Overview
- In Bandar Abbas, a residential blast killed a four-year-old girl and injured 14, with local authorities attributing the explosion to a gas leak.
- A second explosion in Ahvaz killed four people, and the city’s fire department also cited a gas leak as the cause.
- Iranian outlets denied claims that an IRGC navy commander was targeted, while U.S. and Israeli officials publicly denied any involvement in the blasts.
- The IRGC plans two days of live-fire naval exercises in the Strait of Hormuz starting Sunday as a U.S. carrier group operates nearby, and CENTCOM warned it would not tolerate unsafe actions near American forces.
- Top security official Ali Larijani said structural arrangements for negotiations with the United States are progressing, even as investigations into the explosions continue.