Tuesday, March 24, 2026
Six injured in Tel Aviv after Iran missile alert
At least six people were "lightly injured" after Iranian missile strikes, with authorities reporting four impact sites in Israel's commercial hub, Tel Aviv, the country's Magen David Adom emergency medical service announced on Tuesday.
Three adjacent buildings were severely damaged by an Iranian warhead that struck the city, according to Home Front Command officer Colonel Miki David.
Earlier, the IDF warned of incoming missile fire from Iran, targeting central Israel, which activated sirens in the area.
https://breakingthenews.net/Article/Six-injured-in-Tel-Aviv-after-Iran-missile-alert/65934706
Iran says gas facilities, pipeline targeted
Israeli-US strikes targeted two gas facilities and a pipeline in Iran just hours after US President Donald Trump withdrew his threat to attack energy infrastructure, Iranian media reported on Tuesday.
"As part of the ongoing attacks carried out by the Zionist and American enemy, the gas administration building and the gas pressure regulation station on Kaveh Street in Isfahan were targeted," Fars news agency added while saying that the facilities in central Iran were "partially damaged."
According to the outlet, which quoted the governor of the city, a "projectile" also struck the gas pipeline of the Khorramshahr power plant in the southwest of the nation.
https://breakingthenews.net/Article/Iran-says-gas-facilities-pipeline-targeted/65935255
Fees to Ship Saudi Crude From Yanbu Ease as More Tankers Arrive
Rates charged by shipowners to ferry Saudi crude from the Red Sea to Asia have plummeted in the last weeks, as more tankers arrive at the port of Yanbu to haul flows diverted by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
The narrow waterway connecting the Persian Gulf with the rest of the world has been all but closed since US and Israeli strikes began almost a month ago, forcing Saudi Arabia to turn to its Red Sea export hub for some relief. The urgent need for oil and for tankers pushed up freight prices dramatically in the first weeks and prompted a flotilla of tankers to head to Yanbu — but as more make their way, that is now easing.
China Container 1st To Pay Iran For "Safe Passage" in Hormuz; Iraq Tanker Crosses With Signal Off
The blockaded Strait of Hormuz is getting progressively less "blockaded" by the day.
Over the weekend we reported that "Iran was Ready To Let Japanese Ships Use Hormuz As Chinese, Indian Tankers Already Allowed Passage." We can now add Iraq to the growing list of nations whose vessels are transiting the infamous Strait.
An oil supertanker hauling two-million barrels of Iraq’s crude got through the Strait of Hormuz, the first vessel observed moving Baghdad’s barrels through the the vital waterway - according to Bloomberg - since it all but closed to commercial shipping because of the Iran war.
The Omega Trader, managed by Japan’s Mitsui OSK Lines Ltd, signaled over the past few days that it reached Mumbai. Its prior signal before reaching the Indian port city had been from inside the Persian Gulf more than ten days ago, suggesting the tanker had shut off its tracking beacon while making the transit.
While only a few tankers have gone through since the conflict began, the transits help to alleviate what the International Energy Agency describes as the biggest supply disruption in the history of the oil market.
Many of the ships that have managed to get through Hormuz have discharged in India (the rest have proceeded onward to Singapore and "friendly" China). The nation’s government has engaged with Iranian officials to seek passage for vessels due to haul energy to the country, and one liquefied petroleum gas vessel was guided through Hormuz by the Iranian navy.
The ship’s technical manager is Mitsui OSK, according to data on the Equasis maritime database. The company didn’t respond to a request for comment outside of normal business hours.
Meanwhile, in a first for the Strait's new role as Iran's (temporary), toll road a Chinese-owned feeder containership has become the first vessel with confirmed mainland Chinese ownership to pay Iran for passage through the Strait of Hormuz, transiting via a so-called “safe” shipping corridor near Tehran’s Larak Island, Lloyd's List reported.
As previously reported, multiple oil tankers and containerships have made a break from the Persian Gulf in recent days. The Al Ruwais loaded naphtha from the UAE in early March and is now heading to Asia, while the Abu Dhabi-III is expected to arrive in India’s Vadinar port on Monday after also loading fuel at Ruwais. Given that a lot of ships go through with their signals off, it’s possible that other tankers will pop up having already left the Persian Gulf.
Russia-Linked Arms Trafficker, African Officials Tried To Supply Mexican Cartel Surface-To-Air Missiles
by The Bureau's Sam Cooper (emphasis our own),
Federal prosecutors in Virginia have charged four men — a Bulgarian arms trafficker with ties to the notorious Russian weapons dealer Viktor Bout, and several African co-conspirators with connections to the governments of Uganda and Tanzania — with conspiring to supply the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generación with a $58 million military arsenal that included rocket launchers, surface-to-air missiles, anti-aircraft drones, and high-powered explosives the brokers boasted could bring down helicopters.
The international arms trafficking conspiracy deepens an already troubling portrait of the military reach and intelligence ties of the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generación. Court documents unsealed by the Department of Justice, in an investigation first reported by The Bureau, revealed that Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security publicly issued threats directing the cartel to execute Goldie Ghamari — a prominent Iranian-Canadian activist and former Ontario politician — at her Ottawa home, offering a $250,000 bounty. The arms case suggests that the cartel Iran chose as its instrument of political assassination was simultaneously seeking the weapons inventory of a mid-tier military force.
The investigation was carried out by the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Special Operations Division — an elite, little-known counternarcotics unit that deploys high-grade intelligence tradecraft and has built its reputation targeting criminals of international reach, including those with connections to senior officials in hostile and corrupt states.
The April 2025 indictment, unsealed this month, identifies Peter Dimitrov Mirchev as the network’s central architect — a Bulgaria-based international arms trafficker the grand jury describes as having engaged in weapons trafficking for approximately 25 years. Court records note that Mirchev was previously implicated in supplying arms to Bout, the Russian weapons trafficker convicted in a New York federal court of conspiring to kill United States nationals, and conspiring to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization.
Scott McGregor, a Canadian former military intelligence and federal police adviser, pointed to the case’s geographic sprawl as evidence of something beyond a conventional cartel prosecution.
“Not just a Mexico story. Not just a U.S. case,” McGregor wrote. “This DOJ case runs thru Bulgaria, Spain, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Morocco, and Ghana, tied to an effort to arm the CJNG with military grade weapons. That is the anatomy of a transnational threat network.”
Arms transactions of this scale require End-User Certificates and Delivery Verification Protocols — import-export documentation that tracks military hardware from manufacturer to declared recipient, and that exists specifically to prevent transnational criminal organizations from acquiring weapons through legitimate channels.
According to the indictment, Mirchev recruited Kenyan national Elisha Odhiambo Asumo — described by prosecutors as a longstanding associate who sources arms certifications from various African countries “through bribery” — to obtain fraudulent documentation that would falsely identify the Tanzanian military as the weapons’ end-user.
Asumo in turn recruited Michael Katungi Mpeirwe, a Ugandan national described in the filing as a Policy Advisor employed by the Government of Uganda and as a security logistics officer associated with the African Union Commission. Mpeirwe recruited Tanzanian national Subiro Osmund Mwapinga.
Together, the three men obtained an arms certificate bearing the seal of Tanzania’s Ministry of Defence and National Services, certifying that 50 AK-47 automatic assault rifles were destined “for the Sole use of” the Tanzanian military.
At meetings in Cape Town, according to the indictment, Asumo and Mwapinga described their work openly — they had been constructing a “paper trail,” designed to conceal that the weapons were intended for Mexican drug traffickers. In July 2024, Mirchev and others exported the 50 rifles and accompanying magazines and ammunition from Bulgaria. After the shipment was seized, Asumo obtained a false Delivery Verification Protocol purportedly signed by Tanzania’s Permanent Secretary for Defence, confirming the Tanzanian military had received the weapons — even though it had not.
In April 2024, Mpeirwe attended a meeting in London where he offered to obtain additional firearms for the cartel through a planned arms deal between the governments of Russia and Uganda, explaining that his government connections across Africa would allow him to easily procure End-User Certificates for future transactions in exchange for a two percent commission.
The test shipment, prosecutors allege, was only the beginning.
By October 2024, Mirchev was in discussions about supplying the cartel with surface-to-air missiles, anti-aircraft drones, and the ZU-23 anti-aircraft weapon system — a Soviet-era gun platform capable of firing 23x152mm high-explosive rounds.
Mirchev described the ZU-23 as able to “automatically” track targets, firing rounds that “could put down helicopters.”
These discussions led to the procurement list totaling approximately 53.7 million euros: 2,000 modernized Kalashnikov assault rifles, 68 rocket-propelled grenade launchers, 60 PKM machine guns, multiple grenade launcher systems, sniper rifles, night vision equipment, anti-drone systems, drones with multi-spectrum cameras, armored vehicles, and tens of millions of rounds of ammunition across multiple calibers.
The scale of the procurement — a combined-arms package of the kind assembled by small national militaries — offers a measure of why the United States government has come to regard the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generación as an acute national security threat, not merely a criminal one.
According to the indictment, the cartel is one of Mexico’s most violent and prolific transnational criminal organizations, formed around 2011 and now operating across South and Central America, Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa, and throughout the United States.
Its primary criminal activity is the trafficking of cocaine, fentanyl, and methamphetamine, financed by billions of dollars in drug proceeds. The cartel uses violence against journalists, local communities, rival organizations, and government officials — attacks on military convoys and helicopters, assassinations and attempted assassinations — violence the indictment states is made possible in part by the illegal transfer of military-grade weaponry to transnational criminal organizations.
On February 20, 2025, the United States Secretary of State designated the cartel a Foreign Terrorist Organization and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist — a designation that triggers the indictment’s third count, conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, which carries a mandatory minimum of ten years and up to life in prison.
The case is being prosecuted as part of Operation Take Back America. Mirchev was extradited from Spain. Asumo was extradited from Morocco. Mwapinga was extradited from Ghana. Mpeirwe remains at large.
'Khamenei said to back US deal if terms are met'
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told United States Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei give him his "consent and blessing" to agree to a deal with Washington if Tehran's conditions on its nuclear status are met, Ynet reported on Tuesday.
According to people familiar with the matter, the message was conveyed during Araghchi's recent secret exchange with Witkoff and US President Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Previously, Araghchi claimed that his last contact with Witkoff was before the US and Israel launched a military campaign against Iran.
The report came after Trump announced his decision to delay airstrikes on Iranian power plants for five days amid recent "productive conversations" between the two sides about a ceasefire and deal. Meanwhile, it was alleged that Egypt, Pakistan, and Turkey will mediate the new round of negotiations between Washington and Tehran
https://breakingthenews.net/Article/Khamenei-said-to-back-US-deal-if-terms-are-met/65934856