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Good afternoon and welcome to your afternoon news update from AP. Today, the U.S. deploys thousands more troops to the war as Iran threatens world tourism sites; how civilians are fighting a Mexican cartel; and Pete Hegseth’s Christian rhetoric draws renewed scrutiny.

UP FIRST

A cleric beats his chest as he mourns during the funeral procession of Iran's intelligence minister Esmail Khatib and, according to Iranian officials, his wife and daughter, in Tehran, Iran, Friday. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Live updates: US deploys thousands more troops to the war as Iran threatens world tourism sites

A U.S. official confirmed that three more warships and roughly 2,500 more Marines are bound for the Middle East, where the U.S. military says it has about 50,000 troops. On one of the holiest days on the Islamic calendar, Iran fired on Israel and energy sites in neighboring Gulf Arab states, insisting that it can still build missiles and issuing a new threat, to deny safety to its enemies in “parks, recreational areas and tourist destinations” worldwide. Israel, meanwhile, pounded Tehran with airstrikes. Read more.

TOP STORIES

Members of a local self-defense group formed by residents in response to cartel violence patrol in Guajes de Ayala, Mexico, March 10. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

They were under siege by a Mexican cartel. Now these civilians fight back with AK-47s and grenades

Jesús Domínguez pushes through thick brush lining a rugged mountainside with an AK-47 slung over his shoulder and a grenade fastened to his leather belt. He marches alongside a pack of camouflage-clad men patrolling the rural stretches of Mexico against one of the country’s most powerful drug cartels. Armed with military-grade weapons smuggled from the U.S., the 50-man force is one of dozens of “autodefensa,” or “self-defense,” groups that have emerged over the past decade in Mexico to fight increasingly sophisticated cartels in areas far out of the reach of security forces. Read more.

Pete Hegseth’s Christian rhetoric draws renewed scrutiny after the US goes to war with Iran

Since becoming defense secretary, Pete Hegseth has found no shortage of ways to bring his strand of conservative evangelicalism into the Pentagon. He hosts monthly Christian worship services for employees. His department’s promotional videos have displayed Bible verses alongside military footage. In speeches and interviews, he often argues the U.S. was founded as a Christian nation and troops should embrace God, potentially risking the military’s secular mission and hard-won pluralism. Now the defense secretary’s Christian rhetoric has taken on new meaning after the U.S. and Israel went to war with Iran, an Islamic theocracy. Read more.

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