Iran War Updates: Trump threatens to bomb a bridge or power plant for every ship attacked in Strait of Hormuz

Iraq had lost more than $40 billion in revenue since the start of the Middle East war, mostly due to a sharp decline in its oil exports, a government official said on Wednesday.

The conflict and Iran's blockade of the Strait of Hormuz choked off shipments and prompted production cuts in key oil-producing countries including Iraq, shaking world energy markets.

Before the war, which began with U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran in late February, Iraq produced around 4 million barrels per day, and exported an average of 3.5 million barrels per day, mostly via the Strait of Hormuz.

But the OPEC founding member was forced to halt production in most of its oil fields as reservoirs filled up, limiting its exports to routes via neighboring Turkey and Syria.

Iraqi Oil Minister Bassem Mohammed Khudair said during a TV interview on Tuesday that his ministry "used to put between $7 to $8 billion a month" into the state's coffers.

"Today, we do not exceed $1.5 billion," he added.

Republican Sen. Rand Paul offered an unqualified criticism of the war with Iran on Tuesday.

"The Iran war has not been a success," Paul told reporters on Capitol Hill. "I've been opposed to the Iran war from the beginning. I think by any objective measure, we're worse off than we were before the war."

When asked what can be done about the war, Paul pointed to the War Powers Act, which he has long supported, saying, "the Constitution is pretty clear that we should always ask for the people's approval through the Congress."

But Paul said the practical aspect of asking if we are better off is more clear-cut.

"If you look at the militarization of the Strait of Hormuz, that's never happened before," Paul said. "There's not an easy way to unmilitarize the strait, and so far continues to be militarized."

"So, from that point of view, I think we're in worse shape," Paul continued. "You could argue we have some leverage because we've defeated them militarily to maybe get a better negotiated settlement, but so far we haven't seen the advantage play out in negotiations."

The U.S. military's Central Command repeated an assertion on Tuesday evening that has been made by the Trump administration many times over the last two weeks, insisting that "despite Iranian aggression, the Strait of Hormuz remains open for commercial vessel traffic." 

CENTCOM acknowledged in the same statement that Iran had launched more than 30 attacks on commercial vessels since the war began, which it said had "endangered hundreds of innocent mariners and undermined freedom of navigation."

Despite the U.S. president and military continuing to urge vessels to use a southern route through the strait, in defiance of Iran's threats, few shippers seem willing to risk it.

The Joint Maritime Information Center in Bahrain, a military partnership that includes the U.S., said commercial traffic in the Strait of Hormuz fell to a three-week low on Tuesday amid ongoing Iranian attacks.

"Owners and operators — and crews, predominately — are really not feeling the safety they would need in order to have their vessels transit, and now we're seeing the same thing in the Bab el-Mandeb, which is absolutely horrendous," Maniatis told CBS News.

Read more here.

U.S. strikes on Iran have killed 53 people and injured 592 over the past month, according to the Iranian Ministry of Health. 

The death toll, which was counted from June 27 to July 22, includes six women and three children, according to Hossein Kermanpour, the head of public relations for the ministry.

"Among the injured are 39 women and 23 individuals under the age of 18," Kermanpour said in a post on X.

Italy is to hold a further round of talks between Israel and Lebanon on Aug. 4, the Italian foreign minister said Wednesday. It will be the seventh round of direct talks between the two countries, which do not have formal diplomatic relations.

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said the next round would be "an important result led by a patient action of foreign policy that builds bridges and never walls."

Israel and Lebanon began U.S.-brokered negotiations in April to reach a peace deal and end the war between Israel and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah group.

Hezbollah, which was not directly involved, has described the Lebanese government's involvement in the talks as "appeasement." Hezbollah has rejected the conditions of previous agreements.

After the previous round of negotiations in Rome last week, the Israeli army started withdrawing forces from "pilot zones" in southern Lebanon, to allow Lebanon's army to assume control.

President Trump's assertion that Iran has asked for a meeting to resume negotiations is "completely unfounded," an Iranian official said Wednesday.

"The claim by Trump that Iran has requested negotiations is completely unfounded," Hasan Ghashghavi, spokesperson for the Iranian parliament's National Security Commission, said in a post on X.  

"It appears that, to escape the quagmire in which he is trapped, Trump should be looking for better options," Ghashghavi said. "His repeated falsehoods no longer even provide short-term reassurance to the markets."

Mr. Trump said Tuesday that Iran wanted to "desperately meet," but added: "Until they're ready to meet in a meaningful way, we have no interest."

Oil prices jumped more than 4% early Wednesday amid the escalating conflict between the two country's, with the price of a barrel of Brent Crude touching $95 - a $20 increase since attacks resumed on July 7.

President Trump is attending the dignified transfer for U.S. Army soldiers killed during the ongoing war with Iran. 

U.S. Army Lt. Tyler James Feehan, 25, of Ewa Beach, Hawaii was killed in action on July 18, and Pvt. Isabella Gonzales, 19, of Carrollton, Texas, was killed in action on July 17 during an attack on the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in southern Jordan, according to the Pentagon.

Sgt. Angel S. Rampersad, 28, of Ozone Park, New York, is also believed to have been killed in the same attack. She had previously been listed as missing in action.

The incident is under investigation, and President Trump told reporters Wednesday that the administration would share the results of the probe. 

The third soldier whose remains are being transferred Wednesday is 30-year-old U.S. Army Sgt. Michael Emmanuel Swinton of North Carolina, who was killed at Erbil Air Base in northern Iraq during a controlled detonation of an Iranian drone. Swinton was a father of two. 

A dignified transfer is a non-ceremonial movement of a fallen U.S. service member killed in a theater abroad back to the United States. The fallen are moved in flag-draped cases and carried by members of the military.

"We're going to Dover," the president told reporters ahead of the trip. "Some of you are going with us, to honor our heroes, and they are indeed great heroes, actually. They said, and they — all of them said very strongly — we can't let, we cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. They won't have a nuclear weapon. So we're going to honor them. And it's one of the hardest things to do. For me, it's one of the hardest things to do as a president. But, has to be done."

The European Union's ⁠Aviation Safety Agency on Wednesday warned airlines against flying in Jordanian airspace, after repeated Iranian attacks on the kingdom in recent weeks. 

"Since the middle of July 2026, the security ⁠situation has deteriorated rapidly, with a sustained increase in ‌kinetic military activity affecting Jordanian airspace," EASA said in a statement.

The agency had already urged airlines to avoid the airspace over Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, ⁠the United ‌Arab Emirates, ⁠Iran, Iraq and Lebanon amid the U.S. war with Iran. 

Iran replied quickly Wednesday to President Trump's latest threat, matching his social media rhetoric with the regime's own dire warning.

The semi-official Tasnim news agency cited an Iranian military source as saying that if the U.S. targets Iranian bridges or power plants, Iran will respond by "striking infrastructure and bridges across the region, including energy facilities in which the United States has interests."

The report by Tasnim, which is closely linked with Iran's powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, came soon after Mr. Trump said in a post on Truth Social that any new attack by Iran on a ship in the Strait of Hormuz would see the U.S. "bomb and destroy ONE BRIDGE OR POWER PLANT, including those located next to, or in, the Capital City of Tehran."

Tasnim cited the unnamed military official as reiterating Tehran's stance that the passage of ships through the strait "would be safe if coordinated with Iran and conducted within the framework of Iran's regulations. Otherwise, Iran will not abandon its firm resolve to control the strait, viewing such control as essential to its long-term security."

Iran's Revolutionary Guard said Wednesday that it had struck U.S. bases in Jordan and that a number of "invading forces" were killed or wounded.

Iran, which is known to exaggerate its military gains, said missile and drone strikes on the King Faisal and Prince Hassan bases in Jordan hit an F-15 fighter jet "preparation hanger" and destroyed eight MQ-9 drones.

"In a subsequent strike on a helicopter maintenance hangar, two U.S. heavy helicopters sustained major damage," the IRGC claimed, adding that "a strike on a housing facility for the invading forces resulted in a number of them being killed and wounded."

An Iranian attack Friday on another base, the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in southern Jordan, killed three U.S. soldiers.  

Neither the U.S. nor Jordan immediately commented on the new claims. Jordan's army said earlier that it had intercepted four Iranian missiles Wednesday, while two others landed in uninhabited areas.

A spokesperson for Eilat, an Israeli Red Sea coastal city near the Jordanian border, said Wednesday that explosions heard coming from the nearby Jordanian city of Aqaba were "missiles fired from Iran."

Washington — The U.S. and Saudi Arabia have reached a commercial agreement for U.S. companies to run nuclear power for the Saudis on Saudi soil, a regional official familiar with the agreement told CBS News. 

The agreement is expected to be signed Wednesday at about 1:30 p.m. The commercial deal would have U.S. companies running, not giving, the Saudi government nuclear power on Saudi soil for the nation's use, for purposes like supporting AI data centers. 

The deal may allow the Saudis to enrich their own fuel for nuclear reactors. 

The corporations involved have not yet been disclosed. Although it's a private-sector deal, Congress would need to be consulted. The Wall Street Journal was first to report the nuclear deal. 

Read more here.

President Trump said Wednesday that the U.S. would "bomb and destroy" one bridge or power plant in Iran for every new Iranian attack on a ship in the Strait of Hormuz.

"From this point forward, any time the Islamic Republic of Iran shoots at a ship in the Strait of Hormuz, whether it be by Missile, Rocket, Drone, or any other device or weapon, the United States will bomb and destroy ONE BRIDGE OR POWER PLANT, including those located next to, or in, the Capital City of Tehran," Mr. Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

Iran has continued to attack vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, even as the U.S. military insists the crucial waterway is open. U.S. Central Command said Tuesday that Iran had attacked more than 30 commercial ships transiting the strait over the past three months.

A U.S. missile strike hit the Iranian island of Larak in the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, according to Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency, which is close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

"At 2:48 pm, the island of Larak was targeted by an American missile," Tasnim reported, saying residents heard a loud explosion there. 

"The competent authorities are currently carrying out an investigation to determine the scale of the attack, the exact point of impact and the extent of the potential damage," it added.

The IRGC said in their statement Wednesday that on Tuesday night, "despite attempts by the crews of those vessels, no ship dared attempt passage through the unlawful southern route of the Strait [of Hormuz]," referring to a path through the waterway the U.S. has encouraged vessels to use to avoid Iranian tolls. 

CBS/AFP

Pakistan's government on Wednesday said it was "deeply concerned" by Iran's attempts to pull Saudi Arabia into the Middle East war, and it condemned threats by Yemen's Houthi rebels against the kingdom and Red Sea shipping.

Pakistan, which cemented its security ties with Riyadh with a mutual defense pact signed only last year, said it was "deeply concerned over attempts to drag the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia into the conflict in the Middle East and reiterates its unwavering support for the security, sovereignty, territorial integrity and prosperity of the brotherly Kingdom," in a statement from the foreign ministry posted on X.

The statement added that "any hostile act against Pakistani-flagged vessels or Pakistani maritime interests will be regarded as a grave threat to Pakistan's national security and sovereign interests." 

CBS/AFP

The Joint Maritime Information Center in Bahrain, a military partnership that the U.S. is part of, said commercial traffic in the Strait of Hormuz fell to a three-week low Tuesday amid ongoing Iranian attacks on vessels. CBS News tracked just three commercial ships – two cargo vessels and the Chinese-owned tanker Hsin Ocean – transiting the strait on Tuesday.

Between July 13 and 19, only two ships transited the strait using the U.S.-backed "southern route" that hugs the coast of Oman. Both transits were dark, meaning the vessels had turned off their AIS broadcast systems, according to a Lloyd's List analysis.

Last week, Dimitris Maniatis, CEO of the Greek maritime risk management company Marisks said ship crews were unwilling to make the trip through the strait since the breakdown in the U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding. 

"There's nothing physically obstructing the navigation of any vessel willing to transit the strait, and there are vessels that trade locally and are entirely unaffected by everything that's going on; however, if we're talking about large ocean-going, internationally-owned and operated merchant vessels, nothing is going through," Maniatis told CBS News on Wednesday. 

The U.S. military's Central Command repeated an assertion made by the Trump administration many times over the last two weeks on Tuesday evening, insisting that "despite Iranian aggression, the Strait of Hormuz remains open for commercial vessel traffic." 

CENTCOM made the declaration while acknowledging more than 30 Iranian attacks on commercial vessels "that have endangered hundreds of innocent mariners and undermined freedom of navigation."  

Jordan shot down four Iranian missiles Wednesday, and two others hit uninhabited areas, according to a statement from the country's armed forces.

A Jordanian army source said that the Kingdom "detected … and engaged" the six missiles coming from Iran "as soon as they entered Jordanian airspace," in a statement carried by the country's National Center for Security & Crises Management.

The two missiles that weren't intercepted "fell in two uninhabited areas free of population, without any injuries or material damage occurring," the bulletin read.

Iran's semi-official Fars News agency said the Iranian military had targeted a storage depot at the Al-Azraq Air Base in Jordan with drones early Wednesday morning local time.

Until recently, Jordan had largely avoided Iranian attacks, despite hosting U.S. troops. But Iran has ramped up its bombardment of the kingdom in recent days, killing three U.S. soldiers at an air base over the weekend.

President Trump is set to attend a dignified transfer Wednesday for some of the U.S. service members who were killed in Iranian strikes in recent days.

The transfer is scheduled for 11 a.m. at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, according to the president's schedule.

It's not clear which service members will be part of Wednesday's dignified transfer. Three American soldiers were killed in an Iranian attack on their base in Jordan over the weekend, including one who was previously believed to be missing. One American soldier was killed during the controlled detonation of an Iranian drone in Iraq.

Oil prices jumped around 4% Wednesday, with international benchmark Brent Crude trading briefly over $95 a barrel – a $20 rise since the U.S. and Iran resumed fighting on July 7.

Shippers remain reluctant to transit the Strait of Hormuz, despite U.S. Central Command insisting again Tuesday night that it "remains open."

Iran has continued to attack vessels in the waterway, as well as U.S. allies across the Persian Gulf and elsewhere in the Middle East. 

President Trump said Tuesday that the U.S. was "not finished" attacking Iran. The 11th straight night of strikes saw the U.S. target "military logistics infrastructure," according to the Pentagon, while Iranian state media reported strikes around the country.

Mr. Trump also said he would "take care of" Yemen's Iranian-backed Houthi rebels if they carry out threats to block access to Saudi Arabia's Red Sea ports via the Bab el-Mandeb strait, something which – if fully realized – could deal the global economy another blow.

"Our view is that we'll be ... in this $80-to-$90 range, depending on the news flow," Jay Hatfield at Infrastructure Capital Management told Bloomberg about oil prices. "If we actually have a closed Red Sea, that's a threat. We haven't seen that yet. That could shoot us over $100."

The Houthis have previously tried to cut off shipping through the Red Sea, leveraging the Bab al-Mandeb as a chokepoint. The strait, at the southern end of the Red Sea, is the only route in or out of the body of water apart from the Suez Canal in the north, which offers a much longer, and thus costlier route to the energy markets of Asia via the Mediterranean.

CBS/AP

The Strait of Hormuz "belongs to us," an Iranian official said Wednesday, adding that those who fail to understand Iran's hold on the waterway would "end up at the bottom."

"We will not seek an alternative route to the Strait of Hormuz because this strait is the heart of Iran," Ali Zeynivand, a spokesperson for Iran's Ministry of Interior, said Wednesday in remarks carried by the official state news agency IRNA.

"The Strait of Hormuz belongs to us," he said, and anyone who fails "to properly study Iran's continuous civilization … will disappear, and only their remains may end up at the bottom of the Strait of Hormuz."

Beirut is working toward a "complete Israeli withdrawal" from areas it occupies, Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said on Wednesday during a visit to a village where Lebanon's army recently deployed.

"We will continue mobilizing our political and diplomatic efforts to secure a complete Israeli withdrawal from the south," he said in Zawtar al-Gharbiya, one of several "pilot zones" intended to demonstrate that the Lebanese army can remove and disarm Iran-backed Hezbollah as part of a Washington-sponsored deal with Israel.

Lebanon and Israel have been engaging in direct talks sponsored by the U.S.

CBS/AFP

The U.S. military's Central Command said it completed an 11th consecutive night of strikes on Iran at about 8:15 p.m. ET on Tuesday, insisting that the Strait of Hormuz "remains open."

The latest round of strikes on Iranian assets lasted just over an hour. CENTCOM said in a social media post that it hit aircraft hangars, drone storage and operations centers "to further degrade Iran's ability to threaten commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz."

"Over the past three months, Iran has attacked more than 30 commercial vessels transiting the international waterway vital for regional and global trade," CENTCOM said. "The unwarranted attacks have endangered hundreds of innocent mariners and undermined freedom of navigation."

Despite those attacks, which continued Tuesday, however, CENTCOM concluded: "The Strait of Hormuz remains open for commercial vessel transit."

The Pentagon on Tuesday identified a third soldier who is believed to have been killed by Iranian strikes on a Jordanian air base.

Army Sgt. Angel S. Rampersad, 28, of Ozone Park, New York, had previously been listed as missing in action.

Rampersad was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 57th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 52nd Air Defense Artillery Brigade, 10th Army Air Missile Defense Command, in Ansbach, Germany, the Pentagon said.

Pvt. Isabella Gonzales, 19, of Carrollton, Texas, and 1st Lt. Tyler James Feehan, 25, of Ewa Beach, Hawaii, were also killed in the attack on the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base over the weekend. 

Eighteen American service members are believed to have been killed since the start of the Iran war, including four U.S. soldiers in recent days — three in an Iranian attack on Jordan and one during a controlled demolition of an Iranian drone in Iraq.

Two Democratic sources and a third source familiar with the matter told CBS News the actual cost of the Iran war is much higher than the $37.5 billion estimate offered Tuesday by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

This is in part because the current estimate does not include costs like military construction for U.S. bases that have been damaged.

Hegseth said the war has cost around $37.5 billion during questioning by Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois in a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing. He said it reflects the expected cost of certain expenses that will be incurred through the end of the fiscal year, like troop pay.