CAIRO (AP) — Iran said Sunday it struck an unmanned U.S. vessel trying to enter the Strait of Hormuz, the latest salvo in a new flare-up of fighting between the two countries.
The U.S. did not immediately confirm the purported attack, which came a day after the U.S. military said forces struck three Iranian oil tankers in response to a missile attack on Navy warships.
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Two people sit on rocks overlooking a beach as others swim and commercial vessels lie anchored in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Friday, Sept. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
A man, woman and boy ride a motorcycle along the waterfront as commercial vessels lie anchored in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Friday, Sept. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
A girl plays in the water with a swim ring as commercial vessels lie anchored in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Friday, Sept. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Relatives visit Kiana Karimi, 14, who was wounded during a strike what Iranian media said was a U.S. strike late Tuesday, in Kuhestak, as she lies on the bed in a hospital in town of Minab in southern Iran, Saturday, Sept. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
A swimmer remains near the shore as a motorboat passes commercial vessels anchored in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Friday, Sept. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
The war began with U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran on Feb. 28. But since a ceasefire agreement was announced in June, on-and-off fighting has persisted with both sides trying to inflict military and economic pain as negotiations have collapsed.
The U.S. and Iran resumed attacks last week, following a month of relative calm, with the Strait of Hormuz and Iranian communities along it again being targeted. At least five people were killed earlier in the week during a U.S. bombardment of southern Iran.
The Trump administration appears to have adopted a dual-prong approach to the conflict, responding militarily to attacks on the strait while going after foreign financial institutions that handle Iran’s money.
But Tehran's hard-line new senior leaders have signaled the willingness to dig in after weathering decades of sanctions.
Iran has found ways over the years to circumvent sanctions, and now the U.S. blockade, and get its oil to buyers to help ease growing economic pressures. That relies in part on a shadow fleet transporting its oil.
Meanwhile, Iran's nuclear program, the issue that contributed to the outbreak of the war, was meant to be addressed in negotiations that fell apart soon after the U.S. and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding in mid-June.
Diplomats say the U.S., Britain, France and Germany seek to refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council for failure to comply with its nuclear nonproliferation obligations.
Instead, Tehran's new leverage focuses on the Strait of Hormuz that is crucial to global oil and natural gas shipments and was seen as an international waterway before the war began.
Magdy reported from Cairo and Frankel reported from Jerusalem.
Two people sit on rocks overlooking a beach as others swim and commercial vessels lie anchored in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Friday, Sept. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
A man, woman and boy ride a motorcycle along the waterfront as commercial vessels lie anchored in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Friday, Sept. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
A girl plays in the water with a swim ring as commercial vessels lie anchored in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Friday, Sept. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Relatives visit Kiana Karimi, 14, who was wounded during a strike what Iranian media said was a U.S. strike late Tuesday, in Kuhestak, as she lies on the bed in a hospital in town of Minab in southern Iran, Saturday, Sept. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
A swimmer remains near the shore as a motorboat passes commercial vessels anchored in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Friday, Sept. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
MAGDEBURG, Germany (AP) — An eastern German region was voting Sunday in an election that could bring to power the first far-right state government in the nation’s post-World War II history.
The vote for the state legislature in Saxony-Anhalt, a region of 2.1 million people west of Berlin, has gained outsized prominence because it represents the best chance yet of a governor’s post for the far-right, anti-migration Alternative for Germany, or AfD.
That would be the biggest prize in the party’s 13-year history, at a time of widespread discontent with an unpopular national government that has yet to persuade voters it can get the country’s sluggish economy moving. It would be at least a symbolic blow to Chancellor Friedrich Merz, whose center-right party has led Saxony-Anhalt for 24 years.
AfD is the biggest opposition party in Germany’s national parliament and is strongest in the formerly communist and less prosperous east, where Saxony-Anhalt is located. Its candidate for governor, Ulrich Siegmund, declares that “we will write history here.”
Despite consistently strong support, though, its chances of taking power are uncertain even if it finishes well ahead of its opponents.
On Sunday, AfD hopes to win an absolute majority in the state legislature. That would overcome the so-called “firewall” of mainstream parties’ refusal to work with AfD, whose regional branch is one of several classified by the domestic intelligence agency as a proven right-wing extremist group. AfD vehemently rejects accusations of extremism.
The party’s national co-leaders, Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla, said this week that AfD “wants to implement the law of the land — for example with a view to illegal migration — and ensure that Germany remains worth living in.” They decried other parties’ records and argued in a statement that an absolute majority for AfD is “almost the only chance to change course.”
Merz said an AfD government would be an economic own-goal. “If there were to be an absolute majority for a right-wing populist party next Monday, then international investors will think three times about whether they still invest in Saxony-Anhalt,” he said.
On Saturday, thousands of people gathered in the state capital, Magdeburg, against the prospect of a far-right regional government.
Siegmund says he will only seek election as governor by state lawmakers if AfD wins an absolute majority, arguing that it needs to break a pattern of parties breaking their preelection promises.
Whether it can win that majority is expected to depend in part on whether parties such as the center-left Social Democrats and Greens top the 5% support needed to keep parliamentary seats. If there is no absolute majority for AfD, the party is unlikely to find a coalition partner.
Incumbent governor Sven Schulze, from Merz’s Christian Democratic Union, says he won’t work with the far-right party and his own CDU is “100%” behind him. But, if AfD finishes first yet short of a majority, he’s likely to face a difficult task to put together a stable government.
There has already been one case in which AfD finished first in a state election but didn’t end up governing. That was two years ago in neighboring Thuringia, where a CDU governor took power with a minority government.
Schulze could, in similar circumstances, try to put together some kind of alliance with smaller parties. It’s likely to be a delicate exercise, because it would probably require at least some tacit support from the Left Party, a hard-left party with which the CDU refuses to form coalitions.
Sunday’s vote will be followed on Sept. 20 by two more tricky tests for Merz’s CDU and its main partners in the national government, the Social Democrats.
There are state elections that day in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, an eastern region where a center-left government faces a strong challenge from AfD, and in Berlin, currently led by Merz’s party.
Moulson reported from Berlin.
German Chancellor and Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party leader Friedrich Merz, left, and Saxony-Anhalt State Governor and top candidate Sven Schulze give a press statement after visiting UPM Biochemicals in Leuna, Germany, Thursday, Sept. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)
Ulrich Siegmund, top candidate for the "Alternative for Germany" (AfD) party and his wife Julia leaving a polling station on a small Schwalbe motorcycle after voting during the Saxony-Anhalt state elections in Tangermuende, eastern Germany, Sunday, Sept. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)
Ulrich Siegmund, top candidate for the "Alternative for Germany" (AfD) party votes at a polling station during the Saxony-Anhalt state elections in Tangermuende, eastern Germany, Sunday, Sept. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)
Sven Schulze, Minister-President of Saxony-Anhalt and state chairman of the CDU in Saxony-Anhalt, drops his ballot into the ballot box during the Saxony-Anhalt state election, in Magdeburg, Germany, Sunday Sept. 6, 2026. At left is his wife Kati Schulze. (Klaus-Dietmar Gabbert/dpa via AP)
Ulrich Siegmund, top candidate for the "Alternative for Germany" (AfD) party how's his motorcycle keys in party coolers after voting at a polling station during the Saxony-Anhalt state elections in Tangermuende, eastern Germany, Sunday, Sept. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)
