US bombing of Iran expands as American troops killed and Tehran
retaliates against the Gulf states
[July 20, 2026]
By JON GAMBRELL
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The United States conducted a new
round of airstrikes early Monday targeting Iran after announcing the
death of another American service member, hitting around a northwestern
city believed to be home to underground missile bases. Iran responded by
launching an attack targeting Bahrain, the home of the U.S. Navy's 5th
Fleet, and Kuwait.
The latest attacks again showed how, step by step, the U.S. and Iran
have inched closer to all-out war as last month’s interim deal meant to
permanently end the fighting has crumbled and shipping traffic in the
Strait of Hormuz has largely stalled. Both sides have targeted civilian
infrastructure relied on by millions of people.
Meanwhile, benchmark Brent crude rose Monday above $90 a barrel, further
fueling a global energy crisis sparked by the conflict. An average
gallon of regular gasoline in the U.S. also rose to $4, a key metric for
Americans that puts more pressure on their wallets ahead of midterm
elections this fall.
The U.S. military said the service member was killed in Iraq on Saturday
during the “controlled detonation” of a downed Iranian drone.
“We hit them very hard again tonight,” U.S. President Donald Trump said.
“And we did that in honor of the” soldiers killed, he said.
US launches ninth night of Iran strikes
The U.S. military’s Central Command announced a new round of strikes
early Monday, now into their ninth straight night. Central Command said
it targeted “Iranian military command centers, air defense and coastal
surveillance sites, maritime capabilities, missile and drone launch
sites and communications networks.”
Iran's state-run IRNA news agency reported that the American strikes
killed at least one person around Tabriz, a northwestern city about 520
kilometers (325 miles) from the capital, Tehran. Tabriz is believed to
host underground missile bases run by Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary
Guard.
U.S. strikes likely also hit Bandar Imam Khomeini in Khuzestan province,
Sirik and Jask in Hormozgan province and Konarak and Chahbahar in Sistan
and Baluchistan province, IRNA reported.
As the strikes began, a vessel caught fire early Monday in the Strait of
Hormuz after being hit by a projectile near the coastline of Oman, the
British military's United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said.
The crew abandoned the vessel, which was adrift and still ablaze hours
later, the UKMTO said.
The route around Oman has been the one the U.S. military has encouraged
ships to travel to avoid Iran’s control. The Guard later claimed it was
targeting tankers in the strait.
Tehran has retaliated by hitting U.S.-allied countries throughout the
Middle East. Bahrain sounded its missile alert sirens Monday morning,
while Kuwait said its air defense were firing at an incoming Iranian
barrage.
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People stand on a bridge destroyed after a strike in Hormozgan
province, southern Iran, Saturday, July 18, 2026. (Amirhosein
Khorgooi/Iranian Students' News Agency via AP)
The Strait of Hormuz remains key to the conflict
Trump has threatened to target Iran’s power stations and bridges to
try to compel Tehran to loosen its hold on the Strait of Hormuz,
which saw one-fifth of traded global oil supplies transit before the
war. Recent attacks suggest the U.S. military is carrying out that
plan.
The U.S. in the past week reimposed a naval blockade on Iranian
ports to halt its shipments of crude oil. The military on Saturday
said it had redirected six ships and disabled one since then.
The halfway point has passed in the 60 days the deal set out to
negotiate the permanent end of the war and other issues, including
Iran’s nuclear program.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters that the U.S. is
still open to negotiating with Iran but that “it has to be real.”
“We’re going to continue to respond. If the door opens to diplomacy
— if the guys that want to do something productive for Iran win and
take control of that system, or take control of the negotiations —
that’ll be a very positive development,” Rubio said. “That’s not
where we are tonight, unfortunately.”
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei hours later
acknowledged that “proposals conveyed through mediators have been
communicated to us,” but he declined to elaborate on their
substance.
Mohammad Javad Zarif, a former Iranian foreign minister who helped
elect the country's reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian,
acknowledged in an essay published Monday by Foreign Policy that the
interim "deal could never survive such dissonance” over the Strait
of Hormuz.
“As the current conflict makes clear, Washington cannot eliminate
the Iranian government,” Zarif wrote. “Only diplomacy, a new peace
agreement, and a new security framework produced by regional states
and for regional states will allow the United States to turn its
attention elsewhere.”
However, Zarif did warn the country's theocracy that “if Iran
repeatedly threatens maritime traffic, it could turn much of the
world against it.”
Iranian authorities on Sunday said at least 50 people have been
killed and 517 wounded in the latest rounds of U.S. strikes. Since
the war began on Feb. 28, 17 U.S. service members have been killed.
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Associated Press writers Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, and Michelle
L. Price in Washington contributed to this report.
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