US-Iran Conflict Widens to Kuwait, Iraq, Egypt
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- Iran struck a Chinese firm's building in northern Kuwait Thursday morning, killing a worker and severely damaging the structure, hours after Jordan's air defenses shot down five Iranian missiles.
- U.S. Central Command said it completed "a heavy wave of strikes" against Iran, hitting "dozens" of Revolutionary Guard Corps targets including command centers, missile and drone facilities, and coastal surveillance and defense sites, in retaliation for an Iranian missile attack on a U.S. base in Jordan.
- Iran's IRNA news agency reported three people killed and two wounded in a strike on Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway Iranian attacks have again effectively closed.
- The U.S. partnered with Saudi Arabia to strike Iran-backed Popular Mobilization Forces in Iraq, killing at least 20 fighters and six Iranian advisers on Wednesday, as mourners in Najaf chanted sectarian slogans and "Death to America."
- Drone strikes ignited fires on two natural gas vessels at the Egyptian port of Damietta on Wednesday — a U.S.-owned floating storage facility and the Greek-owned tanker GasLog Salem — with Egypt's prime minister's office saying initial investigations point to drones, though no party has claimed responsibility.
- Saudi Arabia's Defense Minister Khalid bin Salman met separately Wednesday with Trump and Vice-President JD Vance, as Saudi Arabia faces a Houthi-declared blockade of the Bab el-Mandeb strait and satellite imagery analyzed by AP shows damage to Aramco's Abqaiq facility, which processes roughly seven million barrels of crude per day.
- An AP-NORC poll of 1,165 adults taken July 23-27 found about two-thirds of U.S. adults say the war isn't worthwhile, with 61% of Republicans approving of Trump's handling of Iran — down 10 points from 71% in June. Eighteen U.S. service members have been killed since the conflict began Feb. 28.
Why it matters: Egypt — a close U.S. ally and regional mediator previously spared direct strikes — is now seeing drone-caused fires on vessels at Damietta, with Trump's Republican approval on Iran dropping 10 points (71% to 61%) since June as the five-month war draws in more countries and shows no signs of a negotiated exit after the June interim agreement collapsed.
