Aug 11 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump accused Iran of being "devious negotiators" in an interview released late on Monday and described some of his current options in the war — "just bop along" and let Tehran fail economically or hit them "really, really hard."

"I'm sort of negotiating," Trump told Real America's Voice in a phone interview. "They're very devious negotiators."

By Kanishka Singh and Idrees Ali

WASHINGTON, Aug 11 (Reuters) - U.S. military operations in 2025 killed 153 civilians and wounded 243, a U.S. official said on Tuesday, citing Pentagon assessments.

This compares with a Pentagon assessment that two civilians were killed and two were injured by U.S. military operations in 2024.

Here are details:

• A Pentagon report submitted to the U.S. Congress and published by U.S. media said that all the death and injury tolls against civilians recorded in 2025 were due to three U.S. strikes in Yemen.

WASHINGTON, Aug 11 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump took a secret military flight from Turkey last month in an operation that involved him being moved between aircraft in a catering truck, an extraordinary deception prompted by an Iranian assassination threat, the Washington Post reported.

DAMASCUS, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Bashar al-Assad's 24-year rule of Syria ended abruptly in December 2024 following a lightning advance by rebel forces who struck while the Russian and Iranian allies who had backed him through years of civil war were distracted by conflicts elsewhere.

He fled to Moscow, ending more than five decades of iron-fisted rule by his family and opening a new chapter for Syria.

The head of military intelligence for the Libyan National Army (LNA), which controls the east and parts of southern Libya, has been killed in a car bombing, the army said in a statement Tuesday.

Fawzi al-Mansouri was assassinated on Monday when an explosive stuck to his car detonated as he was leaving a local mosque at night, the statement said.

Reports said the killing occurred in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi.

By Ayman al-Warfalli, Ahmed Elumami and Nayera Abdallah

TRIPOLI, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Libya's National Oil Corporation said on Tuesday that emergency and safety teams had brought all fires at several fuel storage tanks in the Zawiya oil complex under control earlier than expected, following attacks by explosive-laden drones.

Renewed violence in the strategic Libyan city of Zawiya has disrupted the oil industry in the OPEC member country, with state oil firm NOC saying it could declare force majeure if drone attacks on energy assets in the city continued.

PARIS/KABUL, Aug 11 (Reuters) - The Taliban have barred an estimated 2.4 million Afghan girls from secondary education since they regained power in Afghanistan in 2021, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization said on Tuesday.

The Taliban are preparing to mark the fifth anniversary of their return to power this week, as some nations expand ties with the government despite deepening human rights concerns among watchdogs.

Donald Trump confirmed Tuesday that he secretly switched planes because of a threat to his life, after the Washington Post revealed the US president was smuggled out of Air Force One to a different aircraft on a catering truck.

"They wanted me to go in a different flight, a different plane -- equal safety, but they wanted me to do it, so I do it. I do what they say," Trump told reporters during a gaggle.

"I guess there was a threat out there. I didn't really ask too much about it."

MOSCOW, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Russia's Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that a deal reached with Syria on the future of Moscow's military bases in the country would boost ties between the nations, and a Syrian source said some Russian forces would still be stationed there under the agreement.

By Menna AlaaElDin, Jonathan Saul and Kate Abnett

Aug 10 (Reuters) - Leaking crude oil from a tanker grounded off a nature reserve in Oman has created a slick covering almost 400 square kilometres, the country's government said on Monday.

The Caroline Bezengi is loaded with close to one million barrels of Russian oil bound for Asia and first reported difficulties on June 8 off Yemen, with two maritime ​security sources saying initial assessments indicated a blast had occurred onboard.

No party has taken responsibility for attacking the vessel.