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According to an official spokesperson for the Jordanian Armed Forces, military radar detected the incoming missiles before air defence units successfully engaged and downed all five targets.
Soon after, Kuwait’s defence ministry spokesperson said on X that an Iranian strike hit a building belonging to a Chinese company in the north of the country, killing a worker and inflicting significant damage.
US President Donald Trump looks on during an announcement about Dulles International Airport renovations in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC on July 29, 2026.
US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on July 29, 2026 [AFP]
Escalation options
Ryan Bohl, a senior Middle East analyst with RANE network, a risk intelligence ompany, says the US has two likely escalation options.
“The first is the repeat of what America was doing prior to last Friday, which is focusing on targets and infrastructure related to Iran’s blockade of Hormuz,” he said.
“Or it could be an escalation towards the bridges and power plant strategy that President Trump has repeatedly threatened over and over again.”
The US is eager to end Iran’s control of the Strait of Hormuz, through which a large percentage of global oil shipping passes.
Earlier, Iran rejected an Omani proposal on co-managing shipping routes through the strait.
The US Treasury Department announced new sanctions on Wednesday on two Iranian firms it said are integral to an IRGC-backed “scheme” that forces commercial vessels to buy insurance to transit Hormuz.
“The United States will not allow Iran to hold global commerce hostage or use international shipping to finance the IRGC’s terrorism, aggression, and repression,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent wrote on X.
CENTCOM claimed the latest strikes aimed to “further diminish threats posed by Iran and its proxies to American forces, commercial shipping, and neighboring Gulf nations”.
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Former Pentagon official David Des Roches told Al Jazeera that the latest US strikes were “not a very overwhelming attack”, adding that Trump is perhaps, “trying to keep things proportionate, or to keep things open for diplomacy”.