Full story
Qeshm strike and retaliation
The United States launched a new wave of strikes across Iran on Thursday after a five-night pause, and Iranian media said a residential building was hit on Qeshm Island, killing a couple and their two-year-old child.
“completed “wide, extensive, and impactful” strikes on Iran”
The Jerusalem Post reported that CENTCOM completed “wide, extensive, and impactful” strikes on Iran after explosions were heard in the south of the country on Thursday morning, with targets including Bushehr, Abu Musa, Kish Island, Ahwaz, and Qeshm Island.
US Central Command said the strikes were carried out in response to “yesterday’s attempted missile attacks on US forces,” and it said its assets struck dozens of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps targets including command centers, missile and drone facilities, coastal surveillance and defense sites, and maritime capabilities.
Iranian state media and Iranian reporting also described attacks across multiple locations, including Qeshm, Abadan, Ahvaz, Bushehr, Kazerun and Farashband, with power cuts following explosions in Ahvaz in the oil-producing province of Khuzestan.
The Express Tribune said the US military’s Central Command denied Iranian media claims that a missile attack destroyed several American aircraft, including F-35 stealth fighters, insisting “No US aircraft were destroyed or damaged in recent attempted Iranian attacks.”
Competing claims over F-35s
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed on July 30, 2026 that ballistic missiles destroyed three United States F-35 fighters and heavily damaged three more at Jordan’s Muwaffaq Salti Air Base, also called Al-Azraq Air Base.
Defence Security Asia said CENTCOM directly rejected the account, declaring, “No U.S. aircraft were destroyed or damaged in recent attempted Iranian attacks,” and adding that every missile and drone had either been intercepted or failed to reach its intended target.
The Express Tribune reported that Tehran claimed it targeted the Al-Azraq Air Base, destroying three F-35s and damaging three others, and it said the IRGC also claimed that several officers, as well as technical and maintenance personnel, were killed in the attack.
The Express Tribune also described an audio recording posted by CENTCOM in which an IRGC operative warned a commercial vessel that it was in “danger” and ordered it to “go back to your departure [point] immediately.”
In the same reporting, the IRGC said its struggle would continue until “the last American occupier is expelled from the Islamic lands,” while CENTCOM maintained that the primary threat to civilian crews remained the IRGC’s own actions.
Regional spread and diplomatic moves
The conflict spread beyond Iran, with Jordan’s armed forces saying its air defence systems shot down five Iranian missiles aimed at targets inside the kingdom, and Kuwait claiming an Iranian strike hit a building owned by a Chinese company in the north of the country.
““Maritime security is a shared responsibility,””
The Jerusalem Post said the strikes followed Iranian attacks on US bases in the Middle East on Wednesday morning, and it described the IRGC as saying it fired ballistic missiles at US air bases and the US military Central Command center in Jordan.
DW reported that Saudi Arabia announced the formation of a military alliance to protect shipping in the Red Sea and around the Bab al-Mandab Strait that would include 14 nations, while the Saudi Defense Ministry said “Maritime security is a shared responsibility.”
DW also said the alliance was “purely defensive” and does not aim to attack any state, other alliance, or international organization, and it described the move as coming after Iranian-backed Houthi militia attacks against Saudi ships in the Red Sea.
Diplomatic efforts continued alongside the strikes, with Pakistan saying it was trying to bring Washington and Tehran back to negotiations under the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding, and Reuters also reported that “Negotiations between parties are ongoing, particularly on the Strait of Hormuz and to de-escalate,” according to a Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesperson.
