CENTCOM says it shot down Iranian attack drones headed toward Strait of Hormuz; separate migrant transfers and immigration rulings raise human rights concerns

U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said on Saturday that in recent hours it targeted and shot down multiple Iranian attack unmanned aerial systems that were headed toward the Strait of Hormuz. CENTCOM said in a statement posted on X (formerly Twitter) that those drones posed a threat to commercial shipping in the vital waterway.

The U.S. president had publicly warned Tehran against sending attack drones toward vessels in the narrow Gulf shipping lane. In a message addressing Iran, President Donald Trump said: «ښه ده چې ژر تر ژره خپل وضعیت سم کړئ!»—a warning he reiterated as U.S. military officials reported the intercepts.

The drone incident comes amid broader tensions and diplomatic maneuvering in the region. Iran’s foreign ministry negotiator Abbas Iraqchi said on Friday that an ‘‘Islamabad understanding’’ to end hostilities with the United States and Israel had moved closer to finalisation, urging media to refrain from speculation until the details are formally released. President Trump, however, dismissed some of Iran’s public statements as inaccurate and said Tehran’s characterizations did not reflect any final understanding.

Alongside these security developments, the U.S. has continued to carry out transfers of nationals from Iran, Afghanistan and other countries as part of its immigration and deportation policies. Reports indicate that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operated a charter flight late Thursday from Louisiana that routed via a refuelling stop in Ghana before landing in Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic (CAR), on Friday night. Authorities did not disclose a precise passenger count, but local and legal sources said the flight included at least two Iranian women who previously had been granted temporary stay and orders of withholding of removal by U.S. immigration adjudicators.

Human rights lawyers representing those women said one had converted to Christianity and the other was a social and political activist, and both could face torture or even execution if returned to Iran. Their advocates and other rights groups have warned that sending people to unstable countries such as CAR, which faces severe economic and security problems, risks exposing them to further harm or an uncertain future.

The transfers drew renewed scrutiny in Washington. A group of 83 U.S. lawmakers from both parties sent a letter to Senator Marco Rubio requesting a pause on plans to transfer roughly 1,100 Afghan evacuees from Qatar’s Al-Udeid camp to the Democratic Republic of Congo unless Congress receives full legal, technical and humanitarian briefings. Those Afghans, evacuated after 2021, include many former local staff of U.S. missions and private contractors and have been awaiting resettlement in third countries.

On the administrative front, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said it had resumed processing applications for nationals from 39 countries, including Afghanistan and Iran, after a federal court ruled that the agency’s prior suspension of certain categories of cases was unlawful. USCIS said in a June 12 statement that it would treat the delayed cases “as if the processing had not been previously halted” and would proceed to adjudicate applications for permanent residence, naturalization, employment authorization and other immigration benefits that were affected.

The international diplomatic landscape also featured contested reporting over frozen Iranian assets. Reuters cited sources saying the United Arab Emirates had agreed to release billions of dollars in frozen Iranian funds as part of a tactical shift following intense Iranian strikes against UAE targets, with figures quoted ranging from $10 billion to $20 billion and at least $3 billion already transferred. The UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs denied those reports, calling suggestions that funds had been transferred to Iran unfounded.

Human rights groups and legal advocates say these overlapping developments—from military action in the Gulf to transfers of migrants and resumed immigration processing—raise urgent questions about safety, due process and the obligations of states under international law to protect people at risk of persecution. U.S. authorities say they are following legal channels, while lawyers and advocates stress that expedited transfers and relocations to fragile states must not circumvent asylum protections or expose vulnerable people to return to persecution.

The same news compilation also included unrelated local incidents and sports scheduling: large fires in Mazar-e-Sharif that sent smoke across the city and ongoing regional cricket fixtures featuring Afghanistan and India. While these items are not linked to the security and human rights issues described above, they were included in original reporting of Saturday’s developments.