Israel’s Defence Minister said today that his country would respond powerfully to any attack by Iran, after Israeli and Jordanian forces intercepted an Iranian missile launched towards the Jordanian city of Aqaba.
“If Iran fires missiles at Israel, we will attack them with full force,” Israel Katz said during a visit to a rescue service facility.
“If the United States changes its policy, which is also something that could happen, we are prepared for both defensive and offensive” action against Tehran, he added.
- AFP
Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi will visit Tehran within the coming week, the Iraqi state news agency reported today, adding that during the visit the Prime Minister will sign memoranda of understanding in Tehran in areas of cooperation.
- Reuters
The Embassy of India in Iran has issued a revised advisory in light of adverse situations in West Asia.
Jordan has summoned Iran’s charge d’affaires in Amman over what it called “unjustified and blatant Iranian attacks” and “provocative and inflammatory statements targeting the Kingdom’s territory,” Jordan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement today.
Over the last week, Jordan has repeatedly said that it has intercepted Iranian missiles flying over its territory, including three that it shot down today, according to the country’s military.
- Reuters
The UN’s nuclear watchdog called for restraint today after Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization said the United States had attacked an under-construction nuclear power plant in the country’s southwest.
The U.S. and Iran have been trading escalating attacks for days, and Washington carried out fresh airstrikes today to “punish” Iran for the deaths of two U.S. service members in Jordan on Friday (July 17) — its first reported losses since the return to open hostilities in the West Asia war.
Tehran’s Atomic Energy Organization said U.S. forces “in an aggressive and brutal act contrary to international law, attacked the under-construction Darkhovin nuclear power plant... with a number of projectiles on Sunday”, according to a statement carried by state TV.
- AFP
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun in Washington today, a State Department official told AFP, after the latest round of Lebanon-Israel talks wrapped up in Italy.
It is the first trip to Washington by a Lebanese head of state since Michel Sleiman was received by Barack Obama in 2009.
The Lebanese president’s office said Mr. Aoun would meet with President Donald Trump on July 21.
Mr. Aoun planned talks “on the situation in Lebanon and ways to strengthen the ceasefire” as well as on “the withdrawal of Israel from the Lebanese regions it occupies,” his office said.
- AFP
Iranian state media has reported that sounds of an explosion were heard in Iran’s Abadan.
- Reuters
According to Israeli media, an Iranian missile hit Jordan’s Aqaba Airport, with the impact visible from Eilat, Israel.
The United States carried out airstrikes today to “punish” Iran after the first U.S. military deaths since open hostilities rekindled the West Asia war.
Iran rapidly responded, saying two U.S. bases in Kuwait were targeted in response to more than a week of intensifying attacks — which Tehran said included strikes on an airport, a railway station and bridges.
A preliminary deal aimed at ending the war has collapsed as the foes fight to break the deadlock over the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway key to the world’s oil supply.
- AFP
Jordan’s armed forces said they shot down three Iranian missiles targeting the kingdom, while a fourth fell in a remote area, the state news agency reported.
There were no casualties or material damage, the agency said, citing a military official.
- Reuters
The International Atomic Energy Agency said today that it was investigating reports of an overnight attack on the construction site of Iran’s planned Darkhovin nuclear power plant.
The facility was in the very early stages of construction and contained no nuclear material when last inspected, the agency said.
- Reuters
Israeli and Jordanian forces intercepted an Iranian missile aimed at the Jordanian city of Aqaba today, the Israeli military told AFP.
When asked by AFP about reports of explosions near the Israeli city of Eilat, a military spokeswoman said both Israeli and Jordanian forces had intercepted a projectile.
- AFP
Sirens sounded in the Jordanian capital Amman today, an AFP correspondent said, as the United States and Iran exchanged drone and missile attacks.
Jordan’s state-run Al-Mamlaka channel also reported that “sirens have been activated in different parts of the kingdom”.
- AFP
The Israeli military today that it had identified missiles launched from Iran towards the Jordanian city of Aqaba, adjacent to Israeli territory.
It also warned of possible spillover into southern Israel, as sirens sounded across Jordan, according to Jordanian state television.
- Reuters
U.S. President Donald Trump said today that Republicans should add Iran to the Russian sanctions bill.
- Reuters
Israel is preparing to receive more U.S. refuelling aircraft, an Israeli military official said today, as attacks launched by the United States and Iran have escalated over the past week.
The U.S. and Iran have intensified strikes since an interim ceasefire deal signed a month ago crumbled, raising the possibility of a return to all-out war. Israel has not joined the latest U.S. attacks.
The Israeli official said the U.S. had “decided to adjust its force posture in the region” and “to reinforce the existing fleet of aerial refuelling aircraft stationed in Israel with additional refuelling aircraft.”
- Reuters
An Iranian attack on a power and water plant in Kuwait caused a fire for the second day in a row today, Kuwaiti authorities said, as Tehran retaliates to U.S. strikes with attacks across the Gulf region.
“As a result of the heinous Iranian aggression on Kuwait, a power and water distillation plant, for the second time in two days, has been subjected to an attack that caused a fire in some facilities of the station,” the Kuwaiti Ministry of Electricity, Water and Renewable Energy said in a statement on X, adding that firefighters were working to extinguish the blaze.
- AFP
Jordanian authorities have not issued any decision today to evacuate the airport or seaport in Aqaba, and have not detected any potential threats in the past hours, the state news agency cited the government spokesperson as saying.
The U.S. embassy in Amman had said earlier the port and international airport in Aqaba were evacuated because of a “specific and credible threat”, without giving further details.
- Reuters
Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization today said the United States attacked an under-construction nuclear power plant in the country’s southwest, as tensions between Tehran and Washington escalate.
U.S. forces “in an aggressive and brutal act contrary to international law, attacked the under-construction Darkhovin nuclear power plant... with a number of projectiles on Sunday,” the organisation said in a statement carried by state TV.
- AFP
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on
Sunday that two ships were involved in an “accident” after attempting to transit the Strait of Hormuz via an “unsafe route”, while two other vessels abandoned that route, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.
The Guards said the four vessels had ignored Iranian warnings and acted with U.S. backing.
“Vessels that are influenced by the words of the Americans and enter unsafe routes will certainly face accidents,” the Guards warned in a statement.
-Reuters
Kuwait and Bahrain’s militaries said on Sunday they were responding to Iranian aerial attacks, and air raid sirens sounded in the two Gulf countries as Tehran pressed its retaliatory strikes across the region.
“Kuwaiti air defences are currently confronting hostile missile and drone attacks, following the sinful Iranian aggression,” the army said in a statement, as an AFP journalist reported warning sirens sounding in Kuwait City.
In the island kingdom of Bahrain, host of the U.S. Fifth Fleet, the miltiary said its air defences “confronted, intercepted, and destroyed a number of treacherous Iranian aerial attacks”.
-AFP
Air raid sirens sounded in the tiny Gulf kingdom of Bahrain on Sunday as Iran and the United States traded fresh strikes over control of the vital Strait of Hormuz.
“The siren has been sounded. Citizens and residents are urged to remain calm and head to the nearest safe place,” the interior ministry said in a statement, while an AFP journalist confirmed sirens had rung out in Bahrain’s capital Manama.
-AFP
A drone strike in Iraq’s Kurdistan region wounded eight Iranian Kurdish rebels on Sunday, an exiled opposition group said, blaming the attack on Iran.
During the Middle East war, the northern Kurdistan region, which hosts U.S. troops and foreign oil companies as well as exiled Iranian Kurdish rebels, has been a target for attacks carried out by Iran and pro-Iran Iraqi armed groups.
The renewed escalation in Kurdistan follows the resumption of hostilities between the United States and Iran.
Adib Khaldian from the exiled Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK) told AFP “at 02:00 a.m. (2300 GMT Saturday), Iranian forces attacked with a drone” a camp belonging to the party near Erbil.
-AFP
The U.S. military launched airstrikes Sunday targeting Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard to retaliate for the killing of American troops in Jordan, further widening crossfire between the nations as an interim deal seeking an end to their war has collapsed.
The strikes are part of a weeklong campaign that began with a struggle over control of the Strait of Hormuz and has seen Iran strike U.S.-allied countries across the Middle East.
The U.S. has targeted bridges, electrical facilities and other targets in Iran, and Tehran has retaliated by hitting power and desalination plants in Kuwait, threatening daily life in that small, oil-rich desert nation. Iran also has stepped up its threats to further expand the strikes, drawing a warning overnight from the United Arab Emirates.
-AP
Kuwait’s military said today it was responding to aerial salvos fired by Iran a day after the Gulf state faced barrages from the Islamic republic that struck a power plant and oil facility.
“Kuwaiti air defences are currently confronting hostile missile and drone attacks, following the sinful Iranian aggression,” the army said in a statement, as an AFP journalist reported warning sirens sounding in Kuwait City.
-AFP
The U.S. military said today it had ended its latest round of airstrikes on Iran, which included targeting Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard over an attack that killed American troops in Jordan.
The U.S. military’s Central Command in its statement also said it hit “Iranian military coastal surveillance and air defence facilities, maritime capabilities and missile and drone storage sites.” Iran has provided no overall information on its materiel losses in the American campaign, which now is in its eighth day as the nations vie over control of the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all oil and natural gas traded passes in peacetime.
-AP
The U.S. military said today that it launched new airstrikes against Iran to “swiftly punish” the country’s Revolutionary Guard for an attack in Jordan that killed two American service members, left one missing and four requiring hospitalisation.
The strikes were designed to further degrade Iran’s ability to restrict the traffic of oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, U.S. Central Command said.
Read more:
The U.S. military conducts airstrikes against Iran in response to attacks that killed American troops, targeting oil traffic control.
Iran’s army said today it had targeted two U.S. bases in Kuwait with drones in response to American attacks on Iranian territory.
The Islamic republic’s army said it carried out “large-scale attacks with kamikaze drones against the U.S. military’s ammunition depot at Camp Udairi and the Patriot radar system and air surveillance radar at Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait”, according to a statement carried by the state broadcaster.
-AFP
Published - July 19, 2026 09:06 am IST