US Military Strikes Iran for 11th Consecutive Night

as Strait of Hormuz Standoff Deepens

Report By Y-Trendz

Washington/Tehran, July 22, 2026 — The United States military carried out its 11th consecutive night of air strikes against Iran late Tuesday, US Central Command (CENTCOM) confirmed, extending an

aerial campaign that began nearly two weeks ago and shows no sign of slowing even as its financial and political costs mount in Washington.

Strikes Target Military and Maritime Infrastructure

CENTCOM said its forces began striking military targets inside Iran at 7 p.m. ET on Tuesday and completed the operation roughly an hour and fifteen minutes later, at 8:15 p.m. ET. In a statement posted on X, the command said the strikes hit "Iranian military operations centers, maritime capabilities, aircraft hangars, drone storage facilities, and military logistics infrastructure," describing the goal as continuing to "degrade Iran's ability to threaten commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz."

Explosions were reported across a wide swath of the country. Iran's Tasnim news agency reported blasts in the southern port city of Bushehr, home to Iran's only commercial nuclear power plant and a naval base central to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy. Fars news agency reported a strike on a military site near Tabriz in the northwest, and explosions were also heard in Tehran, where state television said air defenses had been activated, as well as in the southeastern coastal city of Chabahar and around Sirik in the south. Officials in Iran's southwestern Khuzestan province said areas near Behbahan and Omidiyeh were also targeted. The strikes on Tabriz and Tehran mark a shift from the campaign's earlier focus on southern Iran and the Strait of Hormuz corridor.

CENTCOM said Iran has attacked more than 30 commercial vessels transiting the strait over the past three months. Since early May, the command said, it has helped facilitate the passage of roughly 900 commercial vessels and 450 million barrels of crude oil through the waterway, one of the world's most critical energy chokepoints.

Trump Warns of Strike on 'Pickaxe Mountain'

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the US would "probably pretty soon" strike the area of Pickaxe Mountain, a heavily fortified underground facility believed to be linked to Iran's nuclear program. Tehran has warned that any attack on its nuclear facilities would constitute a significant expansion of the conflict. Trump separately described the US naval blockade of Iranian ports as a "steel wall" that "nobody gets through."

War Secretary Pete Hegseth, addressing reporters, said Iran "has been given every opportunity to negotiate" over the Strait of Hormuz, adding that continued attacks on commercial shipping would be met with escalating force. "We're going to hit them, as the president said, ten times harder... every night we're degrading them further and further," Hegseth said.

The conflict has also widened geographically in recent days. Kuwait, Bahrain and Jordan each said they intercepted aerial attacks, underscoring fears that the fighting could spill further across the Gulf region. Two US service members were killed in Jordan last week in an Iran-linked attack, CENTCOM said, and a third US service member was killed in Iraq on Saturday.

Hegseth Tells Congress War Has Cost $37.5 Billion

The latest round of strikes came hours after Hegseth and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Dan Caine testified before the Senate Appropriations Committee, where Hegseth disclosed that the war with Iran has cost an estimated $37.5 billion to date — a figure he said accounts for costs through the end of the fiscal year on September 30. That estimate is up sharply from the $29 billion figure the Pentagon comptroller had cited in May, which Senate Appropriations Committee ranking member Patty Murray had already called "suspiciously low" at the time.

The hearing was part of the administration's push for a large supplemental funding request, which last month totaled roughly $88 billion, including $21 billion for munitions, $17.3 billion for operational costs and $12.1 billion for classified programs, according to figures cited by lawmakers. Sources familiar with the matter told several US outlets that the true cost of the war is likely significantly higher than the public estimate, since it does not account for expenses such as reconstruction of damaged US military installations.

Senators from both parties pressed Hegseth for clearer answers. Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana said Congress and the public deserve "straighter answers" about "why we went in and how we're going to get out." Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin said Hegseth and Caine "can't explain how this money is going to be spent," while Sen. Chris Coons said he was unsurprised by the scale of the cost. During a tense exchange, Hegseth rejected Sen. Chris Van Hollen's characterization that the US had started the war, telling the committee, "Iran started this war 47 years ago... they've killed thousands of Americans, including our brothers on the battlefield in Iraq."

The hearing was repeatedly interrupted by anti-war protesters, some of whom shouted "your hands are bloody" before being escorted from the room by Capitol Police.

No End in Sight

The strikes have continued nightly since the conflict escalated dramatically following the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a joint US-Israeli strike on February 28. With Trump signaling further escalation toward Iran's nuclear infrastructure and Tehran's commanders warning of retaliation against US and allied interests across the region, there is no public indication from either Washington or Tehran that the nightly exchange of strikes is nearing a resolution.