Democracy Dies with Dictatorship
NY Times
Jul 21, 2026
Iran War Live Updates: Houthi Threat Adds to Fears of Wider War as U.S. and Iran Trade Strikes
The United States and Iran launched attacks for a 10th straight night, as concerns grew over a threat from the Houthis, the Iranian-backed militant group in Yemen, to impose a blockade on Saudi ships.
by Aaron BoxermanIsmaeel Naar and Sanam Mahoozi
Here’s the latest.
The United States and Iran pressed on with their daily strikes as the region watched anxiously on Tuesday to see how the Houthis, the Iranian-backed militants in Yemen, would attempt to enforce their announced blockade on Saudi ships.
There was little apparent sign of what the Houthi action might entail, but the militia’s threat on Monday added to fears of a prolonged regional war and further turmoil in global energy markets.
For the 10th straight night, U.S. forces struck targets in Iran, including military command centers and missile and drone launch sites, U.S. Central Command said early Tuesday local time. Iran announced on Tuesday that it had launched new strikes on Kuwait, Bahrain and Jordan, countries in the region that host U.S. military bases.
The Kuwaiti government accused Iran of again targeting the country’s critical infrastructure by hitting power plants and water desalination plants. According to Kuwait’s energy ministry, Iranian attacks on Monday ignited fires and prompted authorities to suspend operations at several facilities.
A rise in global oil prices has eased slightly this week after Iran’s foreign ministry said on Monday that mediators had presented proposals to revive the truce with the United States. On Tuesday, Iran’s interior minister met with Pakistan’s prime minister in Islamabad and the country’s army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir. Pakistan has been acting as a mediator in negotiations between the United States and Iran.
The Houthis’ announcement that the group intends to target Saudi shipping threatens to add to turmoil in oil markets that have remained sharply higher than before the war. The group did not release details of its blockade, but it controls the part of Yemen that hugs the Bab al-Mandab Strait, the southern portal to the Red Sea.
As Iran and the United States fight over control of the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil passed before the war, Saudi Arabia had been rerouting some of its exports through the Red Sea. The Houthis’ threat to block Saudi oil shipments there threatens to worsen the global fuel crisis and open another front in the Middle East conflict.
At least 50 people have been killed in Iran since the cease-fire broke down this month, according to the Iranian authorities, and at least three U.S. troops have been killed in recent days.
Here’s what else we’re covering:
U.S. injuries: The U.S. military said on Monday that the number of American service members wounded in the war in the past two weeks had risen to nearly 100, after not disclosing casualty numbers. The “vast majority” of those injuries, it said, were “mild concussions.” Read more ›
Iranian attacks: Suspected Iranian strikes have targeted U.S. military installations and other facilities in at least four countries since July 7, according to satellite imagery and videos verified by The New York Times. Read more ›
Lebanon plan: Mr. Trump will meet President Joseph Aoun of Lebanon at the White House on Tuesday. The Lebanese army deployed on Tuesday in a village in southern Lebanon after Israeli forces withdrew from it, marking the first step in a new U.S.-brokered plan to transfer control of occupied areas back to Beirut after months of war. Read more ›
July 21, 2026, 11:02 a.m. ET7 minutes ago
International reporter
Multiple crew members were injured in Iranian strikes on a Kuwaiti tanker passing through the Strait of Hormuz on Monday evening, Kuwait’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Tuesday. The ministry said it had summoned Iran’s ambassador to Kuwait to protest the alleged attack.
July 21, 2026, 9:15 a.m. ET2 hours ago
Oil prices were higher in the U.S. morning. Brent crude, the international benchmark, had risen steadily, up 1.6 percent to over $90 per barrel, close to its peak over the past month. West Texas Intermediate crude oil, the U.S. benchmark, rose to around $85 per barrel.
July 21, 2026, 8:28 a.m. ET3 hours ago
National security correspondent
Sgt. Michael Emmanuel Swinton was not involved in the actual detonation of the Iranian drone and was killed by flying debris from the blast, according to a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters.
July 21, 2026, 8:22 a.m. ET3 hours ago
The Pentagon on Tuesday identified the Army soldier who died on Sunday during a controlled detonation of an Iranian attack drone at Erbil Air Base in northern Iraq as Sgt. Michael Emmanuel Swinton, 30, of Fayetteville, North Carolina. The sergeant was an active-duty soldier assigned to 2nd Battalion, 55th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 108th Air Defense Artillery Brigade in Fort Bragg.
According to a statement released on Tuesday, the incident that killed Sergeant Swinton was under investigation.
July 21, 2026, 7:40 a.m. ET3 hours ago
Pakistan bureau chief
Iran’s interior minister, Eskandar Momeni, met with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif of Pakistan on Tuesday in Islamabad and was scheduled to meet with Pakistan’s army chief and most powerful figure, Field Marshal Asim Munir, to discuss the conflict.
Pakistan helped broker a cease-fire agreement between the United States and Iran last month, but it has struggled to revive talks since the deal effectively collapsed when both countries resumed daily airstrikes last week.
July 21, 2026, 7:30 a.m. ET4 hours ago
Leo Sands
Breaking news reporter
The authorities in Kuwait on Tuesday accused Iran of targeting the country’s critical infrastructure by hitting power plants and water desalination plants. According to Kuwait’s energy ministry, Iranian attacks on Monday ignited fires and prompted the authorities to suspend operations at several facilities. It was the third such attack against energy and water plants that it has accused Iran of conducting in recent days. Since the fighting between the United States and Iran resumed this month, Iran has threatened to respond to any U.S. attacks on its civilian infrastructure by attacking similar targets in neighboring countries. Infrastructure that civilians rely on to survive, like water treatment plants, are generally not considered by legal scholars to be legitimate military targets.
July 21, 2026, 6:59 a.m. ET4 hours ago
Energy reporter
Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency, said in a statement on Tuesday that although there are some cushions in the global oil market, the “unconditional reopening of the Strait of Hormuz will be essential to avoid a further deterioration in global energy security.” Of particular concern, he said, was the market for transportation fuels like gasoline and diesel. “Refinery activity and product supplies have not picked up as much as crude deliveries, meaning that markets for refined oil products, including diesel and gasoline, are considerably tighter than those for crude,” Birol said.
July 21, 2026, 6:35 a.m. ET5 hours ago
Reporting from Beirut, Lebanon
The Lebanese army accuses Israeli troops of firing as its forces deploy in a ‘pilot zone.’
The Lebanese army accused Israeli forces of shooting near its troops on Tuesday, as the two sides took the first steps in a new U.S.-brokered plan to transfer control of occupied areas back to Beirut after months of war.
Lebanese troops began deploying in a village in southern Lebanon following an Israeli withdrawal on Tuesday, hours before President Joseph Aoun of Lebanon was scheduled to meet with President Trump at the White House. The two leaders are expected to discuss the security situation in Lebanon, as well as efforts to secure Israel’s withdrawal from the Lebanese territory that it has occupied for months. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Lebanese army’s claims.
The Lebanese army said in a statement on Tuesday that it had begun deploying to the village of Zawtar al-Gharbiya in the southern Nabatieh district. The army urged residents not to return until the security situation had stabilized and asked them to follow the instructions of troops on the ground.
Hours later, the Lebanese military accused Israeli forces of opening fire near their units. In a statement, they added that “this act of aggression could hinder the implementation of deployment steps in the pilot areas.”
The deployment was part of a phased arrangement under which Israel agreed to withdraw from areas in southern Lebanon and the Lebanese military plans to move in to secure them, allowing displaced residents to return. The areas, described as “pilot zones,” are meant to test a broader agreement reached last month between Lebanon and Israel to wind down the conflict.
In Lebanon, critics of the deal say it has not set a firm timetable for Israel’s withdrawal. Instead, the Israeli military’s retreat is tied to the Lebanese government’s efforts to disarm Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group that the government does not control. Hezbollah was not party to the negotiations with Israel and has rejected the framework agreement.
Tuesday’s deployment announcement was made hours after the Israeli military said that Israeli, American and Lebanese military teams were conducting joint planning and coordination to implement the agreement. As part of the deal reached last month, Israel and Lebanon also agreed to establish a military coordination group overseen by the United States.
The State Department said in a statement on Monday that the initial “pilot zone” operations would include the villages of Froun, Srifa and Zawtar al-Gharbiya, and were “a direct outcome of last week’s discussions between Israel and Lebanon in Rome.” Israel and Lebanon have held rare diplomatic talks for months, meeting first in Washington and then in Rome.
Hezbollah has rejected the negotiations with Israel, as well as efforts by the Lebanese government to disarm the group, adding to uncertainty about the broader agreement, how it can be carried out and Lebanon’s fragile path toward stability.
The Israeli withdrawal, though limited in scope, could offer the Lebanese government an opportunity to bolster its standing, some analysts said.
“Withdrawing from the area does not make a massive difference on the ground,” said David Wood, the senior Lebanon analyst at the International Crisis Group, a research organization. “But the Lebanese state will hope that it can use this first ‘pilot zone’ as a proof of concept, showing that the Lebanese army can assert control effectively, and therefore the U.S. should push Israel to accept further ‘pilot zones’ in fully occupied areas of Lebanese territory.”
The latest round of fighting erupted in early March after Hezbollah attacked Israel in response to the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran that began in late February. More than 4,300 people have been killed in Lebanon and over 12,000 wounded in the latest conflict, according to Lebanese health officials. Israeli officials say at least four Israeli civilians and more than 30 soldiers have been killed.
By Tuesday afternoon, footage on social media and local television showed residents of the Zawtar al-Gharbiya, along with ambulances, attempting to access the area. But Abed Ezzedine, the village’s mayor, said that Lebanese troops had told residents they would not be able to access the town on Tuesday.
“The Lebanese army is doing its best to clear the roads and streets within the town,” Mr. Ezzedine said in a phone interview. “I am anxiously waiting with other people to get into the town. I can’t wait to see Zawtar again.”
Hwaida Saad and Leo Sands contributed reporting.
July 21, 2026, 5:22 a.m. ET6 hours ago
Leo Sands
Breaking news reporter
Bahrain’s military said it intercepted a fresh wave of Iranian strikes on Tuesday morning, hours after Iran said it had launched drones and missiles targeting American forces and air defenses in the Gulf state. The authorities in Bahrain, which also hosts a large U.S. naval base, accused Iran of targeting civilians but did not specify whether the latest strikes resulted in any damage.
July 21, 2026, 5:05 a.m. ET6 hours ago
Reporting from Tel Aviv
Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s finance minister, said on Tuesday that Israel has “no interest” in joining the U.S. strikes on Iran, the clearest public statement from a senior official that the country does not want to participate in the renewed fighting.
“The current situation, where there is a restricted battle between Iran and the U.S., is the right and best one for us,” he said at a public event, adding that the American naval blockade on Iraninan ships in the Strait of Hormuz would weaken Tehran.
Israel has not been dragged back into the fighting, even as Iran has stepped up its attacks targeting U.S. forces in Jordan, near the southern border with Israel. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has promised to respond forcefully if Iran attacks it.