IRAN WAR: U.S. launches more strikes after Trump warns Tehran ‘will pay’ for soldiers’ deaths

A recap of what's happened in the Middle East on Monday

Published Jul 20, 2026  •  Last updated 11 minutes ago  •  4 minute read

A heavily-damaged bridge which was hit by a U.S. strike is pictured along the road connecting Roudan and Bandar Abbas in southern Iran on July 18, 2026. Photo by Amir Hossein KHORGOOEI / ISNA /AFP via Getty Images

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Hours after U.S. President Donald Trump vowed to punish Tehran for the deaths of U.S. soldiers, the U.S. military said it had launched another wave of strikes against Iran on Monday.

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“Every time Iran kills an American Soldier they will pay for that killing many times over!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform Monday afternoon.

“This directive has been passed on to Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Daniel Caine, and every Leader in the Military,” he added.

Four hours after the U.S. president’s comments, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) announced on X that it was carrying out more airstrikes, starting at 4 p.m. ET, “designed to further degrade Iranian military capabilities used to attack commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.”

The new attacks — the 10th consecutive night of strikes — came after two U.S. soldiers were killed in Jordan while defending against Iranian ballistic missile and drone attacks on Friday, and another U.S. service member was killed in northern Iraq during a “controlled detonation” of an unexploded Iranian drone on Saturday.

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The continued airstrikes also followed comments from Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, who said his country was in a “full-scale war” with the U.S.

The combatant tone came a day after Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said mediators reached out to Tehran over the weekend and were “working and trying to prevent tension from escalating,” per The Jerusalem Post.

However, Baghaei there is no excuse for the U.S. to violate the terms of the memorandum of understanding signed last month.

Tehran has claimed that U.S. strikes this month have killed at least 50 people and injured more than 500, according to an Al Jazeera report.

Here’s a recap of what’s happened on Monday:

Kuwait Army says more Iranian missile and drones intercepted

Kuwait’s Army said in a post on X its air defences were on alert, responding to missile and drone attacks from Iran on Monday.

It said if explosions were heard, they’re the result of its air defence systems intercepting the projectiles.

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The Gulf state, one of America’s ally in the Middle East, has been under attack since the start of the war in February.

Bahrain and Jordan have also been the target of Iranian airstrikes in the last few days.

Yemen’s Houthis launch maritime blockade on Saudi Arabia

Yemen’s Houthis announced on Monday that it was imposing a maritime blockade on Saudi Arabia in response to a siege of the Yemeni capital, Sana’a.

The Iran-backed militant group said the maritime embargo was “based on the equation of ‘an eye for an eye’ and affirmed “the right of our great people to respond to the blockade with a blockade” and to “all escalation with escalation,” Al Jazeera reported.

A Houthi media official said the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait — a major chokepoint linking the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea — would be closed to Saudi vessels.

The Houthis, a clan from Yemen’s north, seized Sana’a in 2014, touching off a civil war that drew in the Saudis and other Middle East states.

The blockade would add further pressure on oil exports from the Middle East, as countries use the shipping route to bypass the Strait of Hormuz.

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Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry issued a statement stating the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia condemned the blockade, and “will take all necessary measures to protect its vessels in accordance with international law.”

Trump: Netanyahu will not be arrested while in U.S.

The U.S. president said Monday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will not be arrested ⁠when he visits ⁠the ​U.S., after New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said he was still pushing for Netanyahu’s arrest should he set foot on American soil for events like the United Nations General Assembly.

“Benjamin Netanyahu will not be arrested, in any way, shape, or form, while ⁠in the United States of America,” Trump wrote ​on Truth Social.

“He is fighting against the Islamic Republic of Iran, which recently killed 52,000 innocent protesters, and has spent the last 47 years killing American Soldiers, and others,” Trump added.

“The only ones that should be arrested are the people that led Iran into this unprecedented SPIRAL OF DEATH AND DESTRUCTION, something that should have been dealt with years ago, by previous Presidents!”

Iran in ‘full-scale war’ with U.S.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said his country was in a “full-scale war” with the U.S. and that Tehran should “accept the natural consequences of this resistance.”

In a statement issued Monday, Pezeshkian said, “The reality is that today the Islamic Republic of Iran is engaged in a full-scale war,” adding that “we must be realistic and accept the natural consequences of this resistance.”

— with files from Bloomberg and AFP

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