The United States conducted airstrikes against Iran for a 12th consecutive night into early July 23, 2026, with CENTCOM announcing at 02:30 GMT that its latest round targeted maritime capabilities, missile and drone storage facilities, coastal surveillance sites, and air defense assets (Al Jazeera).

The strikes hit multiple locations across at least three provinces. In Khuzestan, near the Iraqi border, US missiles struck the area around a passenger terminal in Shalamcheh, killing two people and wounding 11 according to the deputy governor of the province, who spoke to IRIB. Al Jazeera correspondent Tohid Assidi reported that overnight strikes also targeted Ramshir, where an asphalt facility was hit, along with other cities in Khuzestan. Tasnim news agency reported a strike on the outskirts of Andimeshk.

Further south, explosions were heard in Sirik, a city in Hormozgan province overlooking the Strait of Hormuz. IRIB separately reported explosions in Jask. ISNA, citing Hormozgan's Ports and Maritime Administration, reported that two naval search and rescue vessels were seriously damaged in a US attack on the province. A governor confirmed an overnight attack on a power substation near the Bushehr nuclear power plant, which caused a power outage lasting several hours in the city.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps responded with its own strikes on US military infrastructure across the region. On July 23, the IRGC claimed it attacked and destroyed a large military equipment warehouse, a Patriot missile defense system, and a hangar of MQ-9 drones at Ali Al Salem airbase in Kuwait. The IRGC also claimed it destroyed a THAAD radar, a Patriot system, and a C-RAM radar at a US base in Jordan, setting fuel tanks ablaze, and separately destroyed a helicopter equipment warehouse and a helicopter repair and maintenance shed at another US base in Jordan. These claims have not been independently verified.

On the maritime front, the IRGC said an explosion set a tanker on fire in the Strait of Hormuz after it attempted to navigate the southern route off the coast of Oman, and that two other vessels quickly turned away. The UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) center had reported in its JMIC Advisory Note Update 074 on July 21 that a tanker was attacked by a suspected UAV while traveling inbound through the Strait of Hormuz to the Arabian Gulf. An earlier advisory, Update 073 dated July 19, reported that a tanker was hijacked south of Al Mukalla and diverted toward Somali waters in the Bab el-Mandeb region. A crew member was killed aboard the Marshall Islands-flagged crude tanker MKD VYOM after it was struck by a projectile off the coast of Oman, according to a UKMTO advisory.

Yemen's Houthi movement, aligned with Iran, claimed a separate attack on two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea on July 22. The Houthis identified the vessels as "Encelia" and "Layla" and stated the attack was carried out because the vessels violated a blockade decision issued by their armed forces (Al Jazeera). The group said it used missiles and drones in the operation, which it described as part of a naval blockade against Saudi oil (Reuters). A Saudi news agency confirmed that one of the two vessels was struck (The Guardian). The Houthis have said they closed the Bab el-Mandeb strait to Saudi-linked shipping in retaliation for Saudi Arabia's blockade on Yemen (The Guardian).

The conflict has escalated steadily through July. US forces began retaliatory strikes against Iran on July 7, according to CENTCOM, and have conducted operations nightly since. The IRGC Navy declared the Strait of Hormuz closed "until further notice" around July 11, per IRIB, with Reuters reporting the same day that Iran expanded attacks on Gulf states following US strikes. On July 15, US Central Command said it struck Iranian command centers, air defense sites, and missile and drone capabilities "to further degrade Iran's" military capacity (NPR). The same day, the US military said it disabled an unladen oil tanker attempting to sail toward Iran's Kharg Island after it ignored multiple warnings (Reuters).

Iran has coordinated with the Houthis on chokepoint strategy. Reuters reported on July 16 that Iran told the Houthis to stand ready to close the Bab el-Mandeb strait if the US hit Iran's power network. By July 20, Reuters reported Iran had been pressing the Houthis to close the Red Sea gateway if US attacks on Iranian power infrastructure continued. The overnight strike on a power substation near the Bushehr nuclear plant gives that conditional threat a concrete trigger.

The scale and cost of the campaign are substantial. US Secretary of Defense Hegseth estimated the cost of the Iran war at $37.5 billion as of July 21, according to The Guardian (The Guardian). US forces have also conducted joint coalition strikes in Yemen targeting Houthi infrastructure used to attack merchant vessels and naval ships.

The broader context here is a multi-theater confrontation in which three critical maritime chokepoints, the Strait of Hormuz, the Bab el-Mandeb, and the southern Red Sea approach, are now active conflict zones. The US targeting pattern has evolved from Iran's missile and drone storage toward dual-use infrastructure including power substations and coastal surveillance, which tightens pressure on Iran's ability to project force from its southern coastline. The IRGC's claimed strikes on US air defense systems at bases in Kuwait and Jordan, if accurate, would mark a notable expansion of direct Iranian kinetic operations against US forward positions in two host nations that had not previously been publicly identified as IRGC targets in this campaign. The Houthi blockade declarations against Saudi shipping add a third layer of pressure on Gulf energy exports, potentially forcing rerouting of crude traffic away from both the Bab el-Mandeb and the Strait of Hormuz simultaneously. With the Bushehr power substation now struck and Iran's conditional threat to close the Bab el-Mandeb linked to exactly that scenario, the question is whether the Houthis will operationalize that warning in the coming days.