Minutes after presenting the World Cup trophy at the final, U.S. President Donald Trump ordered U.S. Central Command to launch another wave of strikes against Iran.
“This is the ninth consecutive night,” CENTCOM said in a post on X, adding that the strikes would continue targeting Iranian military capabilities used to attack commercial vessels and civilian sailors traveling through the Strait of Hormuz.
The announcement came shortly after the World Cup final, in which Trump presented the trophy to victorious Spain. Soon after the attacks began, the president declared: “Tonight, we once again hit Iran very hard.”
Within minutes of the American announcement, an Iranian news network reported strikes in the northwestern city of Tabriz. Iran’s Tasnim News Agency said several explosions had been heard in Bandar Mahshahr and Bandar Imam Khomeini in southwestern Iran.
Iran’s Mehr News Agency also reported that Iranian air-defense systems had been activated in Chabahar and Konarak, a strategically important port city in southeastern Iran. Explosions were also reportedly heard on Sirik Island and in Bushehr.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps later said that two oil tankers had been blown up after attempting to pass through the southern route of the Strait of Hormuz.
The IRGC declared that the strait would not be safe for the transport of petrochemical products, or “even a single drop of oil or gas”, as long as U.S. military operations in the region continued.
The organization also claimed that it had launched ballistic missiles at American aircraft at Jordan’s Aqaba airport.
Meanwhile, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency said it had received a report of a vessel on fire off the coast of Oman, near the Strait of Hormuz. The cause of the fire had not yet been verified.
According to the agency, the incident occurred approximately eight nautical miles northwest of the town of Kumzar in northern Oman.
The U.S. Embassy in Manama, Bahrain, said it had received “information indicating that Iran may attempt to target unspecified locations in central Manama.”
“We urge all Americans to remain vigilant, follow the instructions of local authorities and review the latest security guidance,” the embassy said.
According to Iranian state television, the previous night’s American strikes were concentrated near the Iranian port city of Sirik.
At the same time, security sources told Reuters that a drone had crashed near the U.S. Consulate in Erbil, Iraq.
Tasnim also reported that the “American enemy” had struck an area near the city of Hajiabad in Iran’s southern Hormozgan Province.
The latest U.S. attacks followed an announcement by CENTCOM that two American soldiers had been killed and another remained missing following an Iranian ballistic-missile and drone attack on a military base in Jordan.
Four other members of the U.S. task force were wounded in the same incident. They were evacuated to hospitals in Jordan and later released. Additional personnel suffered minor injuries but have since returned to duty.
