U.S. military raises cost estimate of Iran war to 47 billion U.S. dollars

The cost of the U.S. military campaign against Iran has risen to at least 47 billion U.S. dollars, more than 25 percent higher than the Defense Department's estimate in July, the Reuters news agency reported Tuesday.

The latest estimate, compiled by the U.S. Central Command on Oct 16 and provided by the Pentagon to Congress last week, includes more than 29 billion U.S. dollars to replace expended munitions such as air defense interceptors and bombs.

More than 6 billion U.S. dollars would be needed to replace military equipment and so-called "platform losses," which include the loss of aircraft including many drones lost during the war, the Reuters reported, citing the Pentagon estimate.

The Air Force has spent 7.6 billion U.S. dollars since the United States and Israel launched joint military attacks on Iran on Feb 28, followed by the Army at 2.1 billion U.S. dollars and the Navy at 1.5 billion U.S. dollars.

The estimate does not include the cost of damage to U.S. military bases in the Middle East.

The Qianhai Comprehensive Bonded Zone in Shenzhen City, Guangdong Province in southern China, recorded 112.95 billion yuan (about 16.94 billion U.S. dollars) in imports and exports in September, crossing the 100-billion-yuan monthly threshold for the first time in its history, according to Shenzhen Customs on Wednesday.

The figure represents a year-on-year increase of 200.4 percent, making the zone the top comprehensive bonded zone nationwide in trade volume.

Trade was dominated by high-tech products such as automatic data processing equipment and electronic components.

The zone continues to provide strong momentum for high-quality economic development and high-level opening up in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA).