War returns to Iran with Israel, US strikes

Air raid sirens have sounded in the Gulf kingdom of Bahrain as Iran and the United States trade fresh strikes over control of the Strait of Hormuz, AFP reports.

“The siren has been sounded. Citizens and residents are urged to remain calm and head to the nearest safe place,” the interior ministry said in a statement, while an AFP journalist confirmed sirens had rung out in Bahrain’s capital Manama.

US President Trump has given a brief phone interview to US cable network NewsNation, according to Al Jazeera.

Asked about Tehran’s announcement that it’s no longer abiding by the US-Iran memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed last month, Trump said, “I couldn’t care less.”

He repeated the war’s primary objective is “never allowing Iran to have a nuclear weapon”.

Newly appointed Venezuelan Foreign Minister Félix Plasencia has acknowledged “Pakistan’s constructive role in promoting dialogue and de-escalation” in the US-Iran war, Foreign Office (FO) says.

In a post on X, FO has further added that Plasencia commended Pakistan’s commitment to peace and diplomacy.

Iran’s state-run Press TV reports that the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps Aerospace Force has shot down a US MQ-9 drone over Ahvaz “using its new advanced air defence system”.

A Kuwaiti resident has told AFP there are fears that basic goods might become unavailable if the escalation continues.

“The demand for water and canned goods has increased since this morning amid fears that services or supply chains will be affected,” 61-year-old Hassan Rayan told AFP.

Resident Ali Mahmoud, 46, told the agency that “the streets and beaches were almost empty, even though it is a holiday”.

The Kuwait military says it is responding to missile and drone attacks by Iran, Reuters and AFP report.

“Kuwaiti air defenses are currently confronting hostile missile and drone attacks, following the sinful Iranian aggression,” the army said in a statement, as an AFP journalist reported warning sirens sounding in Kuwait City.

In its statement published earlier, Centcom has claimed that during the latest round of attacks, its forces “successfully hit Iranian military coastal surveillance and air defence facilities, maritime capabilities, and missile and drone storage sites”.

It added, “American military assets also targeted Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces that launched attacks against US service members in Jordan on July 17”.

According to Rudaw, a Kurdish news outlet, the leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) has condemned Friday’s strikes on Iraq’s Kurdish region, calling them “deliberate” and “a severe breach” of international norms, Al Jazeera reports.

The strikes killed nine members of the Iranian Kurdish opposition group, Komala, on Friday.

“Our nation faced a grave and unacceptable violation of our security and sovereignty. A ballistic missile strike, launched from Iran, targeted our homeland and our heroic security forces,” Bafel Talabani has said.

“We stand with our brothers in Erbil at this grave time; an attack on one is an attack on all,” he said, adding that while the Kurdish region did not seek a wider conflict, its restraint “should not be mistaken for a lack of resolve or ability”.

The US military says that it has carried out an eighth consecutive night of strikes against Iran, with targets including units behind the attack that killed two American troops in Jordan, AFP reports.

US Central Command (Centcom) said it struck Iranian military facilities and “targeted Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces that launched attacks against US service members in Jordan on July 17.”

The Central Command says it has completed the eight consecutive night of strikes against Iran, at the commander-in-chief’s direction.

Major General Ali Abdullahi, the commander of Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, has warned the US that “any aggression or barbarism will be met with a decisive and devastating response” from the country’s armed forces, according to Al Jazeera.

In a statement carried by Iranian state media, Abdullahi described the US as “the great Satan” and “the criminal, treacherous, and deceitful enemy”.

He pledged to strengthen unity between the armed forces, the Iranian public and officials and pledged to “impose heavier costs” on the US than in the previous wars.

“The enemy, following successive defeats in the military conflict, has taken comfort in creating division and discord between the people and their leaders,” Abdullahi said.

“Our dear country’s defensive power is a solid foundation for the peace and security of the proud and courageous nation from south to north and from east to west of the glorious and vast Iranian land,” he added.

Iran’s army says it has targeted two US bases in Kuwait with drones in response to American attacks on Iranian territory, reports AFP.

The Islamic republic’s army said it carried out “large-scale attacks with kamikaze drones against the US military’s ammunition depot at Camp Udairi and the Patriot radar system and air surveillance radar at Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait”, according to a statement carried by the state broadcaster.

Former US Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene has criticised Trump’s war on Iran, accusing the Trump administration of using the deaths of two American service members in Jordan to justify further escalation, Al Jazeera reports.

She was responding to Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, who described the soldiers as “heroes” whose “sacrifice only stiffens our resolve”.

In a post on X, Greene said the soldiers had not willingly sacrificed themselves but had been killed in a war being waged “on behalf of a foreign country, Israel”.

“You mean their deaths fuel your bloodlust for a senseless war,” she wrote on X.

Al Jazeera, citing the Tasnim news agency, is reporting that at least six missiles have struck areas on the outskirts of Qeshm Island.

Citing its correspondent on the island, Tasnim said security officials and relevant authorities have not yet made any statements on the incident. It added that no information has been released about the extent of potential damage or casualties.

The United States has said it launched new airstrikes on Iran for attacks against US forces in Jordan after its first military deaths since renewing its hostilities with Tehran.

US Central Command (Centcom) said on X that the strikes began at 2200 GMT and “are designed to further degrade Iran’s ability to threaten commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and swiftly punish Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces who launched attacks against American service members in Jordan last night.”

Iranian news agencies Fars and Tasnim have simultaneously reported US attacks on Sirik, a port located on the Strait of Hormuz in southern Iran.

An Al Jazeera correspondent has reported the strike on the town in southern Lebanon’s Nabatieh district.

Iran’s First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref says the US initiated its attacks on Iran “before the ink on the Islamabad MoU had even dried”, Al Jazeera reports.

In comments carried by Iran’s Fars news agency, Aref says the US attacks occurred despite the MoU assigning Iran responsibility for managing traffic in the Strait of Hormuz during the first 60 days.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei says that the US broadcasting images of destroyed Iranian infrastructure erodes its moral standing.

“For a State that once cast itself as the global champion of order, liberalism, and the war on terrorism, proudly displaying images of destroyed bridges and civilian infrastructure has become its only remaining ‘victory’“, he writes on X.

“Yet with the collapse of every bridge, every tower, and every civilian facility, it is not merely steel and concrete that is being reduced to rubble. It is America’s moral standing — along with the entire architecture of international law and the civilizational claims of the West — that is crumbling before the world’s eyes.”

Baqaei says that the question that must now be asked of the US and its allies is “stark and simple: What is the real difference between what they have done in Chabahar, Minab, Lamerd, and Jask, and the very acts of terrorism they once invoked to justify their wars and occupations?”

US Central Command (Centcom) has issued a statement saying two military personnel stationed in Jordan were killed in action in Iranian missile and drone strikes.

“Additionally, one service member is currently missing in action,” the statement, posted on X, reads.

“Four American service members were medically evacuated to Jordanian hospitals. They have since been discharged. Other personnel who were evaluated for minor injuries have returned to duty,” it adds.

A merchant vessel and military forces have been involved in an incident about 100 nautical miles east of Duqm, Oman, Reuters reports citing the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Centre (UKMTO).

“Reports indicate that the tanker was subject to interaction as part of ongoing military activity in the region,” UKMTO has said without giving further details.

Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei has said that since the US is seeking to escalate the conflict and incur “even heavier costs and further humiliation, it should know that the noble nation of Iran and the Resistance Front have unforgettable lessons in store for it”.

Continuing his written address, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei says the US “has once again revealed its true, unmasked face, so that this dark episode of criminality and broken promises serves as yet another indisputable testament to the US’s dishonesty, irrationality, unreliability, and malicious nature”.

“Coercion, totalitarianism, and brutality are inseparable components of the US creed and doctrine,” he adds.

Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry has said it strongly condemns “the continued brutal Iranian aggression” against Kuwait, Bahrain and Jordan, according to Al Jazeera.

In a statement, the ministry says it fully supports the measures those countries take against Iran’s attacks, which “violate international law and the principles of good neighbourliness”.

The Saudi statement follows earlier condemnations of Iran’s recent attacks on Gulf neighbours by Qatar and GCC chief Jassim al-Budaiwi.