Iran claims strikes on ships in Strait of Hormuz and U.S. base in Kuwait

Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard Corps said Friday that it had hit two tankers trying to pass through the Strait of Hormuz under an "aerial escort" of the U.S. military.

The IRGC said the "non-compliant oil tankers … were struck and stopped, while four other oil tankers quickly changed course and returned to their previous locations."

The U.S. military's Central Command said Thursday it had redirected 24 commercial vessels since restarting a blockade on Iranian ports earlier this month, up from 20 vessels a day earlier.

Iranian state media said Friday that the bodies of five members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) killed in joint U.S.-Saudi strikes in Iraq earlier  this week had been returned.

The United States and Saudi Arabia said on Wednesday they had struck Iran-backed militants in Iraq in response to recent attacks on the Gulf kingdom.

A funeral ceremony is held at the Imam Ali Shrine in Najaf, Iraq, on July 30, 2026, for members of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces and Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps who were killed in U.S.-Saudi airstrikes across Iraq earlier this week. Karar Essa/Anadolu via Getty Images

The strikes targeted positions belonging to the Hashed al-Shaabi, an Iraqi armed coalition that includes several powerful pro-Iran groups, killing at least 20 militants, including the five Iranians.

The IRGC's Quds Force oversees Iran's operations abroad, and Guard members killed outside Iran are often affiliated with the unit.

Back in 2020, the U.S. killed the Quds Force's commander, Qasem Soleimani, in an airstrike in Baghdad, along with Hashed al-Shaabi's deputy leader. 

AFP

Iran's military said Friday it launched drone strikes targeting U.S. military facilities in Kuwait.

It said in a statement that it targeted "fighter aircraft shelters, satellite communications systems and equipment storage facilities at Ahmad al-Jaber Air Base in Kuwait."

There was no immediate comment from U.S. Central Command, but Kuwait's defense ministry said that it had "detected hostile drones inside Kuwaiti airspace since dawn today" and "successfully intercepted and destroyed them." 

Their statement said Iran had "targeted a number of vital and military facilities," without specifying where, and said that "falling debris" from the intercepted drones had caused some "material damage" but no casualties.

The Iranian army said the strikes came "in response to the recent aggression by the terrorist U.S. military against our country and its brutal attack on a residential home on Qeshm Island." Local media reported on Thursday that three members of a family were killed in U.S. strikes on Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz.

The strait, which  normally carries around 20% of global oil shipments, has been effectively closed by Iran since the start of the war on Feb. 28.

The U.S. has carried out repeated strikes on Iran's southern coastal provinces as it seeks to weaken Tehran's control over the waterway.

CBS/AFP

President Trump said Thursday evening that the militant group Hamas, an Iran-backed proxy, has reached an agreement with his international "Board of Peace" on the next steps in a peace deal for Gaza  that includes Hamas' disarmament in the Gaza Strip.

In a Truth Social post, the president called it a "HISTORIC agreement for the COMPLETE DISARMAMENT of Hamas and all other armed groups in Gaza," and a "monumental step toward lasting PEACE and SECURITY."

The exact timetable for disarmament isn't clear.

Hamas communicated through mediators that it agreed to the final text of the plan, including decommissioning their weapons, U.S. and Board of Peace officials told reporters Thursday.

Read more here. 

A vote in the Senate to limit President Trump's war powers has failed again, and will likely the last one before a recess begins Aug. 10. 

The resolution, brought by New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, lost 49-50. Three Republicans voted in favor of limiting Mr. Trump's power to continue the war — Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins and Rand Paul — while one Democrat voted against it, John Fetterman. Republican Mitch McConnell, who remains in a rehabilitation facility, is the one senator who did not vote.

The resolution, if passed, would have "direct[ed] the removal of United States Armed Forces from hostilities within or against the Islamic Republic of Iran that have not been authorized by Congress."

The vote came exactly one week after the last Democratic effort failed.