US launches 8th night of strikes on Iran to ‘punish’ IRGC for deadly Jordan attack

The United States on Sunday said it had completed an eighth straight night of strikes against Iran, saying they were intended to “punish” Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps for a deadly strike that killed two US military personnel in Jordan and left another missing.

Amid the spiraling conflict in the region, the US issued an alert to its citizens across the globe, warning they could be targeted by Iran and its allies.

US Central Command said in a statement that the airstrikes began at 6 p.m. ET (2200 GMT) on Saturday, at the direction of US President Donald Trump.

“The strikes are designed to further degrade Iran’s ability to threaten commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and swiftly punish Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces who launched attacks against American service members in Jordan last night,” the command said.

CENTCOM did not provide any details on the retaliatory strike against IRGC forces or its results.

But it said that airstrikes “successfully hit Iranian military coastal surveillance and air defense facilities, maritime capabilities, and missile and drone storage sites to continue degrading Iranian military capabilities.”

Iran’s Mehr news agency said the US carried out an attack near Sirik in southern Iran, adding that no casualties or damage to infrastructure have been reported.

A location near Hajiabad, in the same province, was also targeted, and explosions were heard in Bandar Abbas, according to state-run IRNA.

An area near Qeshm Island, inside the strait, was also targeted, according to Iran’s IRIB broadcaster.

The Iranian army then carried out a drone attack that targeted US military assets and equipment at Kuwait’s Al-Adiri camp and Ali Al Salem Air Base, Iran’s state TV reported early Sunday, citing a statement from the army.

Both bases were targeted as part of Iran’s attacks against US assets and allies in the Gulf since last week.

In neighboring Iraq, a base of the Kurdistan Freedom Party, an Iranian Kurdish dissident group, near Erbil was also struck by a drone early Sunday, wounding eight of its members, Rebaz Sharifi, a military official with the group, said.

Residents of Erbil itself also heard explosions from air defenses.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but in the past, both Iran and Iran-backed Iraqi militias have launched attacks in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region, where both US troops and armed Kurdish Iranian dissident groups are present.

Nearly every Gulf Arab state has been targeted by Iran for retaliatory strikes, with a missile alert sounding Saturday in Saudi Arabia. However, the United Arab Emirates has yet to be targeted.

The semiofficial Iranian news agency Fars, believed to be close to the Guard, issued a threat Saturday to the UAE.

Quoting an anonymous official, Fars said continued strikes on Iranian civilian infrastructure would mean that the “airports of Dubai and Abu Dhabi, as well as the ports of Fujairah and Jebel Ali, must be immediately evacuated.”

Apparently responding to the threat, the Emirates’ Foreign Ministry issued a statement calling “for exercising the utmost restraint in order to avoid dangerous repercussions, and the region being pulled into new levels of violence and instability.”

“The UAE emphasized that the targeting of civilian infrastructure and civilian facilities in the region… constitute a flagrant and grave violation of the established principles and provisions of international law, and cannot, under any circumstances, be accepted or justified,” the statement added.

The US State Department, meanwhile, issued a Worldwide Caution alert for US citizens overnight Saturday, “due to heightened tensions in the Middle East.”

It urged US citizens worldwide, and “especially in the Middle East,” to “follow the guidance in security alerts issued by the nearest US embassy or consulate.”

“Flight cancellations and periodic airspace closures may cause travel disruptions. US diplomatic facilities, including outside the Middle East, have been targeted,” it said, without offering further details.

It warned that “groups supportive of Iran may target other US interests overseas or locations associated with the United States” around the world.

The US had already issued a travel warning for the Middle East in light of the escalated fighting with Iran, and the US Embassy in Jerusalem warned Americans to avoid traveling to northern Israel, Gaza, and the Egyptian border.

Worldwide Caution: Due to heightened tensions in the Middle East, the security environment remains complex with the potential for unforeseen escalation. We remind Americans in the region of the continued need for caution and encourage them to monitor the news for breaking… pic.twitter.com/A3LKEQSRiO

— TravelGov (@TravelGov) July 18, 2026

The US and Israel together launched a campaign against Iran on February 28 to degrade the regime’s military capabilities, distance threats posed by the country — including its nuclear and ballistic missile programs — and “create the conditions” for the Iranian people to topple the regime, the military and other Israeli leaders have said.

Israel respected the US-Iran ceasefire that began April 8, and the government, while not included in the process of negotiating the US-Iran memorandum of understanding signed last month, did not object it even though it purported to bind both the US “and its allies.”

Iran has refrained from attacking Israel amid the latest tit-for-tat fighting.

The war with Iran has been draining for all of us in Israel. But when I heard about a high casualty incident – ballistic missile impacts in Arad and Dimona that left nearly 200 people wounded – I drank a cup of coffee, packed a bag, and headed south.

There, I spoke with Shilgit, the head of an after-school program for underprivileged youth. Standing outside her destroyed center, Shilgit said it was a miracle that no children were hurt and spoke about the community coming together in the hours since.

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— Stav Levaton, military reporter

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