Live Updates: Iran targets American bases in Jordan and Iraq as raging war depletes U.S. interceptor stockpiles

The U.S. has issued new sanctions against Babak Zanjani, an infamous Iranian billionaire who is now allegedly helping Iran avoid previous sanctions and fund the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

"Today's action targets four individuals and nine entities tied to Zanjani's operations," Tommy Pigott, a spokesperson for the U.S. State Department, said in a press release. "Zanjani's re-emergence as a regime-linked financier — despite previously receiving a death sentence in Iran for embezzlement — demonstrates the lengths to which Iranian state-affiliated elites will go to preserve access to the international financial system so that they can enrich themselves, even as they mismanage the Iranian economy."

Zanjani was sentenced to death for allegedly embezzling millions from the National Iranian Oil Company, but that sentence was commuted in 2024 and he emerged as a major backer of the regime last year, according to the U.S. Treasury Department.

"The Iranian regime continues to pay a steep economic price for its reckless behavior, with the rial plunging to another record low and inflation up massively," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement. "Under President Trump's leadership, Treasury will continue cutting off economic access for corrupt Iranian regime elites, along with their financiers and facilitators."

The sanctions target Zanjani's Dot One conglomerate, which the U.S. says is involved in everything from telecommunications and transportation to airlines and digital assets, like cryptocurrency.

The European Union has announced sanctions on five Iranian judges, as well as a leading cyber group figure, for human rights offenses.

"While the world's attention is on the war in the Middle East, we can't lose sight of Iran's repression against its own people," the EU's top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, said in a post Friday on X.

In a statement, the European Council said it was including five judges "of Iran regional Revolutionary courts who have presided over trials targeting religious minorities and political dissidents ... on the basis of vaguely defined national security and religious charges." 

"They have imposed death sentences and long prison sentences, flogging, fines or supplementary punishments on political dissidents and human rights activists," the bulletin added.

The council said it was also targeting an Iranian hacker and computer engineer called Nima Salehi, "the founder and a leading figure within the 'Ashiyane' cyber group," which "cooperates closely with the EU-listed Cyber Police (FATA) and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and is responsible for intensive cyber-attacks on both domestic opponents and reformists and foreign institutions, thereby assisting the regime's crackdown against the opposition."

President Trump said Friday that he does not believe Russia or China are providing weapons to Iran.

In a post on Truth Social, Mr. Trump said that while he was in Beijing in May, Chinese President Xi Jinping said he would not "under any circumstances" provide weapons to Iran, including arms from Chinese companies.

"Considering our relationship, I take him at his word and, besides, l am doing him very big favors, also," the president wrote.

Mr. Trump said Russian President Vladimir Putin also said he would not sell weapons to Iran.

"He understands that I do not sell Weapons to Ukraine, but to NATO Countries. They pay full price, and how those Weapons are distributed, I have no idea," the president said.

"Therefore, two major Countries that people speak of often in terms of Iran are, in my opinion, not participating," Mr. Trump wrote, adding: "If they did, it would be very bad for them — Certainly not in their best interests."

CBS News has reported that Russia and China have both supported Iran during the war, which was launched jointly by the U.S. and Israel on Feb. 28.

Multiple sources told CBS News in March that Russia was providing intelligence to Iran about U.S. military positions in the Middle East. 

Analysts at the Defense Intelligence Agency, which is the Defense Department's military intelligence arm, assessed soon after the start of the war that China was considering providing Iran with advanced radar systems, multiple sources familiar with the matter told CBS News at the time. Such technology would help Tehran better detect and track incoming threats, such as low-flying drones and cruise missiles.

U.S. intelligence assessments also indicated that China had previously provided Tehran with satellite imagery, which the theocratic Islamic regime used during the war, two U.S. officials familiar with the matter said in April.

The Financial Times reported in April that Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had used a spy satellite it purchased from Earth Eye Co., a Chinese company, to target U.S. military bases in the Middle East.

A spokesman for the Houthi rebels in Yemen said Friday that the Iranian-backed group was not seeking to block all traffic through the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait, just Saudi traffic. The group declared a maritime blockade earlier this week of Saudi Arabia, a long-time foe of both the Houthis and Iran.

"There is no closure of Bab el-Mandab as some are suggesting," said Mohammed Abdusalam, a top Houthi negotiator, in a post on X, adding that the group's actions - which have included attacking two vessels this week - were "limited to a maritime blockade that only affects the Saudi side."

Like the nearby Strait of Hormuz, the Bab el-Mandeb is a key transit point for global energy supply. On Wednesday, the Houthis said they had struck two Saudi tankers in the Red Sea. 

On Thursday, President Trump warned that if they did it again, both Iran and the Houthis would face "major military punishment."

Two super tankers carrying Saudi oil did pass through the waterway Thursday, having previously turned away from the Bab el-Mandeb, after changing their listed public details to declare them as owned and operated by China. 

CBS/AFP

Kurdish forces said the U.S.-led coalition in the area shot down five drones Friday over Erbil, the capital of Iraq's northern Kurdistan region, which has been repeatedly attacked since hostilities between the U.S. and Iran resumed in early July.

An AFP news agency journalist reported earlier seeing drones over Erbil before air defenses were activated, resulting in explosions and visible smoke near the city's airport, which hosts U.S. forces and a U.S. consulate.

A clip posted on X by Kurdish broadcaster Rudaw showed a drone flying through the sky before being struck and falling to the ground in a trail of fire.

Kurdish counterterrorism forces told AFP that "the coalition forces downed five explosive-laden drones over Erbil between 9:32 and 9:45 a.m." local time on Friday.

No casualties were reported, the officials told the news agency.

Since the start of the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran on Feb. 28, Iran and its proxy groups in Iraq have repeatedly targeted U.S. forces based in the northern Kurdish region of Iraq, as well as in other countries across the Middle East.

Pro-Iran groups in Iraq have not claimed any new attacks targeting U.S. interests in the country since the renewal of hostilities, however.

Iran has also been accused of targeting exiled Iranian Kurdish rebels in Iraqi Kurdistan during the war.

CBS/AFP

Jordan's military intercepted seven missiles and six drones launched by Iran on Friday, it said, as Tehran pressed its attacks on U.S. allies across the Middle East.

The military said the interceptions by air defense systems and air force planes "resulted in no casualties or material damage."

Having largely ignored Jordan for months, Iran is now hitting the kingdom with daily strikes, appearing to test air defenses to see which projectiles get through.

Three U.S. soldiers were killed Friday and Saturday by an Iranian missile attack on an air base in southern Jordan.

CBS/AFP

The last month of U.S. strikes on Iran have killed 59 people and wounded 666, the Iranian health ministry said Friday.

The figures related to casualties registered between June 27 and July 24, according to Hossein Kermanpour, the ministry's spokesperson.

In a post on X, he wrote that of the 59 killed, six were women and three were minors.  

The U.S. military has struck Iranian positions for 13 consecutive nights.

In total, Iranian officials have reported over 3,500 fatalities caused by U.S. and Israeli attacks during the 21-week war.

An official U.S. Department of Defense website still showed incorrect figures for the number of American forces killed and wounded during the war in Iran on Friday, with an official blaming a "temporary data disruption" for the error.

Earlier this week, the Pentagon had updated the death toll to 18 U.S. service members, with 482 others wounded in action, but at some point Thursday, the figures changed to 14 troops killed in action and 420 wounded. The New York Times first reported the change, citing four military officials as giving "conflicting explanations" for the discrepancy.

18 U.S. service members have been killed in the region since the U.S. and Israel launched their joint war against Iran on Feb. 28.

17 of those fatalities were troops serving in Operation Epic Fury, the campaign against Iran, while one – a soldier killed over the weekend during the "controlled detonation" of a downed Iranian drone in Iraq – was technically serving under Operation Inherent Resolve, the ongoing campaign against ISIS in the region.

"Our Pentagon Press Office gave the New York Times a courtesy off-the-record phone call explaining in detail that the site errors on the Defense Casualty Analysis System (DCAS) were due to a temporary data disruption," Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said in a post on X, calling the Post's article "one of the worst instances of the Fake News media manufacturing lies out of thin air."

He said the "site anomalies are currently being resolved."

Friday morning, however, the incorrect data was still displayed on the Defense Department website.

Video appears to show at least one drone being intercepted Friday near a U.S. base in northern Iraq, as a series of explosions were heard in the area.

A clip posted on X by Kurdish broadcaster Rudaw shows a drone buzzing through the sky before it is struck and falls to the ground in a ball of flames.

A series of explosions was heard near Erbil airport, which hosts American forces at Erbil Air Base as well as an American consulate.

It is the same base where the Pentagon said U.S. Army Sgt. Michael Emmanuel Swinton was killed on Sunday during the "controlled detonation" of a downed Iranian attack drone.

An AFP news agency journalist said the explosions were heard after air defenses were activated. They also reported seeing drones flying above the city and smoke near the airport.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on Friday warned civilians in the Middle East to stay away from U.S. bases.

"We warn the general public in countries where American soldiers are stationed to immediately stay out of a radius of 500 meters [yards] from the places where American soldiers are hiding, in order to be safe," the IRGC said in a statement.

The warning came after several Persian Gulf states and Jordan reported ongoing Iranian missile and drone attacks, with interceptions also being reported near a major U.S. base in Erbil, northern Iraq.

The United States has struck an Iranian Revolutionary Guards' (IRGC) base in the northern province of Gilan, according to a statement from the local governor's office.

The U.S. struck the IRGC's Seyyed al-Shuhada naval headquarters in Zibanekar on Friday morning, according to the statement.

Ali Bagheri, deputy governor for the province, told state media that the strike "damaged some of the equipment in the complex." 

Iran's military said on Friday it carried out drone strikes against several American military facilities and bases in Bahrain, Jordan and Kuwait in retaliation for the latest U.S. attacks, while explosions were heard near an American base in northern Iraq.

"This morning, the fuel tanks, large equipment warehouses and silos and the barracks of the U.S. terrorist army forces at the Isa Air Base in Bahrain were targeted by Arash kamikaze drones," the army said in a statement carried by state TV. Bahrain's interior ministry said on Friday that air raid sirens were sounding.

The Iranian army also claimed drone attacks against Jordan, targeting "aircraft hangars, aviation maintenance hangars and a barracks" at Al-Azraq base.

Jordan has not reported any strikes in the last few hours.

In a separate statement, the Iranian army said it had launched drones at U.S. equipment warehouses in Camp Udairi and the site of American military personnel in Camp Doha and Camp Arifjan in Kuwait.

Meanwhile, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the ideological arm of Iran's military, said it had targeted the Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait, claiming to have destroyed an ammunition depot and inflicted casualties among U.S. personnel.

In northern Iraq, a series of explosions were heard near a military base hosting U.S. forces. The same base where Sgt. Michael Emmanuel Swinton died over the weekend in a "controlled detonation" of an Iranian attack drone.

Tehran argues that any facility or base in the Middle East that the U.S. military uses for strikes on Iran is considered a legitimate target for retaliation.

CBS/AFP

An overnight U.S. attack on Iran's southwestern province of Khuzestan killed at least four people and injured several others, Iranian state media reported Friday.

"Following the missile attack by the terrorist U.S. enemy on areas around the city of Ahvaz, four of our compatriots were martyred and five others were injured," Valiollah Hayati, deputy governor of the province, was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency.

AFP

The U.S. military completed its 13th straight night of strikes on Thursday, U.S. Central Command said in a statement.

In a social media post accompanied by a video of airstrikes, CENTCOM said it targeted Iranian drone sites, command centers and other targets "to further diminish the threat Iran poses to civilian mariners and commercial vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz," which it insisted was "open for transit" despite the minimal traffic passing through.

Iran's state broadcaster IRIB reported that U.S missile strikes struck Ahvaz, Bandar Abbas, Omidiyeh, Qeshm, and Andimeshk. 

The rapid pace at which the U.S. is expending some of its most advanced air-defense interceptors and precision-guided weapons in the Middle East is a point of great tension inside the Trump administration as President Trump's war with Iran ratchets up again, according to U.S. military and intelligence officials familiar with internal assessments. And it's raising broader concerns about America's readiness for a potential conflict in the Indo-Pacific. 

The dwindling stockpiles of defensive interceptors and long-range missiles have become a pressure point for top military and civilian leaders who are weighing the demands of the war with Iran against maintaining readiness to deter other adversaries, including China. 

The U.S. officials, who spoke to CBS News on condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the topic, said the U.S. cannot sustain the rate at which it expended precision munitions early in the campaign against Iran.

Read more here.

President Trump wrote on Truth Social that "any and all damages" to ships struck by Iran "will be paid for by Iranian Money that the United States has in its possession, and controls."

Mr. Trump did not specify the exact source of money, but billions of dollars' worth of Iranian assets are currently frozen due to U.S. sanctions. The two countries had previously discussed unfreezing those assets if Iran implements the terms of a deal with the United States.

"These damages may be very substantial but, nevertheless, this is the fair and equitable thing to do," the president wrote.