The United States expanded its bombing campaign against Iran on July 24, 2026, hitting targets as far north as the Caspian Sea. On the same day, Iran fired missiles and drones at US military bases in Bahrain, Jordan, and Kuwait. The exchanges ended any remaining restraint on either side and spread the fighting across the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea, and the eastern Mediterranean. (The Guardian)

President Donald Trump threatened "major military punishment" for Iran and its allies over attacks in the Red Sea. One of those allies is the Houthis, an armed group in Yemen that Iran has supported. Trump told the news site Axios he was thinking about launching even bigger attacks on Iran, saying, "They haven't received enough pain yet." He also warned China and Russia not to sell weapons to Iran, while also saying he believed their leaders, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin, when they told him they were not. Iran said it was talking to both countries. (The Guardian)

The latest strikes were part of Operation Epic Fury, the name the US military gave its bombing campaign against Iran. They came after a 13th straight night of strikes on Iranian military targets, ending July 23. The US military command for the Middle East, called CENTCOM, had carried out strikes every night since July 19, with more on July 20, 22, and 23. The bombing has not stopped since a short-lived ceasefire fell apart on July 13. That was when Trump ordered a naval blockade — using warships to block ships from entering or leaving Iran's ports. (CENTCOM; The New York Times)

Iran's military warned civilians across the region to stay at least 500 meters away from any place where US troops were stationed. That kind of warning is unusual and suggested Iran was preparing to strike a wide range of locations. Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said protecting Iran's interests in the Strait of Hormuz — a narrow waterway between Iran and Oman through which about a fifth of the world's oil travels — is one of their core principles. He said Iran is "neither intimidated by threats nor will yield to pressure." Araghchi met with Russia's foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, in Kyrgyzstan on July 24. (The Guardian)

Efforts to negotiate a ceasefire have fallen apart. The New York Times reported that Iran rejected a US ceasefire proposal delivered by Iraq's prime minister, Ali al-Zaidi. Iraq disputed that version of events. Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio claimed on July 23 that Iran was "begging for a ceasefire." These conflicting accounts show how little power regional players like Iraq have when caught between two sides that each want everything their own way. Al Jazeera wrote in a July 15 opinion piece that Iraq's prime minister "carries the title, but not the power." (The Guardian; The New York Times; Al Jazeera)

At sea, the Houthis said they were blocking Saudi Arabian ships from using the Bab el-Mandeb strait, a narrow passage that connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden. They attacked two Saudi oil tankers there on July 23. The effects were immediate. Half of the 18 ships passing through that day were carrying crude oil, including two massive Chinese tankers. Insurance costs for ships in the area doubled. Only one tanker passed through the Strait of Hormuz that day, the fewest since May 7. Oil prices jumped 7% to above $100 per barrel for the first time since May. Trump responded with more strikes against the Houthis in Yemen on July 22. (The Guardian; Reuters)

The US campaign has grown in stages. Operation Epic Fury began with strikes on about 90 Iranian military targets on July 7 and 8. Another wave hit dozens of targets on July 13. Earlier, in June, the US bombed Iran's Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant, a facility buried deep underground where Iran enriches uranium for its nuclear program. The US used 30,000-pound bombs designed to penetrate thick concrete, an operation called Operation Midnight Hammer. Trump described it in a televised speech in April. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and General Dan Caine, the top US military officer, both called the Fordow strike a success. (CENTCOM; Defense.gov; The White House)

The broader context here is a conflict that keeps cycling through escalation, a brief pause, and then more escalation, with no real diplomatic structure in place to hold things together. The ceasefire that collapsed on July 13 was the only documented break in the fighting. Trump triggered its end by reinstating a naval blockade. Since then, the US has struck Iran 13 nights in a row. Iran's retaliation has spread geographically, from hitting US bases in three countries to warning civilians near US sites across the entire region. The Houthis' blockade claim, though not independently verified, has already disrupted oil and shipping markets.

One factor that makes this conflict different from past US-Iran confrontations is the role of major powers like China and Russia. Trump both warned and expressed trust in them in the same breath, capturing the tension in US strategy: trying to stop them from arming Iran while accepting their word that they are not. Iran's talks with Moscow and Beijing, plus the Araghchi-Lavrov meeting in Kyrgyzstan, suggest Tehran is seeking diplomatic and possibly military backing from both. Whether those talks turn into actual weapons or other support is the single biggest unknown that will shape where this conflict goes next.