Iran strikes American military sites in the Gulf after wave of U.S. attacks
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
July 7, 2026, 5:29 PM EDT / Updated July 8, 2026, 2:14 AM EDTBy Courtney Kube, Steve Kopack, Garrett Haake and Babak Dehghanpisheh
Iran launched attacks against American bases in the Gulf on Wednesday, retaliating for a new wave of strikes by the U.S. military after it said Tehran hit three commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz.
The intense exchange raised fears for the fragile ceasefire as the two countries try to agree to a lasting end to the war that began with U.S.-Israeli strikes in February.
It came as President Donald Trump was in neighboring Turkey for a summit of NATO, the U.S.-led military alliance. Iran, meanwhile, was holding a mass, dayslong funeral for its slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Restoring maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, a key global trade route, has been at the heart of ongoing disputes between Washington and Tehran. Iran has argued that it has a right to charge fees for ships passing through the strait.
Negotiations had been on pause until the end of the funeral proceedings Thursday, but the renewed attacks will raise further doubts about the peace process.
"The era of bullying and extortion is over," Iran's Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf wrote on X. "It leads nowhere. We don't fold."
U.S. and Iran exchange strikes
U.S. Central Command said late Tuesday that it had completed its strikes and that more than 80 targets had been hit with precision munitions. They included Iranian air defense systems, command and control networks, coastal radar sites, anti-ship missile capabilities, and more than 60 small boats of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard in and near the strait to "degrade Iran's ability" to attack ships in the waterway.
A U.S. official described the strikes as bigger than previous U.S. retaliatory strikes against the Islamic Republic and said they were carried out with Air Force jets and Navy tactical aircraft.
The command said earlier that the "series of powerful strikes" were a response to "Iran's demonstrated aggression," describing it as "unwarranted, dangerous, and a clear violation of the ceasefire."
A U.S. official also told NBC News that the attacks were carried out specifically because of Iranian strikes on ships in the strait.
"This response is a direct result of the acts of international terrorism that have been perpetrated by Iran on innocent ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz," the U.S. official said. "The Iranians know the consequences to their ridiculous actions, yet they still chose to carry out these attacks."
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Thick smoke and flames seen in Iran as U.S. launches retaliatory strikes04:51
A video posted online and verified by NBC News shows multiple explosions at a port in the southern Iranian city of Bandar Abbas as a stream of cars drive by on a nearby road.
Several people were injured by shrapnel from explosions at the commercial pier in the town of Sirik, which is in the Strait of Hormuz, and were transferred to a hospital in the nearby city of Minab, according to the semiofficial Tasnim news agency.
Early Wednesday, missile alerts sounded in both Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet, and Kuwait, which is home to U.S. Army forces.
Iran's Revolutionary Guard said it had conducted a joint missile and drone operation against 85 key U.S. military sites in Bandar Salman, the U.S. Fifth Fleet area in Bahrain, and Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait. It also said that it had shot down a U.S. MQ-9 drone.
"America's child-killing and terrorist military, during the early hours of this morning, openly violated the ceasefire and breached the Islamabad understanding by carrying out airstrikes against several coastal bases and civilian stations along the coasts of Hormozgan Province and Mahshahr," it said.
Hormuz tensions
A similar exchange of attacks took place in late June, with an Iranian attack on a commercial ship in the Strait of Hormuz followed by U.S. military strikes in and around the strait and retaliatory Iranian attacks on Bahrain and Kuwait.
The U.S. on Tuesday also revoked its waiver of temporary sanctions, which had allowed the sale of Iranian oil on the global market, because of Iran's attacks.
The revoked waiver, listed on the Treasury Department's website, said the move was effective immediately. It also said any production, delivery or sale of Iranian oil must be wound down by July 17. The waiver had originally allowed sales until Aug. 21.
The U.S. said Iran had attacked three tankers flagged to Liberia, Saudi Arabia and the Marshall Islands.
One tanker was traveling off Oman when it was hit and caught fire, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said. Iranian state television said the liquefied natural gas tanker came under attack after it ignored warnings but did not directly claim the assault or any other attacks on ships.
The two other ships sustained some damage, but no one was injured, and both continued on their way, the U.K. maritime agency said.
Oil prices surged from around $69 a barrel to nearly $73 with the latest developments, after weeks of relative calm in oil markets.
Talks on hold amid funeral
Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner traveled to Doha, Qatar, last week and held talks with Qatari mediators but did not meet directly with Iranian negotiators who were also in Doha.
Among the most difficult issues to be negotiated are possible restrictions on Iran's nuclear program and its stockpile of enriched uranium.
The talks appear to have been paused this week as Iran held the massive funeral events for its former supreme leader, who was killed in the opening salvo of the war.
Mojtaba Khamenei, his 56-year-old son, was named his successor in March but has not appeared in public or even issued an audio statement since he assumed the highest post in the country.
Khamenei's casket was displayed Tuesday in Qom, the Iranian seat of religious scholarship, and Iranian officials have said funeral events will take place Wednesday in Iraq, which is home to two of the holiest shrines for Shiites.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, who was in the Iraqi city of Najaf for the funeral ceremonies, left for Tehran after the U.S. strikes on Iran, state media reported.
Taking the funeral across the border to Iraq will allow the Revolutionary Guard, the most powerful military, political and economic force in Iran, to highlight its regional prominence.
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Well, that didn't last long. President Trump is now declaring the ceasefire is over. The first 100 days of the war was a military failure to obtain surrender. The second 100 days will be a diplomatic failure to obtain a peace. How often will Trump repeat the cycle?
At some point there'll be a Hail Mary invasion and occupation with some sort of puppet government put in place. Then the regime will return after the US withdraws. We've seen this movie before in Afghanistan.
Going by Trumps past, he will just pretend it all never happened and say he doesnt know anything about a so called "war".
It's also possible President Trump is waiting for the midterms before he makes the next move. Can't have war because of the midterms and can't have peace because of the midterms. Besides, Trump still wants to prove he can destroy a civilization so the war can't end before that happens.
I still think he is just itching to deploy nukes.
maga = making ayatollahs great again
He's definitely trying to make them very wealthy again with the amount of $'s of payout that Trump is floating their way.
Let's say we all agree that Trump has handled this badly so far. What do you think he ought to do now? Allow Iran to extort countries transiting the straight and attacking those who don't pay? What do you think the steps to peace should be?
The only viable thing President Trump can do unilaterally is invade and occupy Iran. Trump has forced himself into the position of fighting another Afghanistan-type war without the aid of allies.
One alternative would be for the United Nations to deploy a peace keeping mission to the region. But that would require unanimous approval by the Security Council which the US would veto.
Another possibility would be for the Persian Gulf states to kick the US out of the Persian Gulf and negotiate directly with Iran. Iran was attempting to do something like that in April and May but apparently it didn't work out. OPEC has already been shattered. And the Gulf Cooperation Council isn't united in support of the war or on relations with Iran.
There could be a 'Great Power' coalition established between China and Russia to challenge the US in the Persian Gulf. Both China and Russia have vested interests in the region while the US does not. But Russia is tied up in Ukraine and China is reaping expanded market share for batteries, solar panels, and EVs due to the war. So, a 'Great Power' intervention seems unlikely.
My guess is the situation of on again/off again air strikes and negotiations will continue through the mid-terms. Boots on the ground would be a disaster for Republicans. And it's becoming obvious Trump can't get an agreement as good as Obama's JCPOA before the mid-term elections (Iran can read a calendar, too). Who knows what happens after the mid-terms?
Let me rephrase it. Trump has passed away due to some unforeseen medical complication. Through a really weird chain of events, you are now the president. What would you do going forward concerning Iraq?
Work with the responsible, affected nations to provide economic/diplomatic conditions to get a verifiable (i.e. inspectors, cameras, access, ...) containment process to keep Iran's nuclear ambitions in check.
Diplomacy backed by serious consequences for non-compliance and benefits for compliance.
Threats of force, use of force, etc. clearly will not solve the real problem. Military force can eliminate immediate threats (e.g. destroy a nuclear enrichment facility) but this is not solving the real problem. The attempts to make Iran submit through military force will, almost certainly, make things worse. Such force is best held as a deterrent, not a solution.
I'm not sure removing Trump would change anything at this juncture. Trump has already used military attacks and threats to coerce Iran. Trump has already tried isolating Iran and strangling Iran's economy. Trump has already encouraged popular uprisings and incursions by regional groups. Trump has already provided generous concessions to obtain Iran's cooperation.
The only things Trump hasn't tried are invasion/occupation or surrender to Iran. What other options are left for any President?
If I were President, I'd pack up and leave the Persian Gulf. The US is no longer the guarantor of security for the region. The US has lost the status of a reliable partner in maintaining peace. The countries in the region need to either resolve their own conflicts or destroy each other. Nations with a vested commercial interest in the region need to provide security for their own supply chains. The United Nations needs to perform the function it was intended to perform.
What do you think the most likely outcome of that would be? Certainly, an unchecked Iran would be a part of that. If the US left and let the region sort themselves out, so to speak, what do you think that would mean for Iran's nuclear program?
What would an unchecked Iran do? Construct a nuclear weapon to scare the US into leaving the region? Close the Strait of Hormuz? Challenge Saudi Arabia's control of global oil prices? Attack Israel?
The Iranian bogeyman has been doing those things since Trump withdrew from the JCPOA.
Some version of those things, yes. I think that is more likely than the region heading toward stabilization.
The presence of the United States has destabilized the region (for decades). That's why, as President, I would withdraw from the Persian Gulf region. The United States no longer has any strategic interests in the region. The US no longer needs to ensure the security of Asian supply chains.
We've done our bit but now we're no longer needed in the region. It's time to close the chapter on the 20th century.
Weren’t we being promised a peace agreement a couple weeks ago?
trump isn't done bankrupting the country to sooth his fragile ego yet ...
"All we are saying ,..... is peace has no chance"
Today Trump discussed "the Islamic Republic of Japan", asked reporters if they had any questions for "President Putin" while he was sitting next to and pointing at Zelensky, and told his aides to cut off all trade with Spain and "no more visits." Now, just think of how Republicans would react if it was Biden.
dementia don's greatest hits ...
Give a mentally ill moron power...
and we are given and left much, less off