US Forces Finish Tenth Consecutive Night of Strikes After Two Ships Hit Near Strait of Hormuz and Iran Fires Additional Strikes at Jordan

US Forces Finish Tenth Consecutive Night of Strikes After Two Ships Hit Near Strait of Hormuz and Iran Fires Additional Strikes at Jordan

Jordan Conradson

UPDATE:

US Central Command announced that the tenth consecutive night of strikes against Iran was ordered by President Trump and began at 4 pm ET. “The strikes are designed to further degrade Iranian military capabilities used to attack commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz,” a statement read.

Shortly after 9 pm ET, CENTCOM announced the conclusion of a roughly 5-hour-long mission and released video footage from the latest round of strikes against Iranian military sites.

CENTCOM said in a press release,

U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) completed another round of strikes against Iran at 9 p.m. ET, July 20.

U.S. forces struck Iranian military command centers, maritime capabilities, missile and drone launch sites, and air defense systems to degrade Iran’s ability to continue attacking commercial vessels flowing through the Strait of Hormuz.

Commercial vessel transits through the vital international maritime corridor continue. Since early May, CENTCOM forces have helped facilitate the transit of approximately 900 commercial vessels and 450 million barrels of crude oil.

American forces remain postured and prepared to hold Iran accountable for unwarranted aggression toward civilian mariners seeking to freely and openly transit the strait.

Tensions continued to rise in the Middle East on Monday after US forces continued a nine-day bombing streak against Iran on Sunday, following the death of two US service members killed in Iranian attacks. 

US Central Command forces completed a ninth consecutive round of nightly strikes against Iran on Sunday, aimed at “holding Iran accountable at the Commander in Chief’s direction.”

CENTCOM released video from the attacks on Sunday night.

Meanwhile, Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen have also imposed a naval blockade on the Bab ​el-Mandeb strait, the gateway between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden near Saudi Arabia’s western coastline, per Reuters. By stopping Saudi oil exports to Asia, the blockade could reduce global oil supply by 7%.

The Houthis’ armed forces described the blockade in a statement as “a maritime embargo ⁠against the criminal Saudi enemy, based on the equation of ‘an eye ​for an eye’, effective immediately.”

Stéphane Dujarric, a spokesperson for U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, warned on Monday that the blockade risks an “even wider” regional conflict, CBS reported. “We’ve seen the reports and are very much concerned by the renewed Houthi threats against Saudi Arabia, against freedom of navigation, which leads to the risk of an even wider regional escalation,” Dujarric said.

As The Gateway Pundit reported earlier, heavy strikes are expected to continue against Iran and its allies. President Trump threatened earlier that Iran will pay “many times over” for killing American troops and for continued hostilities.

The US is likely to retaliate with more strikes tonight.