Smoke billows after an Iranian strike on an oil facility in Mangaf, Kuwait, July 18, 2026
UPDATES: US-Israel Wars, Day 142 — Clashes Resume Between Iran and US
UPDATE 1215 GMT:
Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization says the US attacked an under-construction nuclear power plant.
The Organization said the attack was on the Darkhovin plant in Khuzestan Province in southwest Iran on Sunday. Construction began on the site four years ago.
UPDATE 1051 GMT:
The Wall Street Journal reports Iran made around $6 billion from sales of oil during a brief lifting of the US blockade and sanctions last month.
The Iranians despatched around 20 tankers as the Trump Administration issued a sanctions waiver, scheduled to last until August 21.
The Administration reimposed the sanctions earlier this month as clashes escalated in and near the Strait of Hormuz.
UPDATE 1040 GMT:
US officials have spoken about five days of Iranian attacks on American positions in Jordan, culminating in the killing of two troops on Friday.
The first attack struck a residential facility at King Faisal Air Base, wounding up to five service members. The second hit a base in eastern Jordan, damaging US Blackhawk helicopters.
Muwaffaq Salti airbase was hit on Thursday, wounding around 20 US troops rushing to take cover in bunkers. The follow-up attack on Friday caused the first American fatalities since a US-Iran ceasefire on April 7, as well as hospitalizing four personnel.
ORIGINAL ENTRY: Iran killed two US troops, with another missing, in an attack on Jordan’s Muwaffaq Salti airbase on Friday.
Four wounded soldiers were treated in hospital and released.
The deaths brought the American total to 16, with more than 430 wounded, during the US-Israel War on Iran. The other fatalities were before the ceasefire announced on April 7.
US Central Command confirmed the killings on Saturday, claiming that it targeted the Iranian forces who carried out the attack. CENTCOM said it hit military coastal surveillance and air defense facilities, maritime capabilities, and missile and drone storage sites in an eighth consecutive night of strikes.
Explosions were reported near Qeshm Island and close to the port Sirik, Hajiabad, and Bandar Abbas on the coast of southern Iran.
The office of Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei warned of “unforgettable lessons” if the US continues attacks.
The Revolutionary Guards targeted sites in Jordan, Bahrain, and Kuwait on Saturday. Kuwaiti authorities said a power and water desalination plant was struck, and an attack on an oil facilities caused injuries and “significant damage”.
In northern Iraq, a base of the Kurdistan Freedom Party, an Iranian Kurdish dissident group, was struck by a drone near Erbil. A KDP official said eight members were wounded.
A senior advisor to the Supreme Leader, Mohsen Rezaei, said Iran will resume “full-scale offensive operations” if US strikes continue for another two or three days: “Iran will no longer limit itself to retaliatory, like-for-like responses … and no political border will be safe.”
Iranian Deputy Kazem Gharibabadi said in a statement:
The US has violated and suspended all its commitments within the framework of the Islamabad MOU [Memorandum of Understanding].
We have also suspended our commitments. We are not implementing them, and we are busy defending the country.
