US and Iran trade missile barrages as hopes dim for a quick resolution
to the five-month conflict
[July 31, 2026]
By SAMY MAGDY and ELENA BECATOROS
CAIRO (AP) — The United States and Iran each fired barrages of missiles
Thursday, as the pattern of back-and-forth strikes took hold again and
hope dimmed for a quick end to the five-month conflict.
Following a few days of respite, fears of a wider war have grown, with
renewed fighting threatening to engulf even more countries. Jordan said
Thursday it intercepted Iranian missiles for the second consecutive day,
while Kuwait said a strike in the northern part of the country killed
one person. Also this week, drones caused fires on ships at an Egyptian
port, and Saudi Arabia said it came under fire from Iran-backed militias
in Iraq.
The war — which in its early days President Donald Trump said would last
four to five weeks, although he warned it could take longer — has caused
the price of fuel to spike and roiled the global economy. As months have
passed, concerns have deepened about using up the stockpile of weapons
the U.S. needs to defend its bases and allies.
The war is unpopular among Americans, and a new AP-NORC poll says
Trump’s approval rating on Iran has dipped slightly since last month.
The recent pause in fighting, which began over the weekend and spurred
hopes among mediators of diplomatic progress, ended with increasing
missile and drone attacks across many countries in the Middle East.
“We note with concern that the security situation remains precarious,”
said Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tahir Andrabi, whose
country has been a key mediator.
Talks “are ongoing to normalize the situation, particularly the
situation in the Strait of Hormuz,” he told reporters.
The US and Iran trade strikes
An Iranian strike hit a Chinese firm’s building in Kuwait on Thursday,
severely damaging the structure and killing a worker, Kuwait’s military
said, hours after Jordan’s air defenses shot down five missiles launched
from Iran.
No injuries were reported from Jordan’s interception, the country's
state-run Petra news agency said, quoting the spokesman for the
country’s armed forces. Both Jordan and Kuwait host American troops.
The attacks came after the U.S. military said it completed “a heavy wave
of strikes against Iran” in response to an earlier Iranian missile
attack on a U.S. base in Jordan.
U.S. Central Command said U.S. forces struck dozens of targets belonging
to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, including military command centers,
missile and drone facilities, and coastal surveillance and defense
sites.
Iran's official IRNA news agency said three people were killed and two
were wounded in a strike on the island of Qeshm, which lies off the
Iranian mainland in the Strait of Hormuz — a crucial waterway for the
world's energy supplies that has been at the center of the conflict.
The latest barrage came after the U.S. partnered with Saudi Arabia on
Wednesday to strike Iran-backed militias in Iraq, killing at least 20
fighters and six Iranian advisers.
Fires reported on two natural gas vessels at an Egyptian port
Also on Wednesday, British maritime security firm Ambrey said drone
strikes ignited fires on two natural gas vessels at the Egyptian port of
Damietta. It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the
strikes on a U.S.-owned floating storage facility and a Greek-owned
tanker. No injuries were reported.
The office of the Egyptian prime minister said initial investigations
showed the fires had been caused by a drone. In a cabinet meeting, Prime
Minister Mustafa Madbouly said investigators were able to recover traces
of the drone and will try to determine where it came from.
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A damaged vehicle at the site of an airstrike on a Popular
Mobilization Forces base in Mosul, Iraq, Wednesday, July 29, 2026.
(AP Photo/Farid Abdulwahed)
Egypt, a close U.S. ally and regional mediator, has until now been
spared direct military action during the war. A strike by Iran or
its allies, if confirmed, would mark a significant widening of the
conflict. The Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen have denied they
were behind the attack.
Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi didn't outright deny
Iranian involvement but said: “Egypt is an important friend and
partner in the region, and its security is of utmost importance to
us.”
"We must all be vigilant against Israeli plots and false-flag
operations designed to undermine regional peace," he said on X. “The
threat is clear, mutual, and fearful of Muslim solidarity.”
The war has wreaked havoc on the global economy
The conflict has wreaked havoc on the global economy as energy
shipments through the Strait of Hormuz have ground to a near halt.
Much of the diplomacy around ending the war has focused on reopening
the strait, through which 20% of oil and natural gas shipments
passed in peacetime.
The already limited traffic through the strait has plunged to
wartime lows during the recent exchange of strikes, from 82 ships
during the week of July 13-19 to just 39 from July 20-26, Lloyd’s
List Intelligence, a shipping data and analysis firm, said in an
webinar.
Fighting elsewhere has squeezed energy supplies further.
Saudi Arabia has accused Iraqi militias of firing drones against its
oil facilities over the past days. An umbrella group of Iraqi
militias initially denied the allegations, while the Houthi rebels
said they had attacked Saudi energy facilities as part of a separate
but related conflict.
The Houthis have also declared a blockade of Saudi shipping and
threatened to choke off another crucial Middle East trade route, the
Bab el-Mandeb Strait from the Red Sea into the Gulf of Aden. That
route became even more important during the war, as Saudi Arabia
used it to bypass the Strait of Hormuz.
While some Saudi oil exports are continuing through the Bab al-Mandab
Strait despite the blockade, Lloyd’s List Intelligence said much of
that oil now follows an expensive and time-consuming workaround: It
travels from Saudi Arabia on tankers to the Egyptian city of Ain
Sokhna on the Red Sea coast before being pumped overland through a
pipeline to the Mediterranean port of Sidi Kerir. Then it's loaded
on tankers again.
The Suez Canal is not deep enough to handle the largest and most
economical tankers when they are fully loaded with oil.
Saudi Defense Minister Khalid bin Salman met Wednesday with Trump
and Vice President JD Vance, according to two people familiar with
the matter who were not authorized to comment publicly about the
private meetings.
They said the Saudi decision to join the U.S. attacks against the
Iraqi militias was meant to send a message to Iran that the kingdom
would not tolerate Iran or its proxies targeting the Saudi oil
industry and other critical infrastructure. At the same time, the
defense minister underscored to Trump and Vance that the Saudis want
to see a de-escalation in the war and for Washington and Tehran to
return to negotiations.
___
Becatoros reported from Athens, Greece. Associated Press writers
Konstantin Toropin and Aamer Madhani in Washington; Qassim
Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad; Fatma Khaled in Cairo; and Christopher Weber
in Los Angeles contributed.
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