An Iranian commercial ship was struck early Sunday near the Strait of Hormuz, with one person killed, Iranian state media say.
Meanwhile, the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen said they fired drones and missiles toward southern Saudi Arabia, putting new pressure on a key U.S. ally in the region. And the presidents of Iran and Egypt have met about the rising regional tensions.
Here’s a look at the latest news in the Middle East. Full coverage can be found here.
State-run media said an Iranian commercial vessel was stuck off Qeshm Island, the largest island in the Persian Gulf that sits on the Strait of Hormuz, with one person killed and three wounded.
Separately, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations monitor reported a vessel was hit by a projectile while transiting the strait, with no details. It was not immediately clear if it was the same strike.
There was no immediate statement by the U.S. military, which previously has struck Iranian-flagged vessels as it keeps up a blockade of Iranian ports. On Saturday, the military said its forces had redirected 100 commercial vessels over the past 60 days.
Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen said they fired drones and missiles toward neighboring Saudi Arabia.
The Houthis’ military spokesperson, Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree, claimed in a statement that they targeted a military base in Sharurah province in the Najran region. He didn’t provide evidence or say when the attack took place.
Sirens went off in the province on Saturday, according to the Saudi civil defense, which didn’t report casualties or damage.
The civil defense overnight also said a projectile fell in al-Tawwal governorate near the border with Yemen along the Red Sea, injuring two people and damaging a mosque and several other buildings. The statement blamed the Houthis.
The escalation in fighting between the Houthis and Yemen's Saudi-backed and internationally recognized government risks a return to civil war in Yemen after four years of a truce.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi and his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian held talks on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in New Delhi, where the group of emerging economies has expressed concern about rising Mideast tensions. China again offered to play its “due role” to forge peace.
El-Sissi told Pezeshkian that Egypt expects Iran to make all possible efforts to de-escalate and achieve a “comprehensive, sustainable and peaceful settlement to the crisis,” according to a statement from the Egyptian presidency.
The Egyptian leader also urged an end to attacks on Arab countries.
This report will be updated throughout the day as new developments emerge.
A motorboat travels past commercial vessels anchored amid haze in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Monday, Sept. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
This photo provided by the Saudi Press Agency shows damage to a building after a projectile fell in Al-Tawwal, Jazan, Saudi Arabia, on the southern border with Yemen, Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026. (Saudi Press Agency via AP)
STOCKHOLM (AP) — Voters in Sweden will head to the polls on Sunday for an election that will determine whether a conservative leader remains in charge and a hard-right party wins ministerial jobs for the first time, or whether the center-left returns to power.
Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson is seeking a second four-year term at the helm of the European Union nation that is also NATO’s newest member. Meanwhile, his predecessor hopes to win the job back.
Experts say the campaign has been fragmented and incoherent, with policy questions such as how healthcare should be organized drowned out by questions about which parties will be able to put together a government.
“Crime has come down, inflation has come down. So these topics are not really what people discuss,” said Zeth Isaksson, a sociologist in electoral behavior at Stockholm University and a political scientist at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy. “People discuss who is going to be in government, and that’s what the election is about.”
Kristersson has led Sweden since 2022 with a three-party center-right coalition. It relies on outside support from the Sweden Democrats, an anti-immigration party that has far-right roots but has moved toward the political mainstream, for a parliamentary majority. If the right is reelected, it can expect Cabinet posts this time.
He’s up against Magdalena Andersson of the center-left Social Democrats, a party that more often than not has led Swedish governments since World War II. Andersson served as prime minister from 2021 until she lost power at the last election.
There are two major political blocs: one with four parties on the right and another with four parties on the left. So the big question is less about which party wins and more about which side can form a majority. Individual parties need a minimum of 4% of the vote to win parliamentary seats.
The Sweden Democrats, who in 2022 took 20.5% of the vote to become the biggest party on the right, can expect Cabinet seats if power doesn’t change hands.
Kristersson announced in April that his conservative Moderates would allow them into government if the right has a majority — though he would remain prime minister even if the Sweden Democrats are the stronger party.
The Sweden Democrats were founded in the 1980s by people who had been active in right-wing extremist groups, including neo-Nazis. They toned down their rhetoric and expelled openly racist members under Jimmie Åkesson, who has led them since 2005 and overseen their growth from what was once a marginal party.
The Sweden Democrats' role is in focus against a background of gains for the populist right in Europe, including the first-place finish by the far-right Alternative for Germany party in a regional election there Sept. 6.
More than 8 million people in the nation of about 10.6 million are eligible to vote in the election for the 349-seat parliament, the Riksdag, which will elect the next prime minister. The Swedish Election Authority says the first preliminary results will be available around 9 p.m. local time (1900 GMT).
Leader of the Sweden Democrats party Jimmie Åkesson votes in Rinkeby, a suburb of Stockholm, Saturday Sept. 12, 2026, a day prior to the general election in Sweden. (Claudio Bresciani/TT via AP)
Election workers Felicia Platner and Nora Aissaoui visit the Vardaga Kullabo nursing home with a mobile polling station, in in Huddinge, Sweden, Friday, Sept. 11, 2026. (Jessica Gow/TT via AP)
Social Democrats party leader Magdalena Andersson arrives for a party leadership televised debate in Gävle, Sweden, on Friday, Sept. 11, 2026. (Anders Wiklund/TT News Agency via AP)
From left, the Liberals' Simona Mohamsson, Sweden Democrats' Jimmie Åkesson, Christian Democrats' Ebba Busch and Moderates' leader Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson arrive on the Moderates' bus for the party leadership televised debate in Gävle, Sweden, on Friday, Sept. 11, 2026. (Anders Wiklund/TT News Agency via AP)
People wait in line at a polling station in Triangeln shopping center Friday evening to give their early vote, in Malmo, Sweden Friday, Sept. 11, 2026, ahead of general elections on Sunday (Johan Nilsson/TT via AP)
