🌅 COMBATE Morning Roundup | September 21, 2026

• Tanker struck by unidentified projectile in Strait of Hormuz — UKMTO said an inbound tanker was hit with two crew members lightly wounded; the vessel kept sailing under its own power. Kepler data showed Hormuz transits slumping to 12 ships over the weekend from 35 a week earlier.

• Trump called off prepared airstrikes on Yemen — The New York Times said the Pentagon had strikes ready for Yemen's Ansar Allah after a personal request from bin Salman, but Trump scrapped the operation; most of his circle opposed joining the Saudi war, citing strain from the Iran conflict.

• Iran downs US MQ-1 over Hormuz; earlier "Orbiter" was a decoy — IRGC air defenses destroyed the drone over the strait; analysts said the object first identified as an Orbiter UAV was actually a US ADM-160 MALD decoy meant to bait air defenses into revealing themselves.

• Qatar relays US assurances it wants a deal with Iran — Mediators exchanging ideas with both sides for two weeks said US officials confirmed Washington wants an agreement; US UN ambassador Waltz said a return to talks would be welcomed.

• Pentagon probe blames AI overreliance for Minab school strike — Participants in an internal review cited faulty intelligence, stale satellite imagery and excessive trust in artificial intelligence for the strike on the Iranian school.

• Grand Ayatollah Shobeiri Zanjani dies at 98 — The senior Shia source of emulation's death closed Qom's seminaries for the week; Qom declared three days of mourning and a Wednesday holiday for his funeral beside the Fatima Masumeh shrine.

• Xi Jinping to make first US state visit since 2015 — Beijing confirmed the September 23-25 trip after Treasury Secretary Bessent called New York trade and AI talks with He Lifeng "very successful."

• United Russia takes record 355 Duma seats — Final counts gave the party about 57.8% and its largest-ever seat haul, with Kadyrov re-elected in Chechnya on 99.85%. In Germany, the CDU fell below the 5% threshold in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern for the first time.

• Russia downs 244 drones overnight, tightens Kharkov pocket — Moscow said its forces took two settlements cutting resupply to surrounded Ukrainian troops, who lost over 35 men in a failed breakout; Peskov voiced hope trilateral talks would resume.

• Pakistan bombs eastern Afghanistan — Jets struck Kunar province leaving dead and wounded; Islamabad claimed 28 fighters killed a day after Kabul threatened reprisals. Pakistan's interior minister arrived in Tehran for talks unrelated to Iran-US messaging.

• French diesel hits record €2.41 a liter — Macron urged the G7 to weigh another release of strategic oil reserves as war disruption squeezes supply, reroutes Saudi oil through Hormuz and pushes freight to records.

• Romania arrests ex-presidential candidate Georgescu — Anti-organized crime prosecutors detained the former frontrunner on fraud suspicions.

📖 Full report: https://telegra.ph/COMBATE-Digest---combate-20260921-1200Z-09-21

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