Following the resumption of US strikes on Iranian targets in early September, President Trump characterized the six-month-old confrontation as "small potatoes," noting that 18 US service members have been killed since operations began in February. While Trump asserted that US forces have significantly secured the Strait of Hormuz and that current attacks are intermittent, Central Command reported recent strikes on Iranian air-defense and maritime assets.

Vice President JD Vance declined to use the term "war" to describe the U.S. military engagement with Iran, asserting that there is no active shooting despite recent exchanges of heavy fire. While the administration maintains that the operation is limited, the conflict has now continued for over six months, raising questions about its duration ahead of the November midterm elections.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Friday said the conflict in Iran is “small potatoes” as he defended Vice President JD Vance for asserting that months of on-and-off attacks in the Middle East are not a “war.” Asked during an Oval Office exchange about Vance’s comments made a day earlier, Trump noted that U.

S. strikes on Iran are now “intermittent” and seemed to downplay the intensity of a war that's cost U.S. taxpayers more than $37.5 billion and left 18 U.S. service members dead. “I can understand what he’s saying,” said Trump. He added, “I call it a military conflict because it’s small potatoes for us.

It's not a big thing." Vance on Thursday, during a White House press briefing, rejected the use of the word “war” to describe the U.S. fighting with Iran and steered clear of predicting that the 6-month-old conflict would be over by November’s midterm elections, in which Republicans are trying to hang on to their narrow majorities in Congress.

“I wouldn’t call it a war,” Vance said after being asked during a White House press briefing about whether the fighting could end before voters cast their ballots in the Nov. 3 congressional elections. “Right now, there is no active shooting.” Vance’s assertion came even as Iran fired at U.

S. Gulf ally Kuwait on Thursday in retaliation for rounds of U.S. strikes on Iran earlier in the week. Trump in Friday's exchange with reporters added that the U.S. death toll in the Iran conflict is relatively lower than some other recent U.

S. wars. The U.S., along with Israel, have only carried out air strikes in the Iran war, which began on Feb. 28, and has not deployed troops into the country. “We did Venezuela and we did this. In Venezuela, we lost nobody,” said Trump, referring to the January U.

S. military operation to seize former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and spirit him to New York City to face federal drug trafficking charges. “And this, we lost 18 people. And, in Vietnam we lost 100,000 people. And in other conflicts, we lost tens of thousands of people.

” A total of 58,220 members of the U.S. armed forces died during the Vietnam War, according to records from the U.S. National Archives. Pressed by a reporter on describing the conflict as “small potatoes" when 18 U.S. service members have been killed, Trump responded by reiterating his argument that the conflict—one that he said at the outset of the war would last a matter of weeks—has led to the defanging of Iran's nuclear program.

“Iran will not have a nuclear weapon because if they did you probably wouldn’t be standing here,” Trump said.

SANAA - A major offensive by Yemen's Houthis to seize control of the gateway to the Red Sea has left more than 120 people dead, sources told AFP Friday, the country's deadliest clashes in years. Fighting erupted on Thursday, after the Iran-backed Houthis launched a ground assault along with rocket and drone attacks near coastal areas, vying for control of the narrow Bab al-Mandab strait at the Red Sea's southern entrance.

Yemen, embroiled in more than a decade of civil conflict, in July became the latest country to be drawn into the Middle East war as the Houthis upended a 2022 truce with the Saudi-backed government. Since then, the Houthis have imposed a maritime blockade of Saudi Arabia and repeatedly attacked its ships in the Red Sea -- a vital alternative route for oil exports after Iran all but halted Gulf shipments by blockading the Strait of Hormuz.

The rebels are now trying to tighten their hold over the Red Sea, one of the world's busiest shipping lanes, which they have disrupted with attacks on passing vessels since the Gaza war broke out in 2023. The Houthi offensive aims to cut off the government-held port city of Mokha, under fire for weeks, and advance towards areas bordering the Bab al-Mandab, military sources told AFP.

The rebels have seized elevated sites overlooking government positions near the Red Sea and the city of Taiz further inland, a military source and a Taiz official told AFP, requesting anonymity. The Houthis could target ships from these elevated positions, they said.

The toll rose to 129 on Friday, according to an AFP tally compiled from several sources, up from an earlier count of 81. A Yemeni military official speaking on condition of anonymity told AFP that 66 of his men had been killed, while medical and military sources close to the Houthis said at least 62 militants had died.

Another medical source said a civilian had also been killed. - Reinforcements sent - Although the Houthis do not control areas bordering Bab al-Mandab, they hold the key port city of Hodeida north of Mokha. "They are going for Bab al-Mandab," said Mohammed al-Basha, of the US-based risk advisory Basha Report.

The Houthis want to control the hills overlooking Bab al-Mandab and Mokha before attacking the coast, a Yemeni official in Aden, the government's base since it was ousted from the rebel-held capital, Sanaa, in 2014. The government has sent reinforcements to Taiz from Aden on Saudi orders, he said.

"The Houthis feel that if they capture Bab al-Mandab or Mokha port they will be in a better position of power to negotiate with the government and the Saudis," Basha added. With Iran's closure of Hormuz, the Bab al-Mandab chokepoint has gained increased importance as a transit route for oil from Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest exporter of crude.

The narrow waterway connects the Red Sea -- and, via the Suez Canal, the Mediterranean -- to the Indian Ocean. In July, a fragile truce between the Houthis and the government fell apart after the rebels welcomed an Iranian plane to Sanaa, setting off a spate of attacks.

They later announced a maritime blockade of Saudi Arabia and began hitting its ships and territory.