• New strikes:The US military says it has completed its latest round of strikes on Iran’s military infrastructure after vowing to “swiftly punish” Tehran for an attack on Jordan that left two US service members dead and one missing in action. Explosions have also been heard in the Iranian city of Bandar Abbas and on Qeshm Island, Iranian state media reported
• US casualties:President Donald Trump described the deaths, the first US military fatalities caused by Iranian fire since March, as “a very sad thing.” CENTCOM said it will withhold their identities until 24 hours after their next of kin are notified
• Wider conflict:The Jordanian government denied the international airport and seaport in the port city of Aqaba were evacuated today, after the US Embassy in Jordan said it faced a “specific and credible threat.” Meanwhile, authorities in Bahrain and Kuwait say they have intercepted Iranian attacks
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Demonstrators attend an anti-government protest in Tehran, Iran, Jan. 9.
Two Iranian protestors have been executed, according to the country’s semi-official Tasnim news agency, in a sign that the Iranian regime could be cracking down under the cover of ongoing conflict
Erfan Esfandiari and Gol Mohammad Mohammadi were executed this morning, Tasnim said, for their role in the January anti-government demonstrations, which drew a brutal response from the regime
It’s still unclear how many people were killed during those protests, but the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) says at least 6,000 protesters died and another 17,000 deaths are under investigation
US President Donald Trump warned Tehran at the time that if they used violence against the protestors, the US would “come to their rescue.” And when the US and Israel started striking Iran weeks later, Trump called on Iranians to “seize the moment” and “take back” their country.”
Such rhetoric has waned during the course of the war. In fact, according to the Oslo-based Iran Human Rights (IHR), the regime has executed at least 47 political prisoners, many more than the 16 who had been executed at around the same time last year
CNN’s Isobel Yeung and Vasco Cotovio contributed reporting
The Jordanian government denied the international airport and seaport in the port city of Aqaba were evacuated Sunday, despite a statement from the US Embassy in Jordan
“No potential threats have been recorded by the relevant Jordanian authorities in the past few hours,” spokesperson Dr. Mohammad Al-Momani said. “The authorities have not issued any evacuation orders at Aqaba Airport or the port.”
Both the airport and the seaport are operating normally, he added
Earlier, the US Embassy said the airport and seaport in Aqaba had been evacuated due to a “specific and credible threat” as it advised Americans in the country against traveling to either terminal
People walk the street with an anti-US mural on a building in the background, in Tehran, Iran, July 18.
The ceasefire between the US and Iran is in tatters, with the conflict between the two sides intensifying this past week
Tehran and Washington agreed to a memorandum of understanding (MoU) last month
Here’s what has happened since the beginning of July:
- July 1:US and Iranian negotiators travel to Doha, Qatar, for indirect negotiations. The delegations make “positive progress,” Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed al-Ansari says.
- July 7: Iran fires on three commercial vessels in Oman’s territorial waters near the Strait of Hormuz, according to a US official. US Central Command says it launched strikes against Iran as “punishment.”
- July 8: Iran warns it will deliver a “crushing response” to the US strikes, and the country’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) says it has launched attacks at 85 US military targets across Bahrain and Kuwait. Trump castigates Iran as “evil, sick people” at the NATO summit in Turkey, saying the memorandum of understanding “is over.” Hours later, the US launches more strikes against Iran.
- July 9: Tehran says the US military has struck a railway bridge in northern Iran. CENTCOM says the US has hit around 90 military targets in another round of strikes. A US official tells CNN that both countries are continuing to engage in technical negotiations on nuclear issues.
- July 10:Trump says the US has agreed to continue talks with Iran, but also that Washington has informed Tehran the ceasefire is no longer in effect. Iran’s chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf says Tehran is prepared for “all-out defense” if the US breaks the agreement. The Trump administration imposes fresh sanctions on Tehran.
- July 11:Iran’s foreign minister accuses the US of violating a clause on Tehran’s nuclear program in their MoU.
- July 12: The IRGC announces it has closed the Strait of Hormuz after firing a warning shot at a vessel attempting to use an unauthorized route to cross the waterway. The US military launches more strikeson Iran, and insists that the strait is still open.
- July 13: US attacks across Iran continue into the afternoon, killing at least two people, Iranian media reports. Trump says he will reinstate a blockade of Iranian ships in the Strait of Hormuz. The US carries out more strikes on Iran overnight.
- July 14: The IRGC says it “struck and disabled” what it called two “rogue supertankers.” Two tankers report being hit by missiles while transiting the southern route of the Strait of Hormuz, the UK Maritime Trade Operations center says. The US conducts more strikes overnight.
- July 15: Iran says that US strikes on the country have killed more than 30 civilians in recent days. In retaliation for the US strikes, Tehran says it has targeted US military infrastructure in Kuwait, Bahrain and Jordan.
- July 16: An explosion is heard in Tehran, as state media reports attacks across Iran. Jordan and Kuwait’s armies say that they have intercepted Iranian strikes. That evening, the US launches more strikes, with attacks reported across Iran.
- July 17:Kuwait, Bahrain, Jordan and Qatar report more Iranian attacks. Kuwait says Iran has hit a power generation and water desalination plant. The US strikes Iran again. Tehran claims it has targeted US forces in Syria, though US military and Syrian officials dispute this. An Iranian attack on Jordan kills two US service members and leaves another missing in action.
- July 18:US strikes damage a desalination plant in the south of Iran, according to the deputy governor of Hormozgan province. Kuwait, Bahrain, Jordan and Saudi Arabia report raising alarms or fending off Iranian attacks, as Kuwait says another power and water desalination plant has been hit.
- July 19:The US launches new strikes on Iran. Explosions are heard in Iran’s Bandar Abbas and on Qeshm Island, Iran’s state-run news agency IRNA reports. Meanwhile, Bahrain and Kuwait say that they have intercepted multiple Iranian aerial attacks.
CNN’s Mohammed Tawfeeq, Zachary Cohen, Jessie Yeung, Kevin Liptak, Sophie Tanno, Casey Gannon, Julia Benbrook, Hira Humayun, Pamela Brown, Lex Harvey, Davis Winkie, Isaac Yee, Clay Voytek, Betsy Klein, Alejandra Jaramillo, Aida Karimi, Lauren Kent, Jennifer Hansler, Rhea Mogul, Dalia Abdelwahab, Aleena Fayaz, Aileen Graef, Kathleen Magramo, Billy Stockwell, Helen Regan, Kareem El Damanhoury, Hanna Park, Ibrahim Dahman, Sana Noor Haq, Xiaoqian Lin, Mostafa Salem, Eyad Kourdi, Adam Pourahmadi, Tim Lister and Chris Lau contributed to this reporting.
Smoke rises from an explosion at an unknown location, during what US Central Command says are strikes on Iran, on July 18.
Both Bahrain and Kuwait have reported intercepting Iranian aerial attacks today, after the US launched yet another round of strikes at Iran overnight
As the conflict continues to escalate, here’s the latest:
- The international airport and seaport in the Jordanian city of Aqaba, which is on the Red Sea, have been evacuated due to a “specific and credible threat,” the US Embassy in Jordan said a short while ago.
- The US struck Iran for the eighth consecutive night in a row, in attacks that US Central Command said were launched to “swiftly punish” Iran for killing two American service members in Jordan on Friday.
- After CENTCOM announced the deaths of the service members in Jordan, US President Donald Trump said they were “a very sad thing.”
- Explosions were heard in Iran’s Bandar Abbas and on Qeshm Island early this morning local time, Iranian state-run news agency IRNA reported, citing local residents.
CNN’s Ibrahim Dahman, Sophie Tanno, Chris Lau, Aleena Fayaz, Logan Schiciano and Jomana Karadsheh contributed to this reporting
The international airport and seaport in the Jordanian port city of Aqaba have been evacuated due to a “specific and credible threat,”, the US Embassy in Jordan said Sunday
“We strongly advise all Americans to refrain traveling to either the airport or seaport,” it added
Aqaba on the Red Sea is usually very busy during summer months. It is home to Jordan’s only seaport
The US Embassy added that it continues to advise all Americans to avoid travel to military bases in Jordan, which have seen frequent Iranian attacks including one that killed two US service members
There has been no immediate comment from the Jordanian authorities
Officials inspect a heavily-damaged bridge which was hit by a US strike along the road connecting Roudan and Bandar Abbas in southern Iran on Saturday.
The US has now bombarded Iran for an eighth consecutive night in a row, targeting facilities related to the country’s air and coastal defenses as well as its missile and drone storage sites, according to US Central Command (CENTCOM)
The strikes were launched to “swiftly punish” Iran for killing two American soldiers in Jordan on Friday, CENTCOM said
Here’s a look at how the conflict has escalated over the past week:
- Last Sunday local time, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) closed the Strait of Hormuz after firing a warning shot at a vessel it said was attempting to use an unauthorized route to cross the waterway. The US military launched multiple rounds of strikes on Iran in response. Bahrain,Qatar,Kuwait,Oman and Jordan all reported incoming attacks as Iran retaliated.
- In the early hours of Monday morning, the US carried out another round of strikes on Iran, including on two locations near Ahvaz, a city known for its petroleum industry, as well as a water pumping station in southwestern Iran’s Khuzestan, state media reported. The IRGC launched a new wave of missile and drone attacks toward US bases in the region, including in Bahrain and Kuwait.
- Early Tuesday, the US military said it struck targets across Iran for five hours, damaging a power plant on Iran’s Kish Island, according to Iranian state media. Iran launched waves of strikes towards Bahrain, while Jordan’s state news agency said the country shot down four missiles fired from Iran. Four Kuwaiti service members were wounded by an Iranian attack on a Kuwaiti naval vessel, the country’s Defense Ministry said. The IRGC also said it “struck and disabled” two tankers in Strait of Hormuz. That night, the US struck Iran ahead of reimplementing its blockade of the country’s ports
- On Wednesday, the US carried out multiple rounds of strikes on Iran, killing at least seven Iranian military personnel, according to Iran’s army. A hospital in southwestern Iran was temporarily evacuated after a projectile from a US strike landed nearby, state-run media reported. Jordan, Kuwait and Bahrain responded to Iranian attacks.
- Early Thursdaylocal time, an explosion was heard in Tehran, as state media reported attacks across Iran. Jordan and Kuwait’s armies said that they intercepted Iranian strikes. That evening, the US launched more strikes, with attacks reported across Iran.
- In the early hours of Friday, Kuwait, Bahrain, Jordan and Qatar reported more Iranian attacks. Kuwait said Iran hit a power generation and water desalination plant. The US struck Iran again, with Iranian state media reporting that several bridges in the south of the country and a maritime control tower were hit. Iran claimed it targeted US forces in Syria, though both US military and Syrian officials disputed this.
- The US carried out a seventh night of overnight strikes on Iran into Saturday,whichdamaged a desalination plant in the south of the country, according to the deputy governor of Hormozgan province. Kuwait, Bahrain, Jordan and Saudi Arabia reported raising alarms or fending off Iranian attacks, as Kuwait said another power and water desalination plant was hit.
- Overnight into today, the US launched its new strikes on Iran following the deaths of the US service members in Jordan. Explosions were heard in Iran’s Bandar Abbas and on Qeshm Island, Iranian state-run news agency IRNA reported, citing local residents. Meanwhile, Bahrain said that it has intercepted and destroyed multiple Iranian aerial attacks today.
CNN’s Dalia Abdelwahab, Aleena Fayaz, Laura Sharman, Eyad Kourdi, Xiaoqian Lin, Mohammed Tawfeeq, Kareem El Damanhoury, Ross Adkin, Lex Harvey, Yasha Saebi, Max Saltman, Clay Voytek, Aida Karimi, Hira Humayun, Kathleen Magramo, Davis Winkie, Zachary Cohen, Kit Maher, Billy Stockwell, Mitchell McCluskey, Hanna Park, Ibrahim Dahman, Sana Noor Haq, Sophie Tanno, Mostafa Salem, Isaac Yee, Jessie Yeung, Adam Pourahmadi, Tim Lister and Chris Lau contributed to this reporting
Bahrain intercepted and destroyed multiple Iranian aerial attacks today, the country’s defense forces said, adding that all its “weapons and units are at the highest levels of readiness.”
The General Command urged “everyone to exercise caution and avoid approaching any unidentified or suspicious objects resulting from the remnants of the brutal Iranian aggression, and to report them immediately.”
Sirens sounded in Bahrain on Sunday morning, the country’s interior ministry noted on X, for the seventh time in less than 48 hours
The ministry instructed citizens to remain calm and head to the nearest safe space
Bahrain hosts US military facilities and has been a frequent target of Iranian reprisal attacks
Yemeni supporters of the Iran-backed Houthi movement hold portraits of Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi during a protest against what the group says are restrictions imposed by the Saudi-led coalition on Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, in Sanaa on Sunday.
Gulf states are looking on with growing apprehension as the conflict between Iran and the US escalates again
A pattern of strikes and counterstrikes is firmly bedded in, with the additional complication of growing tension between Saudi Arabia and the Iran-allied Houthis in Yemen, who are determined to break a blockade against them
The diplomatic track seems moribund for now. The flurry of Pakistani and Qatari delegations visiting Iran in an effort to sustain the ceasefire has given way to pessimism among regional diplomats. Qatar itself has been hit twice in the recent flare-up
Iranian drones have also targeted Oman, days after negotiations between the two states on a management scheme for the Strait. And Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) has struck ships sailing close to the Omani coastline. Traffic in the Strait of Hormuz is down to a trickle
Iran has repeatedly warned it is ready to step up strikes on neighbors that host US military facilities and a semi-official outlet – Fars – published a list of five ports in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates that it said could become targets if Iranian infrastructure were attacked
US targeting in recent days has included tunnels, roads, bridges and railways, according to Iranian state media – heightening anxiety that the conflict could spiral
“Every US escalation is met by an Iranian escalation, as each side seeks to establish new deterrence thresholds with every exchange,”
Rather than force Iran back to the negotiating table, “an equally plausible outcome is a conflict that spirals beyond either side’s intentions, expanding into a much broader regional war with diminishing opportunities to restore diplomacy,” Citrinowicz posted on X yesterday
Kuwait’s air defenses are “currently confronting” missile and drone attacks, its army said Sunday morning local time
“The General Staff of the Army notes that if explosion sounds are heard, they are the result of air defense systems intercepting the hostile attacks,” it said in an X post
Vehicles wait in traffic near a heavily-damaged bridge that was hit by a US strike along the road connecting Roudan and Bandar Abbas in southern Iran on Saturday.
Iran struck a military base in Jordan Saturday, killing two American service members and prompting the US military to launch counter attacks to, it said, “swiftly punish” Tehran. The slain service members were the first US military deaths in the conflict in months
The “rhythm of war” continues to pick up, an analyst told CNN, as renewed bombing between the two countries passed its eighth straight day
Here’s what else you should know:
- Multiple explosions were reported in Bandar Abbas and Qeshm Island early Sunday, according to Iranian media. Several locations were reportedly hit on Qeshm Island,located in the Strait of Hormuz. The island has been a target in recent days, with “parts of the island and its infrastructure” damaged in US attacks, Tasnim reported.
- US Central Command said it targeted Iranian forces behind the attacks that killed the two American service members, alongside a host of military facilities, during Saturday’s airstrikes.
- Iran’s military said it targeted US forces on two bases in Kuwait, according to a statement reported by state news outlet IRNA early Sunday local time. CNN was unable to verify the claim.
- Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei decried repeated US violations of the memorandum of understanding meant to pave the way for further peace talks, calling President Donald Trump’s signature “worthless and unreliable.”
Iran’s deadly attack on a base used by the US military in Jordan shows Tehran has not given up on the use of long-range strikes, a CNN analyst said Sunday
“With the attack on the Al-Azraq air base in Jordan, where the two service members were killed, and we have one missing, that indicates that the Iranians are still willing to use longer-range weapon systems,” said retired Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton
Meanwhile, he said, the US military has been stepping up strikes against the western part of Iran, from where long-range missiles could be fired
“The rhythm of war that we talked about has definitely picked up during these last few days,” Leighton said, also alluding to the generally intensified exchanges of fire
US Central Command said it completed its latest round of strikes against Iran at 11:30 p.m. Eastern time, targeting Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces behind the attacks that killed two US service members in Jordan
Other military facilities were also hit
“CENTCOM forces successfully hit Iranian military coastal surveillance and air defense facilities, maritime capabilities, and missile and drone storage sites to continue degrading Iranian military capabilities,” it said in a post on X. It did not say how many targets had been hit
This marks the eighth consecutive night of US strikes on Iran
A heavily-damaged bridge which was hit by a US strike is pictured along the road connecting Roudan and Bandar Abbas in southern Iran on Saturday.
In the week after the US renewed daily strikes on Iran and reimposed a naval blockade of Iranian ports, the Trump administration offered little clarity on how long the latest military campaign may last and its objective after a fragile truce was ruptured
Behind the scenes, President Donald Trump has been presented options for expanding the operation further as the military seeks ways to intensify efforts to loosen Iran’s grip on the Strait of Hormuz. But Iran has shown no willingness to cede control of the critical waterway
In public comments, Trump has signaled he intends to escalate the strikes, including threats on civilian infrastructure and potentially energy targets as he has downplayed the length of the hostilities. “We were in Vietnam for 19 years. We’re here for four months, so I think we’ve done a lot,” the president told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins this week
Trump on Tuesday told Fox News the strikes would “continue until I say it’s enough,” and in a primetime speech on Thursday in which Trump barely mentioned Iran, the president said, “you will see the fruits of that labor very, very shortly.”
Meanwhile, Vice President JD Vance — the administration’s lead negotiator with Iran — has suggested that military force alone won’t be enough to fully dismantle Iran’s control of the Strait of Hormuz
“You can bomb them, you can take away their radar, you can take away some of their drones and some of their missiles, but it’s just too easy to fire at ships in the straits,” he said in a podcast interview on Tuesday. “So, you’ve got to actually be willing to talk and to try to figure out the problem.”
Ryan Crocker, a former US ambassador to several Middle East countries, echoed the vice president’s sentiment, telling CNN’s Elex Michaelson Saturday that bombing Iran “into submission” will not work
Two US service members were killed and one is missing in action, US Central Command announced Saturday, marking the first American military fatalities from Iranian fire since March
Four additional American service members were medically evacuated to hospitals in Jordan but have since been discharged Other personnel sustained minor injuries and have returned to duty
- Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, in a statement earlier Saturday, claimed responsibility for strikes on a base used by US forces in Al-Azraq, Jordan. The IRGC claimed it had “completely” destroyed several aircraft in the attack, which it said was conducted with missiles and drones.
- CENTCOM said it will withhold the identities of the fallen soldiers until 24 hours after their next of kin are notified.
- The deaths bring the number of US service members who have died in the nearly five-month conflict to 16, according to the US military’s defense casualty analysis system.
- In comments to NewsNation on Saturday, President Donald Trump said of the fallen service members: “We hate to see it happen. It’s in service to our country.”
- Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth acknowledged the news in a post on X, writing: “Godspeed, heroes. Their sacrifice only stiffens our resolve.”
