US strikes Iran for ninth night as Israel braces for wider war

CENTCOM launches another wave of strikes; Kuwait engages Iranian missiles; IDF Chief of Staff Zamir says ready to resume combat.

US strikes Iran for ninth night as Israel braces for wider war — The US Central Command announced the start of another wave of strikes against targets in Iran, the ninth consecutive night, focusing on military infrastructure in southern Iran near the Strait of Hormuz.[^1] The strikes have severely damaged 116 communication towers in the region, according to Maariv, and have targeted Revolutionary Guard facilities used for monitoring maritime traffic. The campaign continues despite Iranian retaliation: Kuwaiti air defenses engaged inbound Iranian missiles and drones early Sunday morning, July 19, 2026.[^3] A US service member was killed in northern Iraq on Saturday during a controlled detonation of a downed Iranian explosive drone, while unidentified remains were located at a site in Jordan where an Iranian strike killed two US service members on Friday. Four additional service members were injured in the Jordan incident, and one remains missing. President Donald Trump told the New York Post that the service members 'died because they don’t want to see Iran have a nuclear weapon and they don’t want to see the Middle East blown up.'[^4] In Israel, Defense Minister Israel Katz said during a visit to the ZAKA logistics unit: 'We tell the Americans that with all due respect to friendship and there is friendship, we are acting together in Iran.'[^2] IDF Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir, after conducting a situation assessment in Judea and Samaria, stated: 'We are ready to resume combat operations immediately and will respond with full force to anyone who strikes us.' The IDF also exposed an extensive underground tunnel network of Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, built with North Korean expertise and costing an estimated $1-3 billion. Meanwhile, Hezbollah's attack on the Lebanese Army in Mansouri over the weekend killed Sgt. Maj. Ahmad Sami Khalil and wounded two others. Expert Eyal Zisser told the Jerusalem Post that Hezbollah is hinting at escalation if threatened but remains undecided, with next moves depending on US-brokered talks between Beirut and Jerusalem. US-Iran escalation widens as Gulf states feel the squeeze — A US official familiar with inter