Iran war live: US launches new strikes; Trump mourns killed soldiers

Live updates,

The US president mourned the loss of soldiers in Jordan as 'a sad thing,' while American forces launched airstrikes against Iran for the eighth consecutive night.

The escalating military exchange between Washington and Tehran marks one of the most serious confrontations in the region in recent years.

Published On 19 Jul 2026

• The US launches new strikes on Iran after two American soldiers were killed in Iranian strikes in Jordan.
• US President Donald Trump says the deaths were “a very sad thing”, adding that “we’re never allowing Iran to have a nuclear weapon”.

23 Updates

• 55s ago

   (03:00 GMT)

  

  Top Iranian commander warns US of ‘devastating response’ to aggression

  Major General Ali Abdullahi, who commands Iran's Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, warned the US that 'any aggression or barbarism will be met with a decisive and devastating response' from the country's military.

  In a statement carried by Iranian state media, Abdullahi described the US “the great Satan” as well as “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.

• 7m ago

   (02:53 GMT)

  

  New US strikes reported on Qeshm Island

  According to the Tasnim news agency, US fighter jets struck Iran's Qeshm Island again, with at least two explosions reported.

  It said at least two explosions were heard on the island, and that emergency, security and operational teams have been deployed to identify the locations hit and assess any casualties or damage.

• 10m ago

   (02:50 GMT)

  US urges Americans abroad to exercise caution

  Reporting from Washington, DC, US

  The US State Department is urging Americans travelling anywhere in the world to exercise increased caution because of heightened tensions in the Middle East and the possibility of what it described as “unforeseen escalation”.

  That warning was issued before the latest US air strikes against Iran, and the feared escalation has since materialised.

  The developments are also showing how a war that may appear distant to many Americans at home is directly affecting them. The economic impact is already being felt through higher fuel prices, while American service members have also been killed in the conflict.

  Those latest military deaths have further increased the number of US personnel killed since the fighting began.

• 14m ago

   (02:46 GMT)

  

  US forces hits location near Shadegan in southwestern Iran

  US fighter jets have struck a location near the city of Shadegan in Iran’s southwestern Khuzestan province, the Tasnim news agency reported, citing the province’s deputy governor for security.

  The official said emergency teams were at the scene and would provide further information about the situation and the extent of any damage later.

• 20m ago

   (02:40 GMT)

  

  Iran claims drone attacks on two ‘US bases’ in Kuwait

  Iran’s army says it has launched a large-scale drone attack on two “US military facilities” in Kuwait.

  In a statement carried by the IRIB state broadcaster, the army said its “destructive drones” hit an ammunition depot at Camp Al Adiri as well as Patriot and air-defence radars at Ali Al Salem Air Base.

• 30m ago

   (02:30 GMT)

  What to expect after the US reimposes naval blockade on Iran’s ports?

  Reporting from Tehran, Iran

  The United States has reinforced its naval blockade on Iran’s southern ports, amid the escalating military confrontation between them.

  The US blockade on Iran was first imposed in mid-April and remained for over nine weeks. It was only lifted after the two sides signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in June to end four months of fighting and reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

  Iran immediately began exporting tens of millions of barrels of crude oil, much of it stored on supertankers anchored close to its oil terminals. However, after the recent resurgence in military strikes over control of the Strait of Hormuz, Washington rescinded oil and banking waivers issued as part of the MoU and prevented vessels linked to Iran from returning to port to load more Iranian oil.

  Since the MoU effectively fell apart due to recent strikes, US Central Command (CENTCOM) has redirected several ships operating in the Strait of Hormuz. It also launched a strike to disable the Curacao-flagged supertanker Belma, which had allegedly been transporting Iranian crude during the war.

  Read more here.

  

• 40m ago

   (02:20 GMT)

  

  With Trump’s decision-making, ‘presidential psychology is important than political costs’

  Ross Harrison, an analyst with the Middle East Institute in Washington, DC, says Trump ran on ending “forever wars” and “stupid wars” in the Middle East, yet is now engaged in a war that “seems to lack any real strategic logic.”

  “One of the questions we struggle with here in the United States is whether political logic actually weighs upon this administration,” he told Al Jazeera.

  During Trump’s first term, “we did see that they were watching the poll numbers, they were watching the stock market,” he said. “But the question here is: do more casualties actually impact the decisional calculus on the part of the president? That’s unclear at this point.”

  Harrison suggested Trump may now be driven more by how he sees himself in historical terms than by conventional political pressures like midterms or economic fallout.

  “What’s concerning is that presidential psychology is more important than the political costs,” he said. “Some of the questions we would ask of a regular president – how midterms or the economy would weigh on decision-making – may be detached at this point. And that’s what makes this conflict particularly dangerous.”

  

• 50m ago

   (02:10 GMT)

  Israeli forces killed at least 11 people in Gaza on Saturday

  Palestinian health officials say Israel’s attacks on Gaza have killed 11 people across the territory on Saturday, including a family of five.

  The family – three children and their parents – were killed when an Israeli strike hit a residential apartment in northwest Gaza City, according to the territory’s civil defence agency.

  “The family’s only surviving member is one child, who was not inside the house at the time of the strike,” Mahmoud Bassal, spokesman for the agency, told the AFP news agency.

  Gaza’s Al-Shifa hospital confirmed it had received the five bodies.

  At least 1,150 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since the US-brokered “ceasefire” between Israel and Hamas took effect last October, according to Gaza’s health ministry.

  

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• 1h ago

   (01:50 GMT)

  Gulf nations denounce Iran’s attacks

  Reporting from Doha, Qatar

  Throughout the day we’ve seen various statements from countries in the region as well as the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). Some of those statements were strongly worded. The head of the GCC, Jasem Mohamed Albudaiwi, even went so far as to accuse Iran of carrying out war crimes following the strikes on Kuwait’s power and desalination plants.

  In Saudi Arabia, the Foreign Ministry condemned the strikes and demanded an immediate end to the military escalation in the region. And here in Qatar, the Foreign Ministry called those strikes “dangerous escalations” and said they complicate efforts to contain tensions.

  But throughout the conflict, Iran has been saying its air strikes and drone attacks do not target civilian infrastructure. They say the only targets they have hit are US personnel and military infrastructure in the region.

  Separately, the GCC and EU have issued a joint statement calling Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz unlawful and rejecting claims of sovereignty or control of the strait by any state.

  Why do they say that? The GCC countries depend on the strait for the export of oil and gas, while for the EU, about 10 percent of its oil supply comes from the region, most of it passing through that waterway.

  For Iran, the strait has been a sticking point in the negotiations with the US. They want ships transiting the strait to get pre-approval and also to pay fees. They say those charges will pay for the damage done by the US and Israel’s strikes.

• 1h ago

   (01:35 GMT)

  

  US public likely to hold Trump responsible for soldiers’ deaths ‘in equal measure to Iran’

  We’ve been speaking to David Des Roches, a professor at the Thayer Marshall Institute, about how the Pentagon determines an appropriate response when US soldiers are killed.

  “It sounds like a cop-out, but it really is situationally dependent,” Des Roches told Al Jazeera. “The situation depends on what means we have, how close we think we are to resolving an issue, whether it could be dealt with through negotiations and, quite frankly, what the domestic political mood is.”

  Des Roches, a former Pentagon director of Arabian Peninsula affairs, said the American public was likely to hold Trump responsible for Iran’s killing of the two US soldiers in Jordan.

  “Because President Trump didn’t really lay the groundwork domestically or make a case for this war before it started, I think that people will hold Trump responsible for this in equal measure to Iran,” he said.

  “The president’s supporters certainly will want to see something taken against Iran,” he added, saying there remains a military argument to “establish deterrence so that this doesn’t happen again”.

• 1h ago

   (01:20 GMT)

  Anger, frustration in Iran as US air strikes continue

  Reporting from Tehran, Iran

  There is a certain amount of impact on the lives of ordinary citizens, not only in the areas targeted by strikes but across the country.

  The Iranian public is angry, as they know that when it comes to American strikes, it’s not just military sites or state buildings that are targeted but also civilian areas. And civilian areas were also targeted during the two previous wars, the 40-day war and the 12-day war in June 2025.

  There is also frustration about an uncertain future. People don’t really know whether they are going to see the continuation of this confrontation, or how long it’s going to take, and also if there is a possibility for a diplomatic settlement to resolve all these complexities and find a long-lasting solution, the long-lasting peace.

  We have to keep in mind that the public mood and public life here are already impacted by a deteriorating economy, which is getting worse by the impact of the war, including increasing prices and inflation. This is on top of years of sanctions and also domestic mismanagement.

  Last but not least, there’s a rally-around-the-flag effect that we see among the people amid these ongoing air strikes.

  

• 1h ago

   (01:10 GMT)

  WATCH: Damage visible to Iran bridges and water plant after US attacks

  US strikes damaged bridges and a water desalination plant in Iran after an eighth straight night of attacks. Iran responded with missile launches against US allies in the Gulf, including Kuwait, where people are being asked to conserve power.

  Watch below:

• 1h ago

   (01:05 GMT)

  

  At least six missiles hit outskirts of Qeshm

  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.

• 2h ago

   (01:00 GMT)

  Former Trump allies slam ‘senseless war’ on Iran

  Former US Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene and former director of the US National Counterterrorism Center Joe Kent have criticised Trump’s war on Iran, with the latter calling for American forces to be withdrawn from the Middle East.

  Greene accused the Trump administration of using the deaths of two American service members in Jordan to justify further escalation. She was responding to Defense 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.

  Kent separately argued that US air attacks were failing and warned that a ground campaign would cause heavy American casualties and further destabilise the region.

  He said the killing of Iran’s former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei had “backfired” by rallying Iranians behind the government and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

  Kent called for US troops, bases and naval forces to be removed from the region, describing them as liabilities. He said Washington should instead offer sanctions relief in exchange for guarantees protecting navigation through the Strait of Hormuz.

• 2h ago

   (00:55 GMT)

  

  Explosions heard in Iran’s Bandar Abbas and Qeshm Island

  Several explosions have been heard in the southern Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas and on nearby Qeshm Island, according to Iranian media.

  The official IRNA news agency reported that several explosions were heard in parts of Bandar Abbas, and that authorities were investigating on the ground. The semi-official Tasnim news agency cited provincial officials as saying that audible blasts had been heard in Bandar Abbas, but that they had yet to receive any reports of missile impacts or attacks by US fighter jets.

  Tasnim also reported that explosions were heard at around 3:38am local time (00:08 GMT) in multiple locations across Qeshm Island. Residents said several locations on the island had been hit, with some putting the number of impacts between three and five, the agency reported.

  Both Bandar Abbas and Qeshm Island have been subjected to repeated US air attacks in recent days.

• 2h ago

   (00:50 GMT)

  Iran names two girls killed in US strikes on southern Iran

  Two Iranian girls – Sogand Dardmand and Fatemeh Zahra Akbari – were among seven civilians killed in a US air strike on a bridge in Bandar Khamir in southern Iran, the Iranian embassy in India says via a post on X.

  The bridge was hit late on Thursday when US forces launched attacks across southern Iran.

  Iranian authorities say at least 50 people have been killed and more than 500 have been wounded in the US air attacks.

  Two girls, Sogand Dardmand and Fatemeh Zahra Akbari, were among the seven civilians killed in the US airstrike on the bridge in Bandar Khamir, southern Iran. pic.twitter.com/MNY8qRwipb

  — Iran in India (@Iran_in_India) July 18, 2026

• 2h ago

   (00:41 GMT)

  

  US forces target location near Qeshm

  The Mehr news agency is reporting that a location near Iran’s Qeshm Island was targeted in a US military attack.

  It said there were no civilian casualties or damage to residential or commercial infrastructure.

• 2h ago

   (00:30 GMT)

  US says latest strikes on Iran are punishment for soldiers’s deaths

  Reporting from Washington DC, US

  According to the US Central Command (CENTCOM), this is a new wave of air strikes that began about two hours ago, as “swift punishment” for the killing of those two US servicemen in Jordan, which happened on Friday.

  President Trump said he authorised the strikes.

  As to what they’re targeting, CENTCOM said it’s to “further degrade Iran’s ability to threaten commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz”, but the president days earlier had also threatened to bomb all of Iran’s bridges and all of its power plants.

  CENTCOM has taken credit for striking logistics, weapons storage, and other military targets, but it has not said that it bombed bridges or desalination plants as some reports have indicated.

  We’re still seeking clarity on that, and of course this is now the eighth consecutive day that the US is bombing Iran in this dramatic escalation, which has now taken the lives of two additional US service members, bringing the total US military death toll of this conflict to 16.

• 2h ago

   (00:20 GMT)

  US energy firm halts operations in Iraq’s Kurdish region

  HKN Energy has suspended all operations in Iraq’s Kurdish region due to escalating tensions between the US and Iran, the Rudaw news network reported, citing a company official.

  The decision came days after HKN signed a contract with Iraq’s Oil Ministry to develop the Hamrin oilfield in Salahaddin province, according to Rudaw.

  The July 9 agreement aims to boost oil production to 140,000 barrels per day and gas production to 40 million cubic feet per day.

  The suspension follows a series of drone strikes targeting Erbil and Sulaimaniyah provinces that killed nine members of an Iranian Kurdish opposition group. It also comes after UAE-based Dana Gas said on Thursday it had temporarily suspended operations at the Khor Mor gasfield near Sulaimaniyah due to “credible threats”.

• 2h ago

   (00:10 GMT)

  US bombs Iran for an eighth consecutive night

  Reporting from Tehran, Iran

  It’s turning into yet another night of escalation as American air strikes continue to target Iran’s southern coast.

  At this point, I can say the strikes are less intense compared to the past two to three nights when we witnessed attacks targeting civilian infrastructure, military sites and other places across Iran’s southern coast.

  Now, according to the latest reports, roars of fighter jets have been heard over the skies of Kish Island, and there are reports of sounds of explosions in the city of Sirik, which is an important geostrategic location because it oversees the Strait of Hormuz. And there are reports that Al Jazeera cannot independently confirm of explosions in Bandar Abbas. This is the most important port city of the country, and over the past two to three nights, it has witnessed some of the heaviest bombardment by the Americans.

  At this time, the situation seems to be quite fragile, and we are closely following to see whether there are going to be sustained attacks or it’s going to be less intense.

The repeated US strikes, now in their eighth consecutive night, underscore a deepening cycle of retaliation following the deaths of American soldiers in Jordan. Iran's pledge of a 'decisive and devastating response' raises the risk of further expansion of hostilities. Observers will be monitoring whether diplomatic channels can reopen or if the conflict will widen to involve other regional actors.