran. On April 3, an F-15 was hit by anti-aircraft fire and its crew of two ejected.
Both service members were eventually recovered by US Special Operations forces — but during the rescue operation, two of the four-engine MC-130s got stuck on a makeshift desert airstrip and had to be destroyed.
As for the drone wreckage on display, reports say the US lost a number of the unmanned aircraft during the war, but the Pentagon has not confirmed any specifics.
The reports from Press TV did not include the location of where wreckage is displayed, but it appears to be in a large underground bunker.
Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey sign NATO-style defense pact. Here's where things stand
Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey signed a mutual defense agreement on Friday, as Riyadh faces escalating attacks from Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels in recent days.
The agreement, signed in Mecca, sees Saudi Arabia draw two of the Muslim world’s most formidable military powers to its defense, transforming their longstanding security ties into a collective-defense alliance. The pact stipulates that it would treat an attack on any of the countries as an attack on all — similar to NATO’s Article 5 principle.
It comes as the Houthis on Friday carried out an attack on Saudi forces at a base in eastern Yemen, according to the group’s spokesperson.
Meanwhile, US sources told CNN that the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. Dan Caine, has privately made clear that the US needs to find an off-ramp from the war with Iran — because the military options on the table to escalate the conflict could backfire.
Catch up on the day’s biggest developments here:
In Yemen:
- Escalating Houthi attacks: The group claimed responsibility for strikes in Yemen’s eastern Marib province. Earlier, Health Minister Qasim Buhaibeh said the shelling had killed at least two civilians and injured 14 others. In a separate attack the previous day, the group claimed responsibility for a “large-scale” operation on government military camps in two eastern provinces, reportedly killing 30 troops.
In Iraq:
- Iraqi militias postpone attacks: Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Faleh al-Zaidi met with Saudi Arabia’s intelligence chief Khalid bin Ali al-Humaidan on Friday to discuss security coordination and information sharing. Meanwhile, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a coalition of pro-Iran militias, delayed retaliatory attacks for deadly US-Saudi strikes on the country due to what it said was “honorable positions taken by some honorable political leaders.” On Thursday, a Saudi official told CNN that the kingdom was bracing for “multiple coordinated attacks” by Houthis and Iraqi militia.
In Iran:
- Warning over defense pact: Saudi Arabia’s mutual defense pact will not guarantee the kingdom’s security, a senior Iranian official warned. “The Saudis should understand that a paper agreement with Turkey and Pakistan will not bring them security, just as decades of one-sided dependence on the Americans failed to do so,” Ebrahim Rezaei, a member of the Iranian parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, said on X.
- Strait of Hormuz: Iranian lawmakers are waiting for “final approval” on a proposed framework agreement with Oman for shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, according to Iran’s state media. Iranian and Omani shipping routes through the waterway will remain in temporary use under an emerging agreement between the two countries before being replaced by a central course, Iran’s semi-official Fars News Agency reported on Friday.
CNN’s Abbas Al Lawati, Eyad Kourdi, Mitchell McCluskey, Aida Karimi, Sana Noor Haq and Issy Ronald contributed reporting to this post.
Why is there fighting in Yemen?
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels claimed heavy strikes on government military camps in two eastern provinces this week, reportedly killing 30 troops.
The Houthis declared a “large scale” operation on Thursday with ballistic missiles and drones in several areas of Yemen, citing Saudi military buildups “aimed at escalating the aggression” in areas under their control. The group offered no evidence, but Reuters said at least 30 Yemeni government troops were killed by Houthi salvoes in Marib and Hadhramawt, citing government sources.
The latest attacks marked a spike in hostilities between the Houthis and the Saudi-backed, internationally recognized central government established in 2022 to unify fragmented factions against them.
The Houthis have been at war with a Saudi-led military alliance in Yemen since 2014.
Here’s what you need to know about the fighting in Yemen:
The civil war
In 2014, the Houthis stormed the north of the country and took over the capital, Sana’a. Saudi Arabia and the UAE intervened the following year, propping up the local government and militias under a unified vision of destroying the Houthis over years of civil war.
The Houthis gained momentum at home under Iran’s “Axis of Resistance,” receiving weapons and missile technology following the Arab Spring and evolving from an armed group in the 1990s into a fully fledged, Tehran-backed player.
A shaky truce
The Saudi-led military alliance and the Houthis agreed to a truce in 2022. However, rivalries then opened up between Yemeni factions, giving way to multiple spheres of influence and handing Iran expanded leverage on the southern flank of the Arabian Peninsula.
At the same time, Saudi Arabia held an economic and air blockade on Houthi-controlled swathes of Yemen, which the group has tried to break in recent weeks.
What now?
Yemen has been marked by years of internal divisions driven by ideological differences. Recurring violence has condemned millions of people to mass displacement, political instability and hunger, according to the UN.
Last month, the agency warned food insecurity was approaching “catastrophic levels,” even before the latest resurgence in violence linked to the ongoing conflict in Iran.
CNN’s Tim Lister and Nic Robertson contributed reporting.
