The United States military launched an eleventh straight night of strikes against Iran on July 21, 2026. The operation began at 7 pm Eastern Time, according to US Central Command (CENTCOM), the military command that oversees American forces in the Middle East. Explosions were reported across a wide area of Iran, from the northwestern city of Tabriz to southern coastal areas near the Strait of Hormuz. Al Jazeera

The Strait of Hormuz is a narrow strip of water between Iran and Oman through which a large share of the world's oil passes every day. CENTCOM said the strikes are meant to weaken Iran's ability to threaten ships traveling through that strait. The US and Iran are competing for control of it. The nightly campaign began in early July.

The latest strikes appear to have spread to new areas. Earlier strikes mostly targeted southern Iran near the Strait of Hormuz. An attack on Tabriz, in Iran's northwest, would be a shift from that pattern. Iranian media also reported activity farther inland. Residents of northeastern Tehran, Iran's capital, reported hearing air defence activity, according to Iran's Fars news agency. Several explosions were heard around Sirik in southern Iran, Fars also reported. Iran's Tasnim news agency reported explosions being heard in parts of Bushehr, a southern province that hosts Iran's only working nuclear power plant.

The strikes resumed after a diplomatic agreement between the US and Iran fell apart. The two countries had signed a memorandum of understanding (a informal, non-binding agreement) on June 17, but its exact terms and why it collapsed are not detailed in the available reporting. Its failure cleared the way for the nightly bombing campaign. The July strikes began after Qatari and Saudi oil tankers were attacked in the Strait of Hormuz, Al Jazeera reported on July 8. During the July 7-8 round alone, CENTCOM struck about 90 Iranian military targets, according to a CENTCOM press release.

The pace has been relentless. CENTCOM released footage on July 18 showing US forces launching strikes, and published press releases on July 16, July 18, July 19, and July 20 announcing new waves. President Donald Trump said Iran was hit "very hard" after the ninth night of strikes, as CNN reported on July 19. The Associated Press reported that satellite images showed US and Israeli strikes targeting shipyards and missile facilities in Iran. Reuters confirmed that the US military said late on July 20 it had finished its latest round.

Iran has not stayed silent. Since the US attacks resumed this month, Iran has repeatedly struck nearby Gulf countries, including Kuwait, Bahrain, and Qatar. On Tuesday, the Kuwaiti army said its air defences were intercepting an Iranian drone attack. Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warned that US strikes would cause "irreparable damage." Those threats have played out in drone and missile attacks on Gulf states that are aligned with the US, spreading the conflict well beyond the original US-Iran dispute.

The campaign also follows an earlier round of US strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine previously praised the success of US strikes on three Iranian nuclear sites. The strike on Iran's Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant used 30,000-pound bombs called "massive ordnance penetrators," which are designed to burrow deep underground before exploding, the Defense Department reported. Hegseth has stated that the US plans major strikes on Iran, signaling that the current pace is a deliberate, long-term strategy rather than a quick retaliatory response.

The broader picture matters for several reasons. If the Tabriz strike is confirmed, it suggests US planners are reaching beyond Iran's southern military sites and into the country's northwest, where significant military and industrial assets are located. That widening, combined with reports of air defence activity near Tehran, raises the question of whether the campaign is shifting from a mission focused on protecting shipping lanes into a broader effort to take apart Iran's military. The Iranian attacks on Kuwait, Bahrain, and Qatar suggest that Tehran's strategy is to put Gulf Arab states at risk, presumably to pressure them to limit US access to their bases and airspace. Whether that works depends on whether those Gulf states are willing to keep cooperating with Washington despite being targeted. The collapse of the June 17 agreement, and how quickly both sides returned to fighting, suggests that whatever diplomacy existed was thin, and that both parties have settled into a pattern where military escalation is the norm.