Iranian Revolutionary Guard troops on board a helicopter flying over British-flagged tanker Stena Impero near the strait of Hormuz on Saturday. Britain has denounced the Iranian seizure of a British-flagged oil tanker in the Gulf as a "hostile act", rejecting Tehran's explanation that it had seized the vessel because it had been involved in an accident. It follows weeks of threats from Tehran to retaliate for Britain's seizure of the Iranian tanker Grace 1, accused of violating sanctions on Syria. A helicopter hovers over British-flagged tanker Stena Impero. The United States is sending military personnel and resources to Saudi Arabia for the first time since the US invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Source: Otago Daily Times July 20, 2019 21:45 UTC