US strikes Iran Guard after Jordan base attack widens Hormuz conflict

Dubai,UPDATED: Jul 19, 2026 18:00 IST

The US military launched airstrikes on Sunday against Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard after an Iranian attack on a base in Jordan killed American troops, as an interim deal meant to end the war collapsed and the fighting widened further.

The strikes are part of a weeklong campaign linked to a struggle over control of the Strait of Hormuz. Over the past several days, the US has hit bridges, electrical facilities and other targets in Iran, while Tehran has retaliated by attacking power and desalination plants in Kuwait and warning of a wider escalation. Kuwait and Bahrain again activated air defences on Sunday morning after warning of incoming Iranian drones and missiles.

The US military's Central Command said it struck "Iranian military coastal surveillance and air defense facilities, maritime capabilities and missile and drone storage sites". It said the operation was meant to weaken Iran's ability to control the Strait of Hormuz and "swiftly punish Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces", which form a key power base in Iran and control its ballistic missile arsenal.

Footage released by the US military appeared to show strikes by fighter jets and Tomahawk cruise missiles launched from the sea. One of the targets appeared to be in a mountainous valley. The Guard often keeps missile bases and other military equipment in mountain ranges.

The US military said on Saturday that the Iranian attack on a base in Jordan killed two American service members, left one missing and injured four others badly enough to require hospitalisation. Since the war began, 16 US service members have been killed and more than 430 wounded. Iranian authorities said on Sunday that at least 50 people had been killed and 517 wounded in the latest US strikes.

Iran has not given an overall account of its material losses in the American campaign, now in its eighth day. The conflict has centred on the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all oil and natural gas traded passes in peacetime. Iran's atomic energy agency said US strikes early on Sunday targeted the construction site of a planned nuclear power plant in southwest Iran. Iranian state television carried the report. Satellite images from Planet Labs PBC of the planned Darkhovin Nuclear Power Plant site showed cleared earth but very little construction as of July 9, and there is no known radiological material at the site.

Kuwait said on Sunday that one of its power and water desalination plants had been attacked for the second time in two days, causing fires. Its Ministry of Electricity, Water and Renewable Energy said the power grid remained stable. The attack was the latest strike on civilian infrastructure used by millions of people. In Kuwait, about 90 per cent of drinking water comes from desalination. The attacks in Kuwait and Bahrain were the latest reported by US allies in the Persian Gulf, along with Jordan.

Iran has so far refrained from striking Israel, which has stayed out of this round of fighting, and the United Arab Emirates. But the semiofficial Fars news agency, seen as close to the Guard, issued a threat against the UAE late on Saturday. Quoting an unnamed official, it said that if strikes on Iranian civilian infrastructure continued, the "airports of Dubai and Abu Dhabi, as well as the ports of Fujairah and Jebel Ali, must be immediately evacuated". In response, the Emirates' Foreign Ministry called "for exercising the utmost restraint in order to avoid dangerous repercussions and the region being pulled into new levels of violence and instability."

Officials have said that during the war both the UAE and Saudi Arabia carried out retaliatory airstrikes against Tehran after Iran targeted their countries. Gulf Cooperation Council secretary-general Jasem Mohamed al-Budaiwi accused Iran of war crimes over strikes on infrastructure and civilian facilities.

US President Donald Trump has threatened to target Iran's power stations and bridges in an effort to force Tehran to loosen its hold on the Strait of Hormuz, and recent attacks suggest that plan is being carried out, beginning with Iran's coastal areas on the waterway. Over the past week, the US also reimposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports to stop crude oil shipments, and the military said on Saturday it had redirected five ships and disabled one since then.

Iran's Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said on Saturday that the US would face "unforgettable lessons" if it kept attacking the country. An Iranian negotiator said Tehran was suspending its commitments under the interim deal signed about a month ago to permanently end the fighting. Iran's joint military command said US "covetousness, bullying, totalitarianism or brutality" would meet with a "devastating response". With fresh US strikes, mounting casualties and new threats across the Gulf, the conflict around the Strait of Hormuz has continued to widen.

With PTI Inputs

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