Trump says Iran will pay ‘many times over’ for deaths of U.S. soldiers as mediators seek truce

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 Hossein KHORGOOEI/ISNA/AFP via Getty Images

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U.S. forces struck Iranian targets after President Donald Trump vowed Tehran “will pay” for killing three U.S. soldiers, even as mediators proposed a new truce with the Middle East war widening further.

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U.S. Central Command said the military began a new wave of strikes around 4 p.m. ET on Monday, the 10th straight day of attacks. “Every time Iran kills an American Soldier they will pay for that killing many times over!” Trump wrote in a social media post.

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Earlier, Iran had said mediators were in touch with proposals on how to ease hostilities after more than a week of worsening clashes. Tensions remain high and the conflict looked set to expand further after Tehran-backed Houthi militants in Yemen threatened to blockade Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea.

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Esmail Baghaei, the Islamic Republic’s foreign ministry spokesman, said “ideas from some mediators have been conveyed” to Tehran, without giving further details. Tehran said its interior minister, Eskandar Momeni, is traveling to Pakistan on Monday.

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Qatar and Pakistan, the main intermediaries in the conflict, see a return to U.S.-Iran positions before July 9 as a first step, according to the semi-official Iranian Students’ News Agency. Fighting over control of the Strait of Hormuz began that day, effectively unraveling an interim peace deal signed last month.

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Asked about a Reuters report that mediators proposed a 10-day ceasefire, a U.S. official said Trump is currently focused on punishing Iran for attacking ships in the Strait of Hormuz. The U.S. strikes will continue until the president chooses a different course of action, the official said, but diplomatic efforts to end the war were continuing.

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Oil swung between gains and losses on Monday on the prospects for further escalation and detente in the conflict.

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Yahya Saree, a spokesman for the Houthis in Yemen, said on Monday that they would impose a maritime blockade on Saudi Arabia in retaliation for what they say is the kingdom’s siege on the Yemeni capital, Sana’a.

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That announcement adds to a slew of risks facing global oil supplies, as it puts at risk the flow of millions of barrels that the kingdom exports via the Red Sea.

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U.S. gasoline prices have climbed back over the $4-a-gallon mark, potentially hurting Trump and his Republican party ahead of midterm elections in November.

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The U.S. earlier conducted a ninth straight day of airstrikes on Iran. Tehran is refusing to relent on attacking shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, insisting it has a right to manage traffic through the critical waterway. Iran also continued to attack U.S. bases across Kuwait, Jordan, Bahrain and Iraq.

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The tit-for-tat attacks are getting deadlier.

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The U.S. military announced the death of a service member in northern Iraq on Saturday during a “controlled detonation” of a downed Iranian drone. That was a day after two others were killed in an Iranian attack on Jordan, with another service member still missing.