U.S. President Donald Trump announced late Thursday that the U.S. remains "committed to a Diplomatic Resolution to the Iran Nuclear Issue," amid soaring tensions and reports of a possible Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear facilities.

An Air India passenger plane bound for London with 244 people onboard crashed Thursday in India's northwestern city of Ahmedabad, the airline and local media reported.

Visuals on local television channels showed smoke billowing from the crash site near the airport in Ahmedabad, a city with a population of more than 5 million.

Iran and the United States will hold a sixth round of negotiations over Tehran's rapidly advancing nuclear program this Sunday in Oman, the sultanate's foreign minister said Thursday, as regional tensions have spiked in recent days.

The announcement by Oman's Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi comes as the U.S. is drawing down the presence of staffers who are not deemed essential to operations in the Middle East and their loved ones due to the potential for regional unrest.

Beijing slammed on Thursday what it called "dangerous behavior" by a Japanese military plane over the Pacific, after Tokyo said Chinese fighter jets flew "unusually close" to its aircraft at the weekend.

"The root cause of the risk to maritime and air security was the close reconnaissance of China's normal military activities by a Japanese warplane," foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said.

Iran said Thursday it will build a new uranium enrichment facility after the United Nations nuclear watchdog adopted a resolution criticizing Iran for "non-compliance" with its obligations.

"The necessary orders have been issued by the head of the Atomic Energy Organization to launch a new enrichment center in a secure location," said a joint statement from the organization and the foreign ministry, adding that "other measures... will be announced later".

U.S. President Donald Trump said he was less confident than a few months ago about prospects for reaching a deal with Iran over its nuclear program, speaking in a podcast aired Wednesday.

The two countries appear to be locked in a standoff over uranium enrichment nearly two months into the high-stakes negotiations.

Russian forces launched a new drone assault across Ukraine overnight on Wednesday, killing three people and wounding 64 others, Ukrainian officials said.

One of the hardest-hit areas was the city of Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine, where 17 attack drones struck two residential districts, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said. Emergency crews, municipal workers and volunteers worked through the night to extinguish fires, rescue residents from burning homes, and restore gas, electricity and water services.

President Donald Trump called protesters in Los Angeles "animals" and "a foreign enemy" in a speech at Fort Bragg on Tuesday as he defended deploying the military on demonstrators opposed to his immigration enforcement raids and as he vowed to "liberate" the West Coast city.

Trump, in his most aggressive language yet regarding the protests, used a speech ostensibly supposed to be used to recognize the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army to denounce the protesters while repeating his false statements about the 2020 election being rigged and attacking the previous commander in chief, former President Joe Biden.

The Sudanese military said Wednesday it has withdrawn from a key area bordering Egypt and Libya, while the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) announced its takeover in a separate statement.

The announcements came a day after the army accused forces loyal to eastern Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar of launching a cross-border attack alongside Sudanese paramilitaries, the first accusation of direct Libyan involvement in Sudan's war.

Iran threatened Wednesday to target U.S. bases across the Middle East if conflict breaks out, as the long-time foes prepare for new round of nuclear talks amid a standoff over uranium enrichment.

"All its bases are within our reach, we have access to them, and without hesitation we will target all of them in the host countries," Defense Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh said in response to U.S. threats of military action if the talks fail.