Trump Says Deadline To Open Strait Is Evening Of April 7 EDT

RFE
05 Apr 2026, 12:30 GMT+10

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20:55

Middle East War Casualty Lists Updated

The French AFP news agency has compiled a list of casualties reported in countries around the Middle East linked to the US-Israeli war with Iran.

AFP said it has not been able to independently verify all of the tolls, which are based on numbers released by governments, militaries, health authorities, and rescue organizations.

IRAN

Iran's government has not released an updated overall casualty toll in recent days.

The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) on April 4 said at least 3,540 people had been killed, including 1,616 civilians -- including at least 244 children -- 1,213 military personnel, and 711 people whose status had not been classified.

Due to reporting restrictions, it is not possible to independently verify tolls in Iran.

LEBANON

Lebanon's Health Ministry on April 5 said 1,461 people had been killed and 4,430 wounded since the start of the war -- 1,235 men, 97 women, and 129 children.

A ball of fire rises from the site of an Israeli strike that targeted a building near Beirut's international airport on March 31.

The UN force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has said three of its peacekeepers have been killed.

The Lebanese army said 10 of its soldiers had been killed.

Hezbollah has not announced its losses.

ISRAEL

Israeli emergency services and authorities say attacks have killed a total of 19 civilians since the start of the war.

The Israeli military has separately announced the deaths of 11 soldiers in combat in southern Lebanon.

WEST BANK

The Palestinian Health Ministry in Ramallah said four women were killed by Iranian missile fire in the occupied West Bank.

IRAQ

Armed groups and officials have said at least 108 people have been killed in Iraq since the start of the war.

France said an Iranian drone killed a French soldier in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region.

The US military said a refueling aircraft crashed in western Iraq, killing all six crew members, in an incident not caused by hostile or friendly fire.

Pro-Iran armed factions and security sources claim 74 Iran-backed fighters have been killed in strikes they blame on Israel and the United States.

The Iraq government has said 10 members of the security services have been killed.

Authorities in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region said a missile attack killed six fighters and accused Iran of launching the strike.

GULF

Authorities in Gulf states and the US Central Command (CENTCOM) have reported a total of 41 people killed -- 22 of them civilians -- since the start of the Iranian attacks.

The rest were military or security personnel, including seven US service members.

The breakdown:

Kuwait's military and Health Ministry have reported seven deaths: two soldiers, two border guards and three civilians, one of them an 11-year-old girl.

The United Arab Emirates reported 12 deaths: nine civilians and two military personnel who died as a result of a helicopter crash blamed on a technical malfunction.

Saudi Arabia's civil defense agency has reported two civilian deaths.

Bahrain reported two civilian deaths. The UAE defense ministry separately said a Moroccan contractor for the Emirati military was killed during an Iranian attack in Bahrain.

Oman reported the death of a mariner at sea and two other people in a drone attack on an industrial area.

Qatar said four servicemen and three Turkish nationals -- including one serviceman and two civilians -- were killed in a helicopter crash in Qatar's territorial waters.

US Casualties

In addition to the deaths of seven military personnel in the Gulf and six in Iraq, theUS military has recordedmore than 300 wounded in its ranks, most of them slightly injured.

A US official told AFP that 10 remain seriously wounded in seven different countries.

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18:44

Trump Says Deadline To Open Strait Is Evening Of April 7

US President Donald Trump told The Wall Street Journal that his deadline for Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face attacks on critical infrastructure is the evening of April 7.

"If they dont do something by Tuesday evening, they wont have any power plants and they wont have any bridges standing, Trump told the WSJ in an interview conducted on April 5.

If they dont come through, if they want to keep [the strait] closed, theyre going to lose every power plant and every other plant they have in the whole country, Trump was quoted by thenewspaperas saying.

US President Donald Trump: "Theyre going to lose every power plant and every other plant they have" if the Strait of Hormuz is not reopened.

In a crypticsocial media postafter the WSJ interview, Trump wrote only: "Tuesday, 8:00 P.M. Eastern Time!"

In a social media post earlier on Sunday, Trump had said Iran would face infrastructure attacks if it did not open the strait by April 7.

"Tuesday [April 7] will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the F****** Strait, you crazy bastards, or youll be living in Hell - JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah. President DONALD J. TRUMP," hewrote in a poston his Truth Social platform.

Trump also said that he plans to hold a news conference on April 6 at 1 p.m.

He has set several deadlines in the past and often has extended the deadlines, saying that negotiations were making progress.

Asked when he believed the war would end, Trump told the WSJ: I will let you know pretty soon.

But we are in a position thats very strong, and that country will take 20 years to rebuild, if theyre lucky, if they have a country, he said. And if they dont do something by Tuesday evening, they wont have any power plants and they wont have any bridges standing.

Trump has been making multiple social media posts and media interviews following the rescue of the second crew member rescued after the two-seat F-15E jet fighter was shot down in Iran. The jet's pilot was rescued shortly after the plane went down on April 3.

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17:07

Trump Ramps Up Threat To Iran After Announcing Rescue Of Missing F-15 Crew Member

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RFE/RL

US President Donald Trump (file photo)

US President Donald Trump repeated his threat to strike Iranian infrastructure hard if Tehran it does not open the Strait of Hormuz by April 6, using explosive language hours after announcing that US forces rescued the second crew member of a downed F-15 fighter jet in a high-risk mission.

Shortly thereafter, though, Trump told Fox News that Tehran "is negotiating now" and that he believes there's a "good chance" of reaching a deal by April 6.

Israel Targets 'Hezbollah Infrastructure,' Strikes Hit Beirut And Southern Lebanon

Smoke rises from Beirut's southern suburbs following an apparent Israeli strike on April 5.

Israeli air strikes hit Beirut and southern Lebanon on April 5, killing at least four people in the capital and several others in the south, according to Lebanese authorities and state media.

A strike in Beiruts Jnah district, near Rafik Hariri University Hospital, killed four people and wounded dozens, the Lebanese Health Ministry said, while witnesses reported heavy bombardment in the southern suburbs. Israels military said it had begun striking Hezbollah infrastructure sites.

In southern Lebanon, at least seven people were killed in Kfar Hatta, including a displaced family of six, the Health Ministry and civil defense sources told the AFP news agency, with three other deaths reported in another air strike, according to state media.

Israel also threatened to target the Masnaa border crossing with Syria, prompting its closure. A Syrian official said the crossing was exclusively for civilian use and is not used for any military purposes.

Hezbollah said it fired a cruise missile at an Israeli warship, though Israel said it was not aware of such an incident.

With reporting by AFP and dpa

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16:12

Trump Says Deal Possible In Next Day, Reiterates Threat To Blow Up 'Everything'

US President Donald Trump says that Iran "is negotiating now" and that he believes there's a "good chance" of reaching a deal in the next day, hours after he renewed his vow to put Iran into living "hell" with massive US air strikes.

In an interview with Fox News on April 5, Trump also suggested that, along with further US air strikes, he could take Iran's oil if the regime is unwilling to make a deal.

"I think there is a good chance tomorrow [April 6]. They are negotiating now," Trump said.

"If they don't make a deal and fast, I'm considering blowing everything up and taking over the oil," he added.

Trump said that the Iranian negotiators currently in talks had been granted limited immunity.

The remarks came as Trump announced that US forces had rescued the second crew member of a downed F-15 fighter jet in a high-risk mission.

In aTruth Social postearlier on April 5, Trump again demanded that Iran open the crucial Strait of Hormuz to shipping as an energy crisis deepened and fuel prices continued to soar because of the bottleneck created in the waterway.

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15:14

Trump Warns Iran Over Strait Of Hormuz, Threatens Power Plants And Bridges

US President Donald Trump (file photo)

US President Donald Trump hasissued a stark warningto Iran over the Strait of Hormuz.

In a social media post on April 5, he suggested that the United States would launch an extensive attack on Iranian energy and transport infrastructure on April 7 if the crucial waterway was not reopened.

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14:33

US President Donald Trump has said in a Truth Socialpostthat Iranian forces were getting close to finding the downed US airman before he was rescued, adding further details to the operation he had announced earlier. He also said he would be holding a news conference with military officials at the Oval Office on April 6.

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14:11

Israeli Strikes Reported In Lebanon

Rescuers work at the site of a reported Israeli strike in Beirut's Jnah area on April 5.

Israeli strikes hit Lebanon on April 5, including an attack in south Beirut near Rafik Hariri University Hospital, the countrys largest public medical facility, Lebanese state media reported.

A medical source told the AFP news agency that the strike landed about 100 meters from the hospital in the Jnah area.

The Israeli military had earlier said it had begun targeting Hezbollah infrastructure sites in the Lebanese capital.

Elsewhere, a Lebanese soldier was killed in southern Lebanon, the Lebanese Army said.

In Kfar Hatta, an Israeli strike reportedly killed seven people, including a displaced family of six, according to civil defense sources.

Israel had earlier issued evacuation warnings.

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13:07

Iran's Digital Shutdown Is The Longest On Record, Says Web Monitor

Meanwhile, Iran's ongoing digital blackout is "now the longest nation-scale internet shutdown on record," according to the NetBlocks web-outage monitor,

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12:54

Reports: At Least 5 Killed In US-Israeli Attacks Amid Pilot Rescue Operation

At least five people were reported killed in US-Israeli attacks in Iran during operations to rescue a crew member from a downed F-15 fighter jet, according to Iranian media.

The Tasnim News Agency, which is affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), quoted a local governor as saying five people were killed in the Black Mountain area of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province.

Separately, Irans IRNA state news agency said five IRGC fighters were killed in strikes in the Moghan Plain in the northwest.

The claims could not be independently verified. US President Donald Trump said both crew members of the F-15 plane had been rescued and no Americans were injured.