Iran launched missile and drone attacks against Kuwait, Bahrain, and Jordan in the second week of renewed US strikes on Iranian territory, targeting civilian infrastructure, oil facilities, and US military installations across the Gulf region. The Guardian reported on July 18, 2026, that the attacks widened the conflict beyond the bilateral US-Iran exchange into direct strikes on American-allied Gulf states. The Guardian

US Central Command (CENTCOM) said its strikes began at 7pm on July 17, 2026, for the seventh consecutive night, as part of what the military has named Operation Epic Fury. The campaign's stated goal is to degrade Iranian military capabilities and open the Strait of Hormuz — the narrow shipping lane through which roughly a fifth of global oil consumption passes. CENTCOM published statements on its official website on July 16 and July 17 confirming successive waves of strikes. Iran stated that 38 people had been killed and more than 400 injured in the US bombardment. France 24

In Kuwait, the attacks were the most consequential. Kuwait accused Iran of targeting civilian sites and vital infrastructure, including a power and water desalination plant — a facility that removes salt from seawater to make it drinkable. Kuwait relies on desalinated water for approximately 90% of its drinking water. The Kuwait Petroleum Corporation reported that an oil facility was targeted, resulting in injuries and significant material losses. A satellite image published in The Guardian, credited to European Union/Copernicus Sentinel-2/Reuters, showed smoke billowing near an oil facility in Ahmadi governorate on July 18. Kuwait briefly closed its airspace as it intercepted Iranian missiles and drones. Several Kuwaiti firefighters and a worker were injured battling blazes sparked by the strikes. Kuwait's foreign ministry stated that "the repeated targeting of vital facilities reveals a systematic hostile approach targeting civilian sites and vital infrastructure."

Bahrain activated air sirens on Saturday, July 18, warning residents to shelter after detecting possible incoming drones or missiles. Jordan's state-run Petra news agency reported that the kingdom's air defense systems downed Iranian missiles. CNN, citing Jordan's state news agency, reported that four missiles fired from Iran were shot down. CNN

CENTCOM stated that Iran shot seven ballistic missiles toward Kuwait and Bahrain; six were intercepted and one missed its target. The Iranian attacks on US allies came in what Tehran framed as retaliation for US strikes on civilian infrastructure including bridges and power facilities inside Iran.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) — Iran's elite military force — claimed on state television a range of operational successes. The IRGC claimed it destroyed at least two US fighter aircraft and three other aircraft during a missile and drone attack early Saturday on a US base in Azraq, Jordan. It claimed that a US military support center at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait was hit and a US radar facility at Ali Al Salem airbase in Kuwait was destroyed. Regarding Bahrain, the IRGC claimed it targeted a site at Sheikh Isa airbase where US combat aircraft were gathered, as well as an intelligence datacenter. The US military has not independently confirmed these claims, and the IRGC's track record of battlefield assertions has historically been difficult to verify independently.

The IRGC also claimed that two oil tankers exploded after hitting mines in the Strait of Hormuz and that it had stopped four ships trying to transit the strategic waterway. The US military said that claim was false. The Strait of Hormuz remains the focal point of the US operational objective. The US military operation was conducted with the stated goal of opening the Strait, suggesting that Iranian interference with maritime traffic was a casus belli — a justification for war — for the campaign.

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), a political and economic bloc of six Gulf states, condemned Iran's attacks through its Secretary-General Jasem Mohamed al-Budaiwi. He stated that strikes on civilian infrastructure "amounted to war crimes and a grave violation of international law and the UN Charter." The GCC statement is notable for its legal framing: by invoking the UN Charter, the Gulf bloc is positioning the strikes not merely as a security threat but as a violation of international humanitarian law, which could carry implications for accountability mechanisms at the UN level.

Iran carried out retaliatory attacks targeting US assets in Kuwait, Bahrain, and Jordan as early as July 16, according to Al Jazeera's liveblog, meaning the strikes on US allies have now occurred across multiple days and intensified over the weekend of July 18. Al Jazeera

The broader context here is that the conflict has crossed a threshold the Gulf states had long sought to avoid. Iran's decision to strike desalination infrastructure in Kuwait, where 90% of drinking water depends on such facilities, elevates the stakes from a military exchange to a potential humanitarian crisis. The targeting of oil infrastructure in Ahmadi governorate places energy markets directly in the crossfire. And the IRGC's claims of intercepting shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, even if disputed by the US, inject uncertainty into the most critical maritime chokepoint for global oil supply.

The competing narratives are themselves part of the conflict. The IRGC's claims of destroyed US aircraft and disabled bases, whether accurate or not, serve an internal propaganda function and shape the information environment across the region. The US dismissal of the tanker-mining claim as false indicates that information warfare is running parallel to the kinetic campaign. For the Gulf states caught in between, the GCC's invocation of war crimes and the UN Charter suggests they are laying the diplomatic groundwork for a broader international response, though the Security Council's capacity to act on such a framing remains constrained by the direct involvement of a permanent member.

The campaign entered its second week with no indication of a cessation. Seven consecutive nights of US strikes, matched by Iranian retaliation across three sovereign states, has produced a conflict architecture that now encompasses civilian populations, critical infrastructure, energy markets, and maritime commerce in a single theater of operations.