Tehran4:51 p.m. July 19
Iran War Live Updates: U.S. and Iran Edge Closer to Wider War After U.S. Service Members Killed
The U.S. military said it had targeted Iranian forces that were responsible for an attack on a base in Jordan that left two American service members dead and one missing.
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U.S. and Iranian forces edged closer to a wider war over the weekend after the killing of two American service members during an Iranian missile barrage in Jordan.
It was the first time U.S. soldiers were killed by Iranian fire since the truce unraveled in recent weeks, bringing the war’s death toll among U.S. personnel to 16. They were killed after Iran bombarded a military base in Jordan where U.S. forces had been stationed on Friday; a third service member is still missing.
The deaths of the soldiers capped a week of spiraling attacks that largely demolished what remained of the deal to end the war that President Trump agreed to with Iran last month. Sensitive infrastructure targets like bridges and water facilities have come under fire in Iran and in U.S.-allied Kuwait on the other side of the Persian Gulf.
Even as the United States and Iran expanded the scope and intensity of the attacks in the region, there was little sign that diplomatic efforts to end the fighting were gaining traction. At least 50 people in Iran have been killed since the escalation began earlier this month, according to the Iranian health ministry.
The U.S. military said early on Sunday that it had attacked Iranian military coastal surveillance and air defense facilities, as well as the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps forces responsible for striking U.S. forces in Jordan.
On Sunday, Iran launched strikes on Kuwait, Bahrain and Jordan, Middle East countries where the United States maintains a significant military presence. In recent days, Iranian attacks have increasingly damaged critical infrastructure, including an oil facility and power and water treatment plants in Kuwait, according to the authorities.
In an unusual worldwide warning this weekend, the State Department cautioned Americans traveling abroad that tensions in the Middle East had created the “potential for unforeseen escalation.”
Jordan also evacuated the international airport and seaport in the coastal city of Aqaba on Sunday after a “specific and credible threat,” the U.S. Embassy there said. The Jordanian government later issued an official denial, saying the sites were open as usual.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the loss of the U.S. soldiers “only stiffens our resolve.” But the attacks seemed likely to deepen Mr. Trump’s dilemma over how to move ahead with the war against Iran he began alongside Israel more than four months ago.
While Mr. Trump repeatedly vowed the campaign would be brief and successful, it has become a monthslong affair that has battered global energy markets and failed to compel Iran to ditch its nuclear program.
The Trump administration hoped the cease-fire in June would end the war in exchange for Iran’s reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, the vital Persian Gulf waterway for global energy markets that it blockaded during the war.
Instead, the conflict reignited as Iran sought to maintain its grip over the strait by shooting at passing commercial ships. The United States responded by bombarding southern Iran, prompting a cycle of strikes and counterstrikes.
Here’s what else to know:
Supreme leader’s message: Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, argued the United States had violated the cease-fire deal made in June and called Mr. Trump’s signature on it “worthless and invalid,” in a message carried by state media on Saturday.
Jordan in focus: The Iranian attacks on Jordan which killed the two U.S. personnel were the fourth in five days in the country, underlining the Arab nation’s growing strategic importance as a host for U.S. forces in the region. Read more ›
Isolation in Iran: U.S. airstrikes have destroyed links between a southern province in Iran and the rest of the country, according to residents, who say they live in fear of the attacks. Read more ›
The Jordanian military said it had shot down three Iranian ballistic missiles on Sunday, in the latest attack targeting the country over recent days. A fourth missile fell in an open area well away from population centers, the military added.
Air-raid sirens had blared out in Jordan just a few hours after the U.S. embassy there warned of a potential attack on the airport and seaport in the southern city of Aqaba. The Jordanian government denied the U.S. statement, but an Iranian missile attack followed swiftly. There were no reports of casualties or damage, the Jordanian military said.
Warning sirens sounded across Amman, the Jordanian capital, on Sunday afternoon, signaling incoming attacks.
The sirens began shortly after the Israeli military said Iran had launched missiles toward Aqaba, a city in southern Jordan. Earlier, the Jordanian authorities had disputed a claim by the U.S. embassy in the country that the airport and seaport in Aqaba had been evacuated because of a “credible threat.”
The Israeli military said that Iran had launched missiles toward Aqaba in southern Jordan, hours after Jordanian officials had disputed a U.S. warning that the city’s international airport and seaport had been evacuated because of a “specific and credible threat.” The Israeli military said air-raid sirens may sound in southern Israel, which borders Aqaba, due to “spillover” from the attack.
Jordan has come under intensifying Iranian attacks in recent days, with Iranian officials saying that they are targeting military facilities used by U.S. forces in the country.
The Kuwaiti authorities said that Iran attacked a power and water desalination plant for the second time in two days, and urged residents to conserve electricity.
Persian Gulf countries rely heavily on desalination technology to produce drinking water, and the infrastructure has been seen as one of the most vulnerable military targets in the region.
Iran has said that its attacks on Gulf Arab countries have targeted U.S. military bases and soldiers, rather than civilians.
The Iranian authorities accused the United States of targeting the construction site of a nuclear power plant in overnight strikes. Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization said that a facility being built in Darkhovin, in southwestern Khuzestan province, was hit by “several projectiles” in the early hours of Sunday morning, according to state media, without specifying the level of damage.
The U.S. military’s Central Command, which oversees operations in the region, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Shortly after the U.S. authorities in Jordan warned that local officials evacuated the airport and seaport in the southern city of Aqaba, Jordanian officials denied that account. “The relevant authorities have not issued any evacuation decisions for Aqaba Airport or the port,” said Mohammad Momani, the spokesman for Jordan’s government, state media reported on Sunday. The authorities had not identified any potential threats in recent hours either, he added.
The U.S. embassy in Jordan did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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The authorities in Jordan on Sunday issued evacuation warnings for the international airport and seaport in the southern city of Aqaba, according to the U.S. embassy in the country. U.S. officials said on social media that the warning was prompted by a “specific and credible threat” and urged Americans to avoid traveling to either location.
Jordan has become a growing focus of the war in recent days. Iran has targeted U.S. forces in the country at least four times in the past week, American officials have said, including the attack on Friday that killed two U.S. service members.
Aqaba, on Jordan’s Red Sea coast, is a popular destination with cruise ships and international tourists, and borders Israel.
Bahrain said on Sunday that it had intercepted several “Iranian aerial attacks” targeting civilians, hours after warning sirens sounded and residents in the country were urged to seek shelter.
Bahrain hosts a major U.S. naval base and has been targeted by Iranian attacks in recent days. The government did not specify the exact nature of the latest strikes or what had been targeted.
Breaking news reporter
Warning sirens sounded in Bahrain on Sunday morning, the country’s interior ministry said on social media, as it urged residents to seek shelter in a safe place. The brief statement did not say what prompted the sirens. The Persian Gulf state, which houses a United States naval base, has in recent days been targeted by Iranian forces.
The Iranian attack that killed two U.S. soldiers and left one service member missing on Friday was the fourth in five days on U.S. forces in Jordan, multiple American officials said. Taken together, the attacks have wounded dozens of U.S. service members and damaged a number of helicopters.
The flurry of attacks and the losses they have caused are a sign that Iranian forces not only still have ample missile stocks but have also become more adept at evading U.S. air defense systems, said the U.S. officials, who were speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters.
Jordan, which hosts major U.S. air bases, grew in importance in the run-up to and the early days of the war, as the Pentagon shifted a number of troops from Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar to relatively more secure locations in Jordan and Israel. The country’s role in U.S. operations has only increased as other American allies in the region have restricted Washington’s ability to base troops in and fly aircraft over their territories, the U.S. officials said.
In early July, Iran widened its attacks in the region, including Jordan for the first time since Tehran and Washington signed a cease-fire agreement in June.
The U.S. officials offered a recounting of the last five days of Iran’s attacks on Jordan, which the Pentagon has not yet discussed in detail publicly.
The first attack to hit U.S. forces in Jordan struck a residential facility at King Faisal Air Base, wounding as many as five U.S. service members, they said. The second hit a base in eastern Jordan where U.S. Blackhawk helicopters were operating from, damaging a significant number of them.
Then, 48 hours ago, Iranian missiles hit Jordan’s Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Azraq, which is the same base where the troops were killed on Friday, the officials said. The earlier strike wounded about 20 U.S. troops rushing to take cover in bunkers. No one was killed in that barrage. But on Friday, when the Iranians struck the base again, two U.S. troops were killed and four other service members were injured, according to U.S. officials. Other personnel were evaluated for minor injuries and returned to duty.
The Pentagon declined to comment.
On Friday, the Iranian Army said it had launched a drone attack targeting fuel tanks at the U.S. base in Azraq. The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps also said it had used missiles and drones to target aircraft shelters at the base, according to Fars News Agency, a semiofficial news outlet affiliated with the Guards.
Jordan’s location allows the United States to conduct “more efficient air operations across Syria, Iraq and the broader region,” said David Deptula, a retired Air Force lieutenant general who was a main architect of the 1991 Persian Gulf air war.
“Friday’s attack was therefore not just an attack on a base,” he said in an email on Saturday. “It was an attack on the U.S. regional coalition and an attempt to make the political cost of hosting American forces greater than the security benefit.”
The U.S. military announced on Saturday evening that it had launched retaliatory strikes to degrade Iran’s threat to shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and to “swiftly punish Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces who launched attacks against American service members in Jordan.”
Even before those strikes, President Trump signaled that he planned to increase strikes on Iran in the next week and intended to hit more Iranian infrastructure, including bridges, electrical power plants and distribution systems.
Eric Schmitt contributed reporting.
The deaths of two U.S. service members in an Iranian attack in Jordan on Friday bring to 16 the total number of American military personnel killed since the United States and Israel launched attacks on Iran on Feb. 28.
A U.S. official said the two most recent deaths were believed to have been caused by Iranian ballistic missiles launched in a barrage at a military base in Jordan. Several Iranian missiles were shot down, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the attack. But at least one penetrated U.S. and Jordanian air defenses.
President Trump has repeatedly said he would avenge the deaths of any U.S. soldiers. About 1:30 a.m. local time on Sunday, American forces launched a new round of attacks in Iran, according to Central Command.
The two U.S. service members killed were active-duty Army soldiers, the official said.
U.S. death toll in the war with Iran
In recent days, Iran has been mixing up its tactics for attacking U.S. personnel on bases in the region, the official said, using a combination of medium-range ballistic missiles and one-way attack drones in the hopes of overwhelming air defense systems.
Six Army soldiers were killed during a March 1 attack on the port of Shuaiba in Kuwait. Another service member died of injuries he suffered during a March 1 attack on Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia, and six Air Force personnel died when a KC-135 aerial refueling jet crashed in western Iraq on March 12.
The last known U.S. death from the war was a Navy helicopter pilot who was declared missing after an emergency landing in the Arabian Sea on July 1, which the Navy’s Fifth Fleet said was not believed to have been caused by enemy action. Days later, the Navy called off its search for the missing aviator.
The Pentagon’s casualty reporting protocols call for publicly identifying deceased service members only after 24 hours have passed since next of kin were notified. The names of troops wounded in action are not typically released.
More than 400 U.S. service members have been injured in the Iran conflict, according to the military’s Central Command, which directs military operations in the Middle East.
The command’s statement on Saturday said four American service members wounded in Friday’s attack were taken to Jordanian hospitals, and have been discharged.
More American troops received minor injuries and have been returned to duty, the statement said, but did not specify how many.
Eric Schmitt contributed reporting from Minnesota.