US strikes hit Iran for seventh consecutive night
By BBC, July 18, 2026The US military said it carried out the seventh night of strikes on Iran since President Donald Trump declared the temporary ceasefire agreement was “over”.
In a statement shared on X, US Central Command (Centcom) wrote that its forces “hit surveillance sites, military logistics infrastructure, underground weapons storage, and maritime capabilities”.
Iran claimed to have responded by targeting US allies in the region, including Kuwait – whose army said its air defences had been “confronting hostile missile and drone attacks” following “Iranian aggression”.
Jordan’s armed forces also said it intercepted 10 Iranian missiles fired into its airspace overnight, though no damage was reported.
Centcom said it had ended its strikes at 21:30 ET (02:30 BST) after several hours.
“U.S. forces employed fighter aircraft, aerial drones, and warships in addition to other assets,” it said in its statement.
Strait of Hormuz shipping disrupted
Iran’s state-run Fars agency had said two oil tankers “exploded and caught fire while passing through a mined route south of the Strait of Hormuz”. Later, CENTCOM posted, X: “Like most IRGC claims, this is false.”
Shipping traffic in the vital Strait of Hormuz has largely stopped amid the continuing tit-for-tat strikes by US and Iranian forces. The strait normally accounts for about one-fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas supplies.
Explosions were heard in the central city of Yazd and at Qeshm Island and the port of Bandar Abbas next to the strait, Iranian state media reported.
On Friday, Iran’s armed forces claimed to have attacked multiple US military facilities across the Gulf region in Kuwait, Bahrain, Jordan and – for the first time – Syria, which the US denied.
Earlier, Kuwaiti officials said Iranian drone strikes had injured a number of their soldiers, while a power plant and water desalination stations had also been damaged.
Sources have told the BBC’s US partner, CBS News, that several American service members were injured during Iranian attacks on two Jordanian bases over the past week.
Civilian infrastructure damage under scrutiny
Washington denied Tehran’s earlier claims that its forces hit civilian infrastructure in Iran, including bridges, a train station and an airport. Provincial authorities in the affected region, Hormozgan province, said seven people were killed in the attacks.
BBC Verify and BBC Persian have verified footage of damage to Gariveh Bridge after night videos showed a ball of flames on top of it.
Daylight images showed a crumbled stretch of road with rubble around the broken bridge.
A White House spokesperson told the BBC the US had “carried out strikes exclusively on military targets, including military logistics infrastructure”.
Friday marks one week of nightly US attacks since peace talks with Iran collapsed, as tensions over the future of the Strait of Hormuz hampered efforts to broker a permanent ceasefire.