Airspace restrictions come amid fears that US President Donald Trump could attack Iran.

Iran temporarily closed its airspace to most flights amid attack threats by United States President Donald Trump, according to the US aviation authority.

Most flights were prohibited from Iranian airspace between 1:45am and 4:00am local time (22:15 to 00:30 GMT) and again from 4:44 am to 7am (01:14 to 03:30 GMT) on Thursday, according to the notices posted by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

The restrictions applied to all commercial flights without “prior approval” from Iran’s Civil Aviation Organisation (CAO), according to the notices.

FlightRadar, an online flight tracking service, showed just three aircraft over Iran as of 6:05am local time, with dozens of planes flying around the country’s borders. Iran’s airspace reopened at about 7am local time.

The FAA and CAO did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The airspace restrictions come amid threats by US President Donald Trump to attack Iran following Tehran’s deadly crackdown on antigovernment protests in the country.

The US and the United Kingdom on Wednesday withdrew a number of military personnel from Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, after a senior Iranian official said Tehran had warned that it would target US forces in the Middle East region if Trump launched an attack.

A number of countries have also issued advisories to their citizens in the region amid fears of escalation.

Trump appeared to lower his rhetoric towards Tehran later on Wednesday, saying he had received assurances from “important sources” that the killings of protesters in Iran had stopped.

Safe Airspace, a website run by the aviation safety organisation OpsGroup, said the airspace closures could signal “further security or military activity” and warned of the “risk of missile launches or heightened air defence, increasing the risk of misidentification of civil traffic”.

In 2020, Iran’s air defences shot down a Ukraine International Airlines flight shortly after it took off in Tehran, killing all 176 people on board.

A 2021 report by Iran’s CAO concluded that the missile battery’s operator had misidentified the Ukrainian aircraft as a “hostile object”, and that officials had not properly evaluated the risks to commercial planes amid tensions with the US.

JOHANNESBURG: A staggering and growing wave of persecution against Christians across sub-Saharan Africa has been laid bare in the latest Open Doors’ World Watch List for 2025. The report says three out of four Christians murdered worldwide are killed in Nigeria.

Fourteen of the top 50 countries worldwide where verified deaths could be reasonably linked to victims’ Christian faith are in sub-Saharan Africa. Open Doors is a global Christian charity supporting Christians persecuted for their faith.

The organization states that one in seven Christians in the world face high levels of persecution. But that figure rises to one in five in Africa. 

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Nigeria

Africa’s most populous nation is also ranked as the seventh worst in the world for persecution in all its forms. According to Open Doors, out of the 4,849 Christians killed for their faith globally in the year up to the end of Sept. 2025, 3,490 of these were murdered in Nigeria — 72% of the total. 

Muslims have also been killed in Nigeria. But the latest data from the report shows Christians have been “disproportionately targeted.” These are four of the affected states — there are others:

In Benue State in north-central Nigeria, 1,310 Christians were killed compared with 29 Muslims.

In Plateau State in north-central Nigeria, 546 Christians were killed compared with 48 Muslims.

In Taraba State in northeast Nigeria, 73 Christians were killed compared with 12 Muslims.

In north-western Kaduna State, 1,116 Christians were abducted in 2025, compared with 101 Muslims.

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“The latest figures should leave us in no doubt: there is a clear religious element to this horrific violence,” Henrietta Blyth, CEO of Open Doors U.K. told Fox News Digital.

Blyth added, “For many thousands of Christians, this will come as no surprise. Those who witnessed their families being killed, and their homes razed to the ground by Islamist Fulani militants report being told by their attackers that ‘we will destroy all Christians.’”

“It’s surely time to dismiss the idea that this violence is somehow ‘random,’” Blyth stated.  “If we don’t recognize the clear religious element to the violence, it won’t be possible to properly address this tragic situation.”

Mohammed Idris, Nigeria’s minister of information and national orientation, told Fox News Digital this week, “The loss of life in any form is unacceptable, and the Nigerian government recognizes the pain felt by all affected families and communities.”

The minister continued, “Nigeria has consistently maintained that its security challenges stem from a convergence of criminal insurgency, armed banditry, resource competition, and localized communal disputes, not from state-directed or institutional religious persecution. The government remains focused on upholding its constitutional duty to protect all citizens and on advancing security reforms that improve coordination, accountability, and civilian safety nationwide.”

At the time of writing, the new World Watch List had not been released to the minister, but he did share his thoughts on Middle Belt killings, “With respect to the Middle Belt states, the Nigerian government has long stated that violence in this region is primarily driven by long-standing disputes over land and resources, organized banditry, and criminal networks that prey on vulnerable communities, Christian and Muslim alike.”

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He concluded, “while some attacks tragically take on communal or identity dimensions, framing the Middle Belt crisis as a systematic campaign against Christians does not reflect the full security reality on the ground and risks obscuring the role of criminal actors who exploit instability for profit and power.”  

Sudan

Some 150,000 are estimated to have died in the civil war that has engulfed this nation since 2023. Open Doors reports, “the situation for the nation’s 2 million Christians is especially grim.”

“We are considered as the enemy by both (opposing) factions, who accuse us of being allied with the other side,” Rafat Samir, general secretary for the Sudan Evangelical Alliance, told Fox News Digital. We are told ‘you don’t belong here’ and driven from our homes. To make matters worse, Christians are often excluded when aid is distributed.” A particular pattern can be seen across sub-Saharan Africa, Open Doors states. The report claims, “Islamist militants enter the vacuums in law and order left by a weak junta and civil conflicts. It means they can operate with impunity across parts of Burkina Faso, Mali, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic, Somalia, Niger and Mozambique. Their stated aim is to create ‘Sharia states’ operating under their deadly interpretation of Islamic law.”

Elsewhere in the world, North Korea remains top of the list for having the world’s worst persecution of Christians, with Open Doors stating, “If Christians are discovered, they and their families are deported to labor camps or executed.”

A huge spike in reported violence against Christians in Syria has followed the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s presidency in Dec. 2024, and has led the country to jump to number six on the list. China is number 17, with churches driven underground by surveillance and heavy regulation.

The reporting period for the World Watch List ended some two months before President Trump ordered U.S. forces to bomb Muslim militants in northwestern Nigeria on Christmas Day to try to stop the killing of Christians.

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Jo Newhouse from Open Doors sub-Saharan Africa, told Fox News Digital, “The U.S. airstrikes (against Jihadi groups in Nigeria) have thrown many of the militant groups in the area into a state of panic. They have been scattering and attacking civilians as they come across soft targets, hoping that they can rebuild their resources through looting and kidnapping.”

“Many Christians across the northern states are in a state of flux, unable to find any safety or stability. They bear the scars of living under the perpetual risk of death, destruction and displacement,” Newhouse said.