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Iran Conflict 2026
13JUL

140 US sorties, zero signed paper

3 min read
10:50UTC

CENTCOM flew its third strike wave in a week, hitting roughly 140 targets and taking the total past 300, then declared the Strait of Hormuz open even as Washington signed no new Iran instrument.

ConflictDeveloping
Key takeaway

Washington's Iran week ran to 140 sorties and zero signatures, its open-strait claim resting on statements.

CENTCOM (US Central Command), the US military command responsible for the Middle East, launched its third strike wave of the week within hours of Iran's closure declaration, hitting roughly 140 targets: missile batteries, air-defence sites, IRGC fast-attack boats and positions on Qeshm Island 1. The wave took the week's running total past 300, and CENTCOM called the strait open to all vessels seeking to lawfully transit the international waterway 2. Iranian Navy Lieutenant Hamidreza Dehghani was reported killed at Jask port, per Iranian state media 3.

Those figures and the open-strait line reached us through Al Jazeera and Iran International secondary readouts; CENTCOM's own release was unreachable 4. President Donald Trump, who days earlier had called the interim US-Iran agreement over , told Meet the Press the strait was open as far as he was concerned. Iran, firing missiles and posting a formal notice, calls the water shut; Washington, flying sorties and issuing a sentence, calls it open.

CENTCOM's third wave extends a cadence already run twice this week, 90 targets on 8 July and more than 80 on 7 July . The only signed US instrument on Iran across that whole sequence remains the Treasury's 7 July revocation of the oil waiver General License X, replaced by a wind-down-only General License X1 . A revocation withdraws relief; it does not create a new authority, so no War Powers Resolution clock attaches to this week's strikes and Congress gains no fresh signed record to grip.

Between 11 and 13 July Washington flew about 140 sorties and signed no new Iran instrument 5. The Federal Register carries no fresh Iran document, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), Treasury's sanctions bureau, logged its last Iran action on 10 July, and the White House presidential-actions register stops at a 9 July aircraft-tariff proclamation 678. Allies and insurers reading for a durable US position on Hormuz have statements to plan against, not a signed framework.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

CENTCOM (US Central Command, the American military headquarters for the Middle East) launched its third major bombing run of the week, hitting about 140 targets just hours after Iran said it had shut the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway ships use to move Gulf oil to the rest of the world. The targets included missile launchers and small attack boats belonging to the IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, an elite branch of Iran's military). One Iranian naval officer, Lieutenant Hamidreza Dehghani, was reported killed in Jask, a town on Iran's south-east coast near the mouth of the strait. The US military says the strait remains open for ships that follow international law, directly contradicting Iran's closure claim. For now neither side can prove the other wrong, because commercial ships are staying away regardless of who is technically right.

Deep Analysis
Root Causes

Sustaining three strike waves in a single week depends on munitions already forward-positioned at Gulf and Indian Ocean bases such as Al Udeid and Diego Garcia; standoff missile stocks are not manufactured at wartime tempo, so a campaign at this pace draws down a finite pre-positioned inventory rather than an open production line.

Congress supplies a second, separate constraint only if it chooses to invoke one: because the campaign has proceeded without a formal war authorisation, there is no legislative mechanism forcing a pause, so the practical ceiling on strike tempo is munitions supply, not Congress.

First Reported In

Update #153 · Iran declares Hormuz closed; US says open

Gulf News· 13 Jul 2026
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Different Perspectives
India
India
New Delhi has a national unaccounted for among GFS Galaxy's eleven-strong Indian crew, turning a standoff over transit rights into a consular emergency for a state with no seat at either table.
Oman
Oman
Muscat's 9 July arrangement to jointly manage Hormuz traffic with Iran, outside the frozen US channel, is overridden within days by Tehran's own unilateral closure and strike on GFS Galaxy.
Qatar
Qatar
Doha keeps mediating from an exposed position: Al Udeid hosts the CENTCOM strikes it is trying to broker a stand-down around, a week after a Qatari carrier was itself hit in the strait.
United States / CENTCOM
United States / CENTCOM
CENTCOM flew a third strike wave in a week, roughly 140 targets, killed Lieutenant Dehghani at Jask, and insists the strait remains open. It signed no instrument making that claim enforceable against Iran's closure.
Iran / IRGC
Iran / IRGC
Tehran struck GFS Galaxy and declared Hormuz closed, reasserting IRGC toll authority after its Oman-brokered management track failed to bind Washington to anything. The strike restores unilateral control after days of a negotiated alternative gaining ground.
Russia
Russia
Grossi's non-confirmation came from Kaliningrad, hours after Rosatom, the state agency that built and fuels Bushehr, hosted his talks. A refusal delivered from inside Russia's own nuclear orbit carries weight a Western capital could not manufacture, though Moscow itself made no statement on Iran's strike claim.