LIVE: Iran claims second US F-35 fighter jet shot down over Tehran

Here are the latest developments from Middle East on the 35th day of the US-Israel war with Iran:

• Iran has launched new attacks on Gulf energy sites with strikes on a desalination plant and oil refinery in Kuwait as well as a gas complex in Abu Dhabi
• Iran has claimed it has shot down a second US F-35 fighter jet forcing it to crash
• Donald Trump has said Iran’s electric power plants will be targeted after he boasted about a strike on the country’s tallest bridge
• Multiple fires have broken out at a Kuwaiti oil refinery after a drone attack
• Israel’s military has said cars, houses and a train station have been damaged in the latest missile salvo from Iran
• A French owned container ship sails through Strait of Hormuz in the first known transit linked to Western Europe
• Australians are cancelling their Easter holidays because of rising fears of fuel supplies in the country
• Pakistan has hiked petrol prices by more than 50 per cent – the second increase to costs in a month

Stick with us for the latest developments throughout the day.

The Iranian military has claimed two US fighter jets have been downed including a F-35 over central Iran.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the feared military arm of the Iranian regime, said the F-35 was shot down by its air defences with the pilot unlikely to survive as a result, according to a statement carried by Mehr news agency.

Iran said it also attacked an ‘enemy’ fighter jet over Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz but US military refuted the ‘false claim’ which it said had been made ‘at least half a dozen times’.

Last night Donald Trump boasted about an attack on Iran’s tallest bridge yesterday and warned power plants will become the next targets as the US steps up its attacks.

The US military ‘hasn’t even started destroying what’s left in Iran. Bridges next, then ​Electric Power Plants,’ Trump wrote on social media.

Stick with us for the latest developments across the Middle East.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has stressed his country can help unblock the Strait of Hormuz amid fears of a global energy crisis.

Iran has placed a stranglehold on the key shipping lane – threatening fuel supplies and roiling the world economy – in retaliation for US-Israeli strikes that triggered the Middle East war.

‘No one has involved us specifically in the issue of the Strait of Hormuz. During my visits, I told representatives of the Middle East and Gulf countries: Ukraine is ready to help with everything related to defence,’ Zelensky said.

He made the remarks while speaking to journalists, including the AFP news agency.

He did not specify how Ukraine could contribute, but cited Kyiv’s experience in restoring passage through the Black Sea, which Russia had blocked at the beginning of its invasion of Ukraine.

The Thai-flagged cargo ship Mayuree Naree was attacked last month

Human remains have been found aboard a cargo ship struck by Iran while transiting the Strait of Hormuz last month, the vessel’s owner has said.

Three crew members of the Thai-flagged Mayuree Naree were reported missing following the attack on March 11.

The ship was struck while travelling through the strait after departing Khalifa port in the UAE.

‘Certain human remains were found within the affected area of the vessel,’ a statement from transport company Precious Shipping said, adding it could not yet confirm the identities or the number of individuals.

Twenty Thai crew members returned home in mid-March, while three of their colleagues were missing and presumed trapped in the damaged engine compartment.

This is the moment captured a selfie with a tail section of an Iranian ballistic missile that became stuck in the ground.

The man took the picture earlier today near a cowshed in a Jewish settlement in the northern Jordan Valley, West Bank.

Israel’s emergency services say one man has been injured after a cluster munition from an Iranian ballistic missile struck a home in Kiryat Ata, near Haifa.

Magen David Adom says that a 79-year-old man was wounded after he was struck by stone debris caused by the shockwave of the impact.

Several cluster munition impacts have been reported in and around Haifa following Iran’s latest missile barrage.

Israeli authorities say damage was caused to roads and cars.

On Monday an Indian worker was killed at a power and water desalination plant in Kuwait following an attack which was widely condemned across the Gulf.

‘A service building at a power and water desalination plant was attacked as part of the Iranian aggression against the State of Kuwait, resulting in the death of an Indian worker and significant material damage to the building,’ Kuwait’s Ministry of Electricity said in a statement on Monday.

Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Oman all condemned the attack on the plant which produces fresh drinking water for people across Kuwait.

Iran later claimed Israel was behind the attack.

by Patrick Harrington, UK News Reporter

Iran still has half its missile launchers intact and an arsenal of thousands of drones, US intelligence sources have claimed.

The regime remains capable of ‘wreaking absolute havoc’ in the Middle East, they warned, despite weeks of US-Israeli bombardment against its assets.

Three well-placed sources told CNN that the latest American intelligence assessments indicate Iran retains significant firepower.

The estimates may include launchers that are inaccessible, such as those that have been buried by strikes, but not destroyed.

Iran still has access to roughly half of its original drone stock, two of the sources suggested, which would number well into the thousands.

Iran should make a deal with the US to end the war by offering to curb its nuclear programme and reopen the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for sanctions relief, a former Iranian foreign minister said.

Mohammad Javad Zarif, who served as foreign minister from 2013-2021, claimed in an op-ed for American journal Foreign Affairs that Tehran had the ‘upper hand’ in the conflict against the US and Israel, but argued Iran needed to stop the war to prevent the loss of more civilian lives and damage to infrastructure.

‘Iran should use its upper hand not to keep fighting but to declare victory and make a deal that both ends this conflict and prevents the next one,’ Zarif said in the piece published late Thursday.

‘It should offer to place limits on its nuclear program and to reopen the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for an end to all sanctions – a deal Washington wouldn’t take before but might accept now,’ he added.

Authorities in Abu Dhabi have announced operations have been halted at its Habshan gas facilities.

The Abu Dhabi Media Office said work to export gas has been temporarily suspended at the site following drone and missile threats.

It said in a X post: ‘Abu Dhabi authorities are responding to an incident of falling debris at the Habshan gas facilities, following successful interception by air defence systems.

‘Operations have been suspended while authorities respond to a fire. No injuries have been reported. The public is advised to obtain information only from official sources and to avoid spreading rumours or unverified information.

The Habshan Complex was forced to previously suspend operations on March 19 after being struck by debris following an interception. The facility is a major gas producer in the UAE, processing roughly around 60 per cent of the country’s domestic gas.

by Richard Shirreff

Donald Trump’s bizarre speech to the American people in the early hours of yesterday revealed what a terrible mess he has backed himself into with this war – and how difficult it will now be to get out of it.

At one moment the President was threatening to bomb Iran ‘back to the Stone Age’ while in the next he was claiming the gallant US military had already won.

Meanwhile Tehran has closed the Strait of Hormuz, cutting off much of the world’s oil supply, with governments from Europe to Asia and beyond facing a forthcoming crisis likely to dwarf the crippling oil shocks of the 1970s.

Yes, the American military performance has been outstanding, with 11,000 targets struck, the enemy leadership decimated and its navy destroyed. But there has been no regime change in Tehran, and the mullahs keep fighting.

Yet, that may soon change, as Trump has in recent history reserved his boldest military actions for the weekend. This is when the markets are closed and stock prices at their least volatile. It was in the early hours of a Saturday that the president began his assault on Tehran that killed Ayatollah Khamenei, as was his capture of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro. To that end, as the three-day Easter break begins, some experts are predicting a similarly bold strike.

Kuwait said an Iranian attack hit a power and water desalination plant today causing damage to parts of the facility.

The Ministry of Electricity, Water and Renewable Energy said emergency and technical teams were responding under contingency plans to maintain operations and secure the site.