Four people were killed and five injured in a U.S. missile attack on the Iranian city of Ahvaz, state broadcaster IRIB said, as a 13th consecutive night of American strikes pushed the Middle East war into its fifth year of the conflict and sent oil prices surging past $100 a barrel for the first time since May. The escalation came after Yemeni Houthi fighters struck two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea, extending the war to a second major shipping chokepoint and prompting President Donald Trump to threaten "major military punishment" for Iran and its allies.
The attacks on the Saudi tankers Encelia and Layla marked a dangerous expansion of the conflict. A maritime security source said the Encelia sent a distress call after being struck by a missile near the Saudi port of Jizan in the Red Sea just north of Yemen on Wednesday. Saudi state news agency SPA said the strike caused a fire at the bow. The Houthis, who control northern and western Yemen, said they were imposing a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia, which has diverted millions of barrels of oil each day by pipeline to the Red Sea to skirt Iran's blockade in the Strait of Hormuz.
Civilian Toll and Regional Spillover
The U.S. military said late on Thursday it completed its latest round of strikes on Iran, with attacks lasting more than two hours. U.S. Central Command said in a statement it "targeted Iranian military command centers, drone storage facilities, communication networks, coastal surveillance sites and maritime capabilities to further diminish the threat Iran poses to civilian mariners and commercial vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz." Iranian state media said missiles struck Qeshm Island on the Strait of Hormuz on both Thursday and Friday nights. The waterway, virtually closed for weeks, has become the focus of a war that has killed thousands and fanned fears of a global economic downturn.
The conflict has pulled in neighboring countries hosting U.S. bases. Iran said it attacked U.S. missile systems, weapons and fuel storage sites in Jordan, as well as U.S. military posts in Kuwait. Jordan's army said it engaged four Iranian missiles and six drones in the past day, intercepting all but one missile, which fell in an uninhabited area. Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they struck a U.S. electronic warfare unit at Al-Adiri base in Kuwait, causing unspecified casualties, in response to an overnight strike on Iran's Shalamcheh border crossing with Iraq. Neither the United States nor Kuwait has reported casualties at the base.
Diplomatic Breakdown and Economic Fallout
Trump said on social media that "any and all damages done" to cargo ships would be paid for with "Iranian Money," referring to frozen Iranian assets held by the United States, but he did not say how. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Arachi responded on X, saying, "Seizing another nation's assets to pay for unrelated future claims is an incendiary precedent." He added on Friday, "No one's assets were safe once governments normalised such confiscation," and said, "Ensuing chaos will not be pretty or peaceful."
Trump told Axios he was considering re-launching major combat operations in Iran and was close to a decision. The news outlet quoted him as saying, "They haven't received enough pain yet." On social media, Trump said, "If they do this again, the U.S. will hold Iran responsible, in that the Houthis are a Surrogate and/or Proxy of Iran, and major military punishment will be inflicted upon Iran and, of course, the Houthis, themselves."
Shipping Disruption Deepens
Daily vessel transits of the Strait of Hormuz were steady at three for each of the past three days, according to preliminary shiptracking data, amid continuing shipping risks in the Middle East. Three vessels passed through the Strait of Hormuz each day from July 22 to July 24, data from analytics firm Kpler showed. On Friday, one more laden very large crude carrier, Romania Prosperity, appeared off Fujairah outside the strait with Murban crude, though its destination was so far unknown, and two empty soft commodity bulk carriers exited the strait into the Gulf. On Thursday, VLCC New Giant, loaded with 2 million barrels of Iraqi Basrah crude, exited the strait and was due to arrive at China's Rizhao port by mid-August.
At the Bab el-Mandeb strait, commodity vessel transits totalled 32 on July 23, up from 26 the day before, Kpler data showed, with two crossings for July 24 so far. Of the crossings on Thursday, 14 vessels were going into the Red Sea and 18 were exiting the strait into the Gulf of Aden. Out of the 18 ships exiting Bab el-Mandeb, nine were carrying crude oil, including two loaded Chinese supertankers bound for China. The clean tanker Torm Innovation, loaded with around 500,000 barrels of naphtha bound for Asia, made a slight turn for the Suez Canal exit instead of a typical Bab el-Mandeb exit, Kpler and LSEG shiptracking data showed. Rerouting ships via the Suez Canal to Asia instead of via the Bab el-Mandeb strait could make the voyage last nearly three times as long, regional trade sources said.
Saudi Aramco has started offering additional crude cargoes loading at Egypt's Mediterranean port of Sidi Kerir as a workaround from loading at its Red Sea ports. Iranian military spokesperson Brigadier General Mohammad Akraminia said Iran would keep retaliating as long as the U.S. continued to attack its infrastructure and coastal areas, Iranian state TV reported. Fears that disruption could widen to block another sea route sent global oil prices surging in one of the steepest rises of the war. Brent crude rose more than 6%, piercing the level of $100 a barrel for the first time since May.
Why This Matters:
The expansion of the war to the Red Sea, combined with Iran's near-total closure of the Strait of Hormuz, now threatens two of the world's most critical oil chokepoints simultaneously. The human cost continues to mount — four dead in Ahvaz, thousands killed over five years of conflict, and millions more facing economic hardship as oil prices surge and shipping routes collapse. Trump's threat to seize Iranian assets to pay for shipping damages sets a dangerous precedent that Iran's foreign minister warns could destabilize international norms around sovereign wealth. The cycle of strikes and retaliation shows no sign of diplomatic off-ramp, with Trump telling Axios that Iran hasn't "received enough pain yet" — language that suggests escalation rather than de-escalation. For civilian mariners, neighboring countries hosting U.S. bases, and global consumers facing rising energy costs, the war's fifth year offers no prospect of resolution, only widening circles of violence and economic disruption.