Iran’s largest mobile operator and digital company, MTN Irancell, maintains roaming agreements, submarine cable links and SS7 signalling connections with every major Gulf telecommunications carrier hosting a US military base. Its majority owner, IEI, manufactures the missile guidance systems that struck those bases on 28 February 2026. This is the architecture of cyber-enabled kinetic targeting — and the listed MTN Group sits at its centre. On 28 February 2026, Iran launched retaliatory missile and drone strikes against the headquarters of the US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain, Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, Ali Al-Salem Air Base in Kuwait, military installations…

US President Donald Trump has said the country’s navy will protect ships in the Middle East “if necessary” in a bid to stop the energy supply crunch sparked by the US-Israel war with Iran. A fifth of the world’s oil and gas flows through the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway wedged between Iran and the United Arab Emirates, but traffic has almost entirely halted following Iran’s threats to “set fire” to ships. President Trump made the announcement as it emerged that the US was also planning to arm Kurdish militias in a bid to create a popular armed uprising…

By Sean Rayment Donald Trump has refused to rule out sending American troops into Iran after launching a massive bombing campaign that the president says could last several weeks. The president said in an interview with the New York Post that he did not have the “yips” when it comes to sending Americans to war. “I don’t have the yips with respect to boots on the ground — like every president says, ‘There will be no boots on the ground,’” he said. “I don’t say it. I say, ‘Probably don’t need them,’ [or] ‘if they were necessary.’” Defence Secretary Pete…

By Isabella Egerton Israel has confirmed the first operational use of its high-energy laser air defence system to intercept rockets launched from Lebanon, signalling a new era in modern air defence. Footage released by the IDF shows the system, widely known as Iron Beam and officially named Or Eitan (“Eitan’s Light”), destroying rockets fired towards northern Israel. The interceptions came after rockets were launched from Lebanon into northern Israel, as regional tensions escalated following Israeli and US strikes on Iranian targets. The laser system supplements Israel’s existing Iron Dome network. Unlike Iron Dome, which relies on Tamir interceptor missiles, Iron Beam uses a concentrated…

The death Ayatollah Ali Khamenei following joint US-Israeli airstrikes has thrust Iran political and religious hierarchy into the process of selecting a new supreme leader.Under Iran’s constitution, the supreme leader is appointed by the Assembly of Experts, an 88-member clerical body elected by the public every eight years.Candidates for the Assembly are first vetted by the Guardian Council, tightly controlling who can run.When the position becomes vacant, the Assembly convenes to deliberate and select a successor.The decision requires a simple majority vote.In the interim, a provisional three-member leadership council assumes the supreme leader’s duties until a replacement is formally appointed.It…

By Staff Writer The killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader and Minister of Defence decapitates the ownership chain of Iran’s largest digital company, co-owned by the MTN Group and now operated by an IRGC veteran as a wartime weapons platform. Israeli strikes on Tehran on Saturday killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Defence Minister Amir Nasirzadeh, according to Israeli officials briefed on the operation and confirmed by multiple Western intelligence sources. The significance of these deaths for the future of the Iranian state will be analysed extensively in the days ahead. But there is a corporate dimension to the killings that has received almost no…

By Staff Writer The regime’s second total communications shutdown in eight weeks is now operated by a terrorist veteran — installed after his predecessor was fired for not cutting the network fast enough. Iran’s internet connectivity collapsed to approximately four per cent of normal levels on Saturday morning as US and Israeli forces struck targets across Tehran, including the Office of the Supreme Leader, the Ministry of Intelligence and the Ministry of Defence. NetBlocks confirmed a near-total shutdown of internet, mobile and SMS services nationwide. At the operational centre of the blackout sits MTN-Irancell, Iran’s largest mobile network with more…

The United States and Israel have launched a pre-emptive air campaign against Iran striking targets across the country in what the US President said was a “massive and ongoing operation”.President Donald Trump said the bombing attacks were aimed at destroying Iran’s military and nuclear capabilities, thwarting Tehran’s support to proxies and the destruction of its theocratic government.The operation called “Epic Fury” is expected to last several days with multiple military, nuclear and political institutions being targeted.The attacks spurred a furious Iranian retaliation, with multiple barrages striking Israel, Bahrain, Dubai, Qatar and Jordan.The attacks began with Israeli strikes Saturday morning, a…

By Ben Farmer Ethiopia, Eritrea and Tigray are once again massing forces on the Horn of Africa, raising fears that one of the bloodiest African wars of recent years could resume. Diplomats have warned that Ethiopian federal and Tigrayan troops have deployed in strength along the border of the country’s northern Tigray region. The Tigray civil war is estimated to have killed around 600,000 people between 2020 and 2022, when Ethiopian troops, backed by local militias and the Eritrean army, fought rebels from the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). Ethiopia and Eritrea emerged victorious, but the peace deal has not…

By Sean Rayment Royal Navy submarine HMS Anson arrived in Western Australia today, marking a major milestone in the AUKUS partnership, which supports security and stability in the Indo-Pacific and Euro-Atlantic and delivers good jobs and growth in the UK, Australia and the US. AUKUS is the trilateral security partnership between Australia, the UK and the United States to build new attack submarines and develop advanced military technology that will help protect all three nations, drive growth and support security in a new era of threat. In a significant step for the AUKUS programme, Australian personnel will work alongside UK engineers to…

By Sean Rayment Russia is losing more troops than the country’s armed forces can recruit for the first time since the Kremlin ordered the invasion of Ukraine. The Russian army has been sustaining almost 40,000 casualties a month since November, while recruiting up to 35,000 troops to sustain the invasion, Western officials said. Ukraine’s intense counter-attacks have pushed Russia’s casualties to more than 1.25 million since the war began four years ago. The figure is also higher than the total sustained by the United States during the Second World War. Al Carns, the UK’s Armed Forces minister, said Russia’s effort…

By Andre Pienaar Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, the shadowy former police officer who built the Jalisco New Generation Cartel into one of the most violent and far-reaching criminal enterprises in history, is dead. The Mexican Army confirmed on Sunday that “El Mencho” was fatally wounded during a special forces operation in the mountain town of Tapalpa, Jalisco, and died while being airlifted to Mexico City. The operation, supported by US intelligence channelled through the newly established Joint Interagency Task Force-Counter Cartel, represents the most consequential blow against Mexican organised crime since the arrest of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán a decade ago.…