Iran claims strikes on ships in Strait of Hormuz and U.S. base in Kuwait

By Frank Andrews is a CBS News journalist based in London. Read Full Bio Updated on: July 31, 2026 / 7:55 AM EDT / CBS News Add CBS News on Google What to know about the Iran war today:Iran's Revolutionary Guard said Friday that it had struck two tankers trying to pass through the Strait of Hormuz under a U.S. military "air escort" and turned four other ships around.Iran also claimed that it launched drone strikes at U.S. military facilities at the Ahmad al-Jaber Air Base in southern Kuwait. There was no immediate comment from U.S. Central Command.The Senate on Thursday again narrowly rejected an effort to limit President Trump's Iran war powers as the conflict stretched into its sixth month. The vote was 49-50. 9m ago British-Azerbaijani man arrested in Cyprus, accused of spying on British base A British-Azerbaijani dual citizen was arrested in Cyprus as part of a U.K. probe and is facing extradition after allegedly spying for Iran on a British air force base, London police said Friday.Rashad Sultanov, 44, was arrested on July 17 as part of a Counter Terrorism Policing London investigation into incidents at the RAF Akrotiri base in Cyprus between May 11 and June 22, 2025."He allegedly conducted hostile surveillance on the base, a prohibited place, and is alleged to have then shared information with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), a foreign intelligence service," U.K. authorities said in a statement.Sultanov was first arrested by Cypriot police in June 2025 on spying and terror charges and has been in custody since, Britain's Counter Terror police confirmed to AFP.He was again arrested this month as part of an investigation under the U.K.'s National Security Act, which is the country's counter-espionage and foreign interference legislation."The British investigation will now take precedence and the plan is for him to be extradited back to the U.K.," police said.Cypriot police did not provide extensive details about the man when he was first arrested last year after being spotted near the air force base near the southern coastal city of Limassol.U.K. bases have become a flashpoint in the U.S. and Israeli war against Iran, with London allowing Washington to use Akrotiri for "defensive" operations against Tehran.Earlier this year in March, an Iranian-made drone hit the runway of the site in southern Cyprus.AFP 46m ago Iran says it struck two tankers under U.S. "aerial escort" in the Strait of Hormuz Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard Corps said Friday that it had hit two tankers trying to pass through the Strait of Hormuz under an "aerial escort" of the U.S. military.The IRGC said the "non-compliant oil tankers … were struck and stopped, while four other oil tankers quickly changed course and returned to their previous locations."The U.S. military's Central Command said Thursday it had redirected 24 commercial vessels since restarting a blockade on Iranian ports earlier this month, up from 20 vessels a day earlier. 46m ago Iran receives bodies of Revolutionary Guards killed in U.S.-Saudi strikes in Iraq Iranian state media said Friday that the bodies of five members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) killed in joint U.S.-Saudi strikes in Iraq earlier this week had been returned.The United States and Saudi Arabia said on Wednesday they had struck Iran-backed militants in Iraq in response to recent attacks on the Gulf kingdom. A funeral ceremony is held at the Imam Ali Shrine in Najaf, Iraq, on July 30, 2026, for members of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces and Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps who were killed in U.S.-Saudi airstrikes across Iraq earlier this week. Karar Essa/Anadolu via Getty Images The strikes targeted positions belonging to the Hashed al-Shaabi, an Iraqi armed coalition that includes several powerful pro-Iran groups, killing at least 20 militants, including the five Iranians.The IRGC's Quds Force oversees Iran's operations abroad, and Guard members killed outside Iran are often affiliated with the unit.Back in 2020, the U.S. killed the Quds Force's commander, Qasem Soleimani, in an airstrike in Baghdad, along with Hashed al-Shaabi's deputy leader. AFP 46m ago Iran military says it targeted U.S. base in Kuwait with drones Iran's military said Friday it launched drone strikes targeting U.S. military facilities in Kuwait.It said in a statement that it targeted "fighter aircraft shelters, satellite communications systems and equipment storage facilities at Ahmad al-Jaber Air Base in Kuwait."There was no immediate comment from U.S. Central Command, but Kuwait's defense ministry said that it had "detected hostile drones inside Kuwaiti airspace since dawn today" and "successfully intercepted and destroyed them." Their statement said Iran had "targeted a number of vital and military facilities," without specifying where, and said that "falling debris" from the intercepted drones had caused some "material damage" but no casualties.The Iranian army said the strikes came "in response to the recent aggression by the terrorist U.S. military against our country and its brutal attack on a residential home on Qeshm Island." Local media reported on Thursday that three members of a family were killed in U.S. strikes on Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz.The strait, which normally carries around 20% of global oil shipments, has been effectively closed by Iran since the start of the war on Feb. 28.The U.S. has carried out repeated strikes on Iran's southern coastal provinces as it seeks to weaken Tehran's control over the waterway.CBS/AFP 46m ago Hamas agrees to next phase of Gaza deal, Trump says President Trump said Thursday evening that the militant group Hamas, an Iran-backed proxy, has reached an agreement with his international "Board of Peace" on the next steps in a peace deal for Gaza that includes Hamas' disarmament in the Gaza Strip.In a Truth Social post, the president called it a "HISTORIC agreement for the COMPLETE DISARMAMENT of Hamas and all other armed groups in Gaza," and a "monumental step toward lasting PEACE and SECURITY."The exact timetable for disarmament isn't clear.Hamas communicated through mediators that it agreed to the final text of the plan, including decommissioning their weapons, U.S. and Board of Peace officials told reporters Thursday.Read more here. 46m ago Iran war powers vote fails again in Senate A vote in the Senate to limit President Trump's war powers has failed again, and will likely the last one before a recess begins Aug. 10. The resolution, brought by New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, lost 49-50. Three Republicans voted in favor of limiting Mr. Trump's power to continue the war — Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins and Rand Paul — while one Democrat voted against it, John Fetterman. Republican Mitch McConnell, who remains in a rehabilitation facility, is the one senator who did not vote.The resolution, if passed, would have "direct[ed] the removal of United States Armed Forces from hostilities within or against the Islamic Republic of Iran that have not been authorized by Congress."The vote came exactly one week after the last Democratic effort failed. In: Kuwait Jordan Iran Israel Bab el-Mandeb strait Donald Trump Lebanon Oil and Gas Strait of Hormuz