Smoke billows after an Iranian strike on an oil facility in Mangaf, Kuwait, July 18, 2026
When Security Is Mistaken for Legitimacy: Understanding Polls In Iran
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UPDATES: US-Israel Wars, Day 142 — Clashes Resume Between Iran and US
UPDATE 1344 GMT:
The Lebanese army has accused Israel of firing near its troops as they were being deployed to one of three “pilot zones” in southern Lebanon.
The army said its soldiers were operating in Zawtar al-Gharbiyeh when Israeli forces “opened fire in the vicinity of these units”.
The Israel Defense Forces said troops fired because a Lebanese Army bulldozer went further than an agreed-upon line.
The implementation of the pilot zones began today under a framework agreement signed by Israel and Lebanon on June 26. The Israelis have said they will not withdraw from any other areas.
UPDATE 1340 GMT:
Two oil tankers loaded with Saudi crude for China and India turned around in the Red Sea on Tuesday and returned toward the Suez Canal.
The tankers U-turned after Yemen’s Houthi insurgents declared a naval blockade against Saudi Arabia on Monday.
UPDATE 1114 GMT:
Kuwait’s Energy Ministry says Iran has targeted power and desalination plants for a fourth day in a row.
The Ministry said “several” plants were attacked on Monday, causing fires and damage.
About 90% of Kuwait’s drinking water comes from desalination.
UPDATE 0830 GMT:
A US intelligence assessment concludes that Iran’s regime is unlikely to feel significant impact, let alone soften its negotiating position, from new rounds of American military strikes, say current and former US officials.
The analysts assess that Tehran and Washington are stuck in an indefinite limbo between peace and war for now.
The assessment was written primarily by the CIA. In May, an Agency analysis concluded that Iran could survive a US naval blockade for at least three to four months before facing more severe economic hardship.
UPDATE 0800 GMT:
Iran’s army says it launched an attack against US military targets at the Sheikh Isa airbase in Bahrain.
Bahrain officials said several Iranian missiles were intercepted.
The Jordanian military says it shot down five drones launched from Iran overnight, without casualties or damage.
UPDATE 0601 GMT:
In their latest attacks across the region, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards claim they targeted infrastructure of the US company Amazon in Bahrain.
The Guards said they fired on a US base in Jordan. The Jordanian military said three missiles launched from Iran overnight were intercepted.
UPDATE, JULY 21: Yemen’s Iran-allied Houthis, who control most of the country, have threatened a maritime embargo against Saudi Arabia.
The Houthis cited a Saudi blockade of Yemeni airspace. A Houthi official said the Bab al-Mandeb strait at the southern end of the Red Sea, through which about 12% of the world’s trade usually passes, will be closed to the Saudis.
During Israel’s war in Gaza from October 2023, the Yemeni faction carried out attacks in the Red Sea, cutting commercial traffic by up to 80%.
Saudi Arabia’s military maintained it will keep the waterway open.
UPDATE 2032 GMT:
The US has launched strikes for a 10th consecutive night.
Explosions are reported in the port city of Bandar Abbas on the coast of southern Iran. Air defense systems have been activated near the Bushehr nuclear power plant.
UPDATE 1956 GMT:
Jordan’s army says it downed three missiles fired by Iran. There were no injuries or material damage.
UPDATE 1740 GMT:
Two Greek-owned tankers have been hit by projectiles in the Strait of Hormuz, with one abandoned by its crew after a fire was set.
The crew of the Maltese-flagged Kavomaleas was rescued by a tugboat north of Kuzmar, Oman.
The vessel had been in the Persian Gulf off the Saudi coast for months. It tried to exit the Strait of Hormuz on July 2 with its AIS tracking turned off.
Another vessel has been struck 17 nautical miles east of Dibba near the port of Fujairah in the UAE. An unknown projectile damaged the steering gear. All crew are safe.
The US military said it disabled one ship and redirected seven in its blockade of Iranian ports.
UPDATE 1736 GMT:
The US is continuing to expand its attacks inside Iran.
Iranian officials report strikes on Shiraz in central Iran and an industrial unit in Khomein, also in the center. Earlier, a military officer was killed in the northwest.
UPDATE 1503 GMT:
The US State Department has said the Lebanese army has begun taking charge of security in the “pilot zones” of three villages in southern Lebanon.
The measure is part of a framework agreement between Israel and the Lebanese Government in late June.
Israel has said that its military will not withdraw from any other areas.
UPDATE 1342 GMT:
Mediators have passed Iran a proposal for a 10-day ceasefire to seek revival of the Memorandum of Understanding, a senior Iranian official says.
However, President Masoud Pezeshkian said, “The reality is that today the Islamic Republic of Iran is engaged in a full-scale war. We must be realistic and accept the natural consequences of this resistance.”
UPDATE 1339 GMT:
A US official says the Trump camp “is planning for a wider war” with more warplanes to the Middle East, but warns that the military will be hamstrung by insufficient stockpiles of air defense and long-range missiles.
“We do not have enough to safely sustain operations, and I don’t think the White House is aware of that,” says the official.
UPDATE 1330 GMT:
US officials confirm that the Pentagon hid dozens of US troop casualties from Iranian attacks on bases in Jordan last week, before two personnel were slain and four wounded 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 fatal attack on Friday was on the same site.
UPDATE 1327 GMT:
Air sirens are sounding in Bahrain for the fourth time in less than 24 hours.
Bahrain’s civil aviation authority said Iranian drones targeted the air navigation system, but traffic is unaffected.
UPDATE 0911 GMT:
A vessel is adrift and on fire off the Omani coast in the Strait of Hormuz after it was struck by an unknown projectile, reports the UK Maritime Trade Operations center.
The crew were rescued by a tugboat.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards claimed that they blew up two oil tankers who attempted to use the southern route of the Strait without permission.
UPDATE 0908 GMT:
The Iranian Foreign Ministry says diplomatic exchanges between the US and Iran are ongoing via mediators, despite an escalation in clashes.
Spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said, “We have been informed by mediators, we have received messages – without going into details – but the main point is that the diplomatic apparatus has been active in recent days and ideas have been conveyed to us by certain mediators.”
Baghaei said of the Strait of Hormuz, “We must not allow this waterway to be misused again to threaten Iran’s security and national interests.” Tehran is “determined to take the necessary measures” to safeguard sovereignty, he asserted.
UPDATE, JULY 20:
The US has carried out a ninth consecutive night of strikes, expanding them beyond southern Iran.
The Americans attacked Tabriz in the northwest for the first time, with three large explosions heard in the city. At least one person was killed and several wounded.
Iran has again retaliated with attacks across the region. Kuwait’s army said it intercepted drones, and air raids sounded three times in Bahrain in the past eight hours.
The price of Brent crude has risen above $90 per barrel for the first time since last month. It stands at $90.87 this morning.
Brent approached $120 in March, but fell to just above $70 in June with hopes of a lasting US-Iran ceasefire.
UPDATE 1936 GMT:
A US service member in northern Iraq was killed on Friday during a controlled detonation of unexploded ordnance from a downed Iranian drone.
The soldier was hit by shrapnel from the detonation. An investigation has been launched.
The fatality was the third on Friday among American troops and the 17th during the US-Israel War on Iran.
UPDATE 1452 GMT:
Jordan’s military has shot down three of four Iranian missiles. The fourth missile fell in a remote area in the south.
No casualties or damage were reported.
UPDATE 1449 GMT:
Continuing their executions of participants in January’s nationwide protests, Iran’s authorities hanged two men on Sunday morning.
Erfan Esfandiyari and Golmohammad Mohammadi were accused of killing four Iranian police officers during demonstrations in Isfahan in central Iran.
UPDATE 1445 GMT:
Kuwaiti authorities say Iran has attacked a power generation and water desalination plant for the second time in two days, setting a fire in some facilities which affected a large number of electricity generation units.
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.
