The shooting down last week of a sophisticated U.S. drone by an Iranian missile demonstrates that Tehran's air defence capabilities can pose a challenge to U.S. air superiority, experts say.

Donald Trump wants to be warlike and he wants to avoid war -- and late Thursday, with U.S. bombers poised to unleash explosive fury on Iran, those contradictory impulses came to a head.

Tensions between Tehran and Washington have intensified ever since April when the US added Iran's Revolutionary Guards to its blacklist of "terrorist" organisations and strengthened sanctions against the Islamic republic.

Former Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi died on Monday after a court hearing in Cairo, nearly six years after his ouster by current leader Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

A deal between major powers and Tehran on Iran's nuclear programme has been weakened since Washington unilaterally withdrew a year ago.

On Monday Tehran said it will surpass the uranium stockpile limit set under the deal from June 27.

Tankers like those apparently attacked Thursday in the Gulf of Oman operate through increasingly treacherous waters, facing mounting dangers from piracy and collision as well as geopolitical hazards.

From US military deployments to alleged "threats" from Iran and attacks on oil tankers and installations, here is a timeline of escalating tensions in the Gulf:

The succession of two powerful cousins to the top government posts in Iraqi Kurdistan has sealed the Barzani family's "monarchic" rule over the autonomous region, analysts say.

General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, interim leader of Sudan where protesters allege security forces broke up a weeks-long sit-in through a deadly operation Monday, was largely unknown until mid April.

Thirty years ago millions of mourners crowded the streets of Tehran for the funeral of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and today the founder of the Islamic republic remains a guiding figure in Iran.