More than 10 civilians, including a 4-year-old child, were injured in Saudi Arabia on Thursday after a series of attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, according to the Saudi military.

The attacks, which took place in the southern region of Najran, near the Yemeni border, came hours after the Iran-backed rebels claimed responsibility for another series of strikes in central and eastern Yemen that killed at least 30 government troops and wounded at least 50 others.

A Houthi leader said Saudi-backed troops were targeted in the attacks and that “hundreds” were either killed or injured. The assaults hit camps for forces of the internationally recognised government in the provinces of Marib and Hadramout, the Yemeni officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media.

– AP

Oil prices slipped on Thursday (August 6, 2026) as investors assessed whether progress in Iran-Oman talks could pave the way for a U.S.-Iran peace deal to end the five-month war and reopen the ‌Strait of Hormuz.

Brent crude futures fell 37 cents, or 0.5%, to $79.08 a barrel by 0024 GMT. U.S. ⁠West Texas Intermediate futures declined 53 cents, or 0.7%, to $74.69 a barrel. Brent settled up slightly on Wednesday, while WTI edged lower.

“Some selling pressure emerged following ‌reports that talks between Iran and Oman are making progress,” said Yuki Takashima, economist at Nomura Securities.

– Reuters

The United States and Iran exchanged strikes aimed at infrastructure and military targets on Saturday (July 18, 2026) as an Iranian negotiator said Tehran had suspended its commitments under the interim deal with the U.S. — snapping another fragile thread as the war shows no end in sight.

Also read | West Asia war updates on July 18, 2026

The battle over the Strait of Hormuz intensified in a conflict increasingly focused on control of the essential waterway that previously carried a fifth of the world’s crude oil. The widening strikes threatened civilians and services to them, while the global economy again was on alert.

The U.S. Central Command said early Saturday (July 18, 2026) that its seventh straight night of strikes hit “surveillance sites, military logistics infrastructure, underground weapons storage, and maritime capabilities.”

The U.S. has violated its commitments under the deal that was signed about a month ago, and now Iran is “no longer implementing them,” Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran’s deputy foreign minister, told state TV.

Kuwait sees the most striking damage

The most significant damage on Saturday (July 18, 2026) occurred in Kuwait, when Iran struck a water desalination plant and an oil facility, according to the Kuwait authorities and the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation. Both declined to provide locations.

The strikes injured several people at the oil facility and caused a fire at the desalination plant, forcing several power generation units offline. It was the second attack against a desalination plant in two days in the tiny desert nation that depends on desalination for 90% of its drinking water.

Several firefighters and a worker were injured while battling two other blazes sparked by Iranian strikes, according to the Kuwait Fire Force. Kuwait briefly closed its airspace due to missile threats, and Kuwait Airways said it was rescheduling most flights to and from the capital.

Iran targets several West Asian nations

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps stepped up its warning that countries hosting US forces should be “prepared to receive a corresponding response,” according to Iran’s state TV.

Iraq said it shot down attack drones over the city of Irbil. Jordan’s state-run Petra news agency said the kingdom’s air defence systems had downed Iranian missiles, while air sirens sounded multiple times in Bahrain throughout the day and in Saudi Arabia in the morning, according to their governments.

Iranian officials say recent U.S. strikes have killed dozens of people and wounded hundreds in Iran. The U.S. military acknowledged that several more of its service members were injured.

Iran effectively closed the strait to shipping traffic after the war started with U.S. and Israeli strikes on February 28. That sent the price of oil soaring and has given Iran significant leverage in negotiations. The price of oil rose Friday (July 17, 2026) above $86 a barrel, close to its highest level in a month, as crossings through the strait fell to a three-week low, according to an international shipping tracker.

Before the war began, the U.S. had been in talks with Iran over its nuclear programme. Mr. Trump now faces political pressure to end the war and avoid the kind of prolonged West Asia conflict he had campaigned against.

U.S. strikes hit infrastructure in Iran

U.S. airstrikes hit an electricity and desalination plant in Iran’s southern Hormozgan province, Iranian state TV reported. The attacks hit Bonji, a coastal village on the strait.

Overnight strikes damaged two tunnels and a bridge, disrupting one of the main highways toward Bandar Abbas, Iran’s main port that sits near the narrowest part of the strait, according to Iran’s state-run news agency. Iran also reported strikes on strategic Qeshm Island inside the strait.

Iran acknowledged “attacks on power infrastructure” during the U.S. airstrikes for the first time Friday (July 17, 2026) when its Energy Ministry issued a call for people to use less power in southern provinces “experiencing extreme heat.” It did not specify what was hit.

Iranian authorities said at least 50 people have been killed and more than 500 wounded in U.S. strikes in the past three weeks, including eight killed in a strike on a bridge Friday (July 17, 2026).

U.S. officials acknowledged 13 additional US service members — 10 Army soldiers and three Navy sailors — had been injured since Monday (July 13, 2026), but offered no details. Since the war began, 14 U.S. service members have been killed and 427 wounded.

Strikes come as Iran and U.S. vie for Strait of Hormuz

Iran has said the strait must be under its sole control and that vessels should pay fees to Tehran, even though the world for decades has considered it an international waterway.

Mr. Trump has returned to threatening to target power stations and bridges to try to compel Iran to loosen its hold on the strait. The U.S. also reimposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports to halt its shipments of crude oil.

A growing amount of the region’s energy is being shipped through pipelines, but not nearly enough to offset the decline in shipping.

Published – July 18, 2026 10:21 pm IST

The United States and Iran exchanged strikes aimed at infrastructure and military targets on Saturday (July 18, 2026) as their battle over the Strait of Hormuz intensified.

The region has endured days of back-and-forth attacks in a conflict increasingly focused on control of the strait. The collapse of an interim ceasefire leaves no clear end in sight for the war that the U.S. and Israel began more than four months ago.

The U.S. Central Command said late Friday (July 17, 2026) it had launched its seventh straight night of attacks aimed at degrading Iran’s military. Early Saturday (July 18, 2026), it said the strikes had hit “surveillance sites, military logistics infrastructure, underground weapons storage, and maritime capabilities.” Kuwait said on Saturday (July 18, 2026) it was intercepting Iranian missiles and drones, and air sirens sounded in Bahrain, according to the government there.

Iranian officials say recent U.S. strikes have killed dozens of people and wounded hundreds, with new casualties reported Friday, when the US military also acknowledged more injured service members.

Iran effectively closed the strait to shipping traffic after the war started on February 28. That sent the price of oil soaring and gave Iran significant leverage in negotiations. The price of oil rose on Friday (July 18, 2026) above $86 a barrel, close to its highest level in a month, as crossings through the strait fell to a three-week low, according to an international shipping tracker.

In an address to the American public on Thursday (July 16, 2026) evening, Mr. Trump insisted the war was going well. “We are likewise winning big in Iran, and you will see the fruits of that labour very, very shortly,” he said.

Before the war began, the U.S. had been in talks with Iran over its nuclear program. Mr. Trump now faces political pressure to bring the war to a close and avoid the kind of prolonged West Asian conflict he had campaigned against.

Bridges and ‘electrical infrastructure’ were hit in Iran

The U.S. airstrikes had hit bridges in Iran’s southern Hormozgan province, Iranian state television reported. The attacks hit Bandar Khamir, a city on Iran’s coast on the Strait of Hormuz.

The highway and railway bridge strikes appeared aimed at cutting off Bandar Abbas, Iran’s main port, from roads leading into the Islamic Republic’s central region onward to Tehran, the capital.

Iran acknowledged “attacks on power infrastructure” during the U.S. airstrike campaign for the first time on Friday (July 17, 2026) when its Energy Ministry issued a call for people to use less power in southern provinces “experiencing extreme heat.” The ministry did not specify what was hit.

Iranian authorities said at least 46 people have been killed and more than 400 wounded in recent U.S. strikes, including eight killed in a strike on a bridge on Friday (July 17, 2026).

U.S. officials acknowledged 13 additional U.S. service members — 10 Army soldiers and three Navy sailors — had been injured since Monday (July 13, 2026), but offered no further details. Since the war began, 14 U.S. service members have been killed and 427 wounded.

The tower at a key port collapses in a U.S. strike

U.S. strikes conducted overnight into Friday (July 17, 2026) collapsed a tower at Iran’s Chabahar port on the Gulf of Oman, a key trade route for landlocked, neighbouring Afghanistan, the state-run IRNA news agency reported, and the U.S. military later confirmed.

Chabahar port, which Iran has been running with support from India, has been a repeated target of American airstrikes.

Iran said the tower oversees commercial traffic into the port. But Central Command said it was part of a maritime surveillance network used by Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard to “track and target” commercial vessels in the strait.

On Friday (July 17, 2026) evening, Iranian state media reported explosions around Iran, including in the central and southern parts of the country. Local authorities said the U.S. attacked around Ahvaz city without elaborating. IRNA also reported the sound of explosions in Lar, Yazd and Sirik.

Iran retaliates by targeting Qatar, a mediator in the war

On Friday (July 17, 2026), Qatar warned the public to take shelter as a barrage of Iranian missiles targeted the nation. People heard explosions overhead as air defences fired to intercept the missiles. Qatar’s Interior Ministry said falling debris wounded a child.

Iran also targeted Bahrain and Kuwait early Friday (July 17, 2026).

In Kuwait, authorities said Iran attacked a power and water desalination plant, causing widespread damage to the station. Kuwait said it extinguished the blaze and was working to assess the damage and get the station working again. About 90 per cent of the country’s drinking water comes from desalination.

A spokesman for Kuwait’s defence ministry said Iranian drone attacks on its army’s “facilities and camps” injured an unspecified number of personnel.

Jordan’s military said it intercepted three incoming missiles Friday morning, launched by Iran.

Explosions also could be heard on Friday (July 17, 2026) morning in Irbil and Sulaymaniyah in northern Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region as air defences targeted incoming fire. The attack apparently targeted the Iranian Kurdish dissident group Komala, killing at least nine people and wounding others, said an official who spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

Iran did not immediately claim the attack, but it has targeted Komala in the past.

Also on Friday (July 17, 2026), a tanker came under attack while travelling through the Strait of Hormuz, taking the route closest to Oman, the British military said. The report from the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations centre said the ship sustained minor damage without any of its crew being injured.

Iran did not immediately acknowledge any attack. In recent days, it has openly targeted ships using the route, which is overseen by the U.S. military and intended to be outside of Tehran’s control.

Strikes come as Iran and the U.S. vie for the Strait of Hormuz

Iran has said the strait must be under its sole control and that vessels should pay fees to Tehran — even though the world for decades has considered it an international waterway.

Mr. Trump has returned in recent days to his threats to target Iranian power stations and bridges to try to compel Iran to loosen its hold on the strait, through which about a fifth of all oil and natural gas traded once passed in peacetime. The US also reimposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports to halt its shipments of crude oil.

Crossings through the strait fell to a three-week low of just eight vessels on Thursday (July 16, 2026), according to MarineTraffic.com.

A growing amount of the region’s energy is being shipped through pipelines, but not nearly enough to offset the decline in shipping through the strait.

Published – July 18, 2026 10:54 am IST

Iran’s army said it struck U.S. military targets in Kuwait and Jordan in response to American attacks, according to a statement carried by the Iranian state broadcaster on Saturday (July 18).

In Kuwait, Iranian forces targeted an ammunition depot at the Al-Adiri camp, the headquarters buildings and ammunition depots at the Ali Al-Salem base and several communication bridges.

In Jordan, fuel tanks at the Al-Azraq base were also targeted, the state broadcaster said on Telegram.

Kuwait’s army wrote on X on Saturday (July 18) that explosions may be heard as a result of “air defence systems intercepting hostile targets”.

Air raid sirens were also sounded in Bahrain, which hosts a major U.S. naval base, according to the country’s interior ministry.- AFP

Smoke rises following a strike at an unknown location during what the U.S. military says is its latest wave of strikes on Iran, hitting “Iranian military targets such as coastal surveillance and air defence sites, military logistics infrastructure, and maritime capabilities,” in this still image taken from handout video released July 16, 2026.
| Photo Credit:
U.S. Central Command via Reuters

The United States expanded its airstrike campaign against Iran early on Friday (July 17, 2026) by increasingly hitting bridges, part of President Donald Trump’s threats to start striking infrastructure to pressure Tehran to ease its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz.

Also read | Bahrain and Kuwait face Iranian fire as U.S. airstrikes expand to target more bridges

The U.S. military’s Central Command said it hit dozens of targets in its latest airstrikes, which concluded at dawn on Friday (July 17), the sixth night in a row of American attacks.

Also read | Iran slams ‘barbaric’ U.S. attack after hospital evacuated due to nearby strike

Iran also launched new missile attacks against U.S.-allied nations in the West Asia and warned that its attacks would escalate. Iranian state media said the U.S. strikes on Thursday (July 16) hit around Tehran and Semnan province, home to Iran’s ballistic missile production and space program.

Follow here for more updates,

Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan al Saud and Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Iran said the Strait of Hormuz was closed once again after a warning shot fired by its military struck a vessel using an unauthorised route in the critical waterway, further jeopardising the already tenuous ceasefire agreement with the United States.

U.S. Central Command said a short time later that its forces began a third round of strikes against Iran. There were explosions in Bandar Abbas and Sirik, two towns along the shores of the strait, Iran state media reported.

“The United States is imposing a heavy cost by continuing to degrade Iran’s ability to attack civilian mariners and commercial ships freely transiting the strait,” the American military said.

A Cyprus-flagged container ship was hit by Iran and suffered “significant engine room damage,” and a civilian crew member is missing, U.S. Central Command said.

Senior U.S. officials had previously said in Washington that negotiations to further cement last month’s deal to end the war would be unable to progress without the strait being secure — and even said they wanted Iran to offer public statements to that effect.

Instead, the Revolutionary Guards Corps said multiple vessels “disregarded our warnings and instructions to correct their course and proceed along the approved route.” One of them “was struck by a warning shot and brought to a stop.”

Iran said that the strait would remain closed “until further notice” and said it would consider targeting “additional enemy bases in the region” if it faced more attacks.

A little more than an hour later, the U.S. announced its own new round of strikes.

“Iran made a poor choice. Now they pay,” Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth posted on social media.

Attacks followed more diplomatic talks about the strait

The latest flurry of shots from both sides followed Iran and Oman’s foreign ministers meeting on Saturday (July 11, 2026) to discuss the strait that lies between them, after days of Iranian attacks on ships and U.S. retaliation that dealt a blow to the interim deal to end the war.

Iran’s new supreme leader, still unseen since the war began, also vowed in his first statement since the funeral of his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, that Iranians would avenge his killing in the war’s opening strikes on February 28.

Such revenge “is the will of our nation and must certainly be carried out,” Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said in a statement carried on state television, hours after President Donald Trump threatened more missile attacks.

Oman said it and Iran agreed to keep talking about the Strait of Hormuz “at the technical and political levels.”

Iran accuses Washington of violating ceasefire deal

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said before the new round of strikes that he met with his counterpart in Oman to discuss “appropriate mechanisms for ensuring the safe passage of ships.”

For decades, the world has considered the strait an international waterway. Iran has insisted that the strait now remain under its control and that it be allowed to charge ships moving through it, a stance it took after the war began. The U.S. urges mariners to transit on a southern route through Oman’s territorial waters.

About a fifth of all traded oil and natural gas passed through the strait before the war began. Iran’s grip on it during the war led to a global energy crisis, though oil prices have sharply dropped since wartime highs of $120 a barrel.

Iran’s top diplomat also accused the U.S. of violating the interim deal by ending waivers allowing Iran to sell crude oil on the open market in U.S. dollars. Washington ended them in response to the attacks on ships in the strait.

“Reality check: There can only be mutual compliance,” Mr. Araghchi wrote on social media.

Trump says he responded to threats to kill him

Mr. Trump said he’s personally been the target of an Iranian plot, and he said the U.S. military would automatically retaliate if he was killed.

He wrote on social media early Saturday (July 11, 2026) that “1000 Missiles are Locked and Loaded and aimed at the Islamic Republic of Iran, with thousands of more to immediately follow, should the Iranian Government act on its threat.”

However, such retaliation would have to be ordered by Vice President J.D. Vance, who would become commander-in-chief if Mr. Trump were to be killed.

Mr. Trump said he was responding to threats “to assassinate, or attempt to assassinate” him. During Khamenei’s funeral, mourners held posters or banners calling for Mr. Trump to be killed along with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The U.S. President has declared the ceasefire over but said the U.S. would continue negotiations.

U.S. officials, speaking Friday (July 10, 2026) on condition of anonymity about the current situation with Iran, said the resumption of strikes even before the latest round came as a result of what they described as a rogue faction of Iranian hard-liners who were trying to sabotage the ceasefire.

Iran has insisted its theocracy is unified under the new supreme leader.

After the U.S. wrapped up strikes on Thursday (July 9, 2026), more attacks reportedly hit Iran, raising questions about who else may be targeting the Islamic Republic.

Israel didn’t claim them, meaning the Gulf Arab states may have launched them, likely as a means to deter Iran from attacking them again. Iran on Thursday (July 8, 2026) retaliated for U.S. strikes by targeting Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait and Qatar.

The strikes in Iran over two days — and before the ones in the wake of the warning shot — killed at least 17 people and wounded 115 others, Iranian Health Ministry spokesperson Hossein Kermanpour said.

Published – July 12, 2026 08:08 am IST

Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

The U.S. military said on Saturday (June 27, 2026) it had struck 10 targets in Iran at President Donald Trump’s direction, continuing a string of attacks that have shaken the war’s uneasy ceasefire.

U.S. Central Command, in a post to social media, said that U.S. military aircraft targeted Iranian military “surveillance infrastructure, communication systems, air defence sites, drone storage facilities, and minelayer capabilities” following an attack on a merchant vessel early on Saturday morning (June 27, 2026). 

It later specified the strikes involved 10 Iranian military targets at multiple locations in and near the Strait of Hormuz.

– AP