Raid · June 22, 2025 · Central Iran (Qom Province) Theater

Seven B-2 Spirit bombers flew from Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri, as part of Operation Midnight Hammer. The strike package dropped GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators on Fordow and Natanz. The Pentagon said Iran did not fire on the package; public reporting did not establish a reliable site casualty count.

Raid · June 22, 2025 · Central Iran (Isfahan Province) Theater

B-2 bombers dropped GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators on the underground Natanz facility during Operation Midnight Hammer. The official briefing did not describe the B-52, F-15E, and surface-ship combination previously claimed here.

Raid · June 22, 2025 · Central Iran (Isfahan Province) Theater

A United States guided-missile submarine launched more than two dozen Tomahawk land-attack missiles against infrastructure at Isfahan as part of Operation Midnight Hammer. The IAEA reported no increase in off-site radiation levels and did not provide a casualty count.

Raid · June 23, 2025 · Persian Gulf / Middle East Theater

Iran launched ballistic missiles at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar after giving advance indications that reduced the risk of casualties. Qatar and the United States reported the attack was intercepted and caused no casualties. The previous account of deaths at multiple bases was false.

Campaign · February 28 – April 8, 2026 · Iran — nationwide Theater

Authorized by President Trump on February 27, 2026, and opening at roughly 9:45 a.m. Iran Standard Time on February 28 — during Ramadan — Operation Epic Fury was a joint US–Israeli air campaign on a scale the region had never seen. The Israeli Air Force called its share the largest combat sortie in its history: some 500 targets struck and more than 1,200 bombs dropped in the first twenty-four hours. Strikes ranged across Tehran, Isfahan, Qom, Karaj, Kermanshah, Tabriz, and Bushehr, hitting leadership, nuclear and missile infrastructure, air defenses, and naval assets. The campaign followed the largest US military buildup in the region since 2003 and the collapse of nuclear negotiations, against a backdrop of Iranian security forces killing anti-government protesters in January.

Assassination attempt · February 28, 2026 · Tehran Theater

The opening strikes killed Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader since 1989, along with other political and military figures. Khamenei was the country’s highest authority but not its formal head of state.

Campaign · March 1 – 6, 2026 · Israel Theater

Iran's Revolutionary Guard answered within hours, naming its response Operation True Promise IV — the fourth in a series of direct Iranian strikes on Israel that had begun in 2024. Waves of ballistic missiles and drones struck Tel Aviv, Haifa, and Israeli military facilities. Unlike the largely telegraphed exchanges of 2024, these were sustained and unannounced, and Israeli air defenses — layered but finite — were saturated repeatedly over several days. Israel recorded 39 military and contractor deaths and 31 civilian deaths across the war, with 7,834 injured.

Campaign · March 3 – 8, 2026 · Persian Gulf — Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Iraq Theater

Iran deliberately widened the war to the states hosting American forces. On March 3 it struck Doha, hit the US embassy in Riyadh, attacked cloud infrastructure across the Gulf, and set fire to the UAE's Fujairah Oil Industry Zone. Strikes reached Manama, Kuwait International Airport, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh and Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province, and Erbil International Airport and the US Consulate General in Erbil. The US Fifth Fleet's home in Bahrain was among the targets. Tehran threatened to hit every economic hub in the Middle East if the strikes on Iran continued. Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Kuwait subsequently launched strikes of their own against Iranian targets — Gulf Arab states entering open war with Iran for the first time.

Campaign · March 4 – April 17, 2026 · Strait of Hormuz Theater

Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz on March 4 during the regional war, disrupting energy shipping. After a ceasefire began in April, Iran announced on April 17 that the strait was fully open for the remainder of the ceasefire. The previous end date of June 17 was incorrect.

Campaign · April 2026 · Lebanon Theater

A two-week ceasefire that began on April 8, 2026, broke down when Israel struck targets in Lebanon, reopening the front against Hezbollah. Already shattered by the 2024 decapitation of its leadership and stripped of its Syrian resupply route by Assad's fall in December 2024, Hezbollah entered the 2026 war a fraction of the force it had been — and lost more than a thousand fighters. Negotiations in Islamabad on April 12–13 failed to restore the ceasefire, and the US imposed its naval blockade of Iranian ports in the aftermath.

Political event · June 15–17, 2026 · Islamabad, Pakistan Theater

The United States and Iran reached an agreement on June 15, followed by a memorandum of understanding signed in Islamabad on June 17. The framework sought to sustain a cessation of hostilities and continue negotiations; it should not be embellished as a personally signed heads-of-state accord without evidence.

Campaign · July 7–25, 2026 · Persian Gulf and Iran Theater

Renewed attacks in late June and July threatened the ceasefire and negotiating process. UN officials described serious escalation and called for restraint. Reported strikes paused again around July 25 to permit diplomacy, so the event should not be labeled an uninterrupted return to full-scale war through the present. The United States reinstated its naval blockade of Iranian ports on July 14, saying Iran had broken the ceasefire by firing on commercial tankers and trying to close the Strait of Hormuz.

Campaign · July 14, 2026 – Present · Persian Gulf, Strait of Hormuz and Gulf of Oman Theater

The United States first blockaded Iranian ports on April 13, 2026, lifted the blockade on June 18 after the Islamabad memorandum, and reinstated it on July 14 when the ceasefire collapsed. CENTCOM reported 135 ships diverted between July 14 and October 10. Ships that refused to turn back were disabled — the empty tanker Belma by Hellfire missiles on its first day, others in July, August and October — and in September the empty tankers Kylo and Riesco were sunk. On August 19 the governor of Iran's central bank said oil exports had effectively ceased, and on October 16 CENTCOM commander Adm. Brad Cooper said the blockade had halted about $25 billion in Iranian crude exports. Iran, for its part, said the Strait of Hormuz would remain closed until the blockade was lifted, and its Revolutionary Guard continued to claim attacks on shipping. Brent crude was above $110 a barrel on October 22.

Campaign · September 5 – 9, 2026 · Persian Gulf — Strait of Hormuz, Kharg Island, Jask Theater

After a month-long lull, the IRGC fired ballistic missiles at a US aircraft carrier and destroyer in the Gulf; both evaded and no Americans were hurt. CENTCOM answered on September 5 by disabling the IRGC-linked crude carriers M/T Downy off Kharg Island and M/T Stark 1 near Jask and destroying the empty tanker M/T Kylo in the Gulf of Oman, describing them as part of a shadow network funding the IRGC and its proxies. When the IRGC twice more targeted a US warship, CENTCOM destroyed five more Iranian crude carriers on September 8 — four in the Gulf of Oman and one near Kharg — after telling their crews to abandon ship. Iran's Foreign Ministry called the strikes a war crime. The IRGC fired about twenty ballistic missiles at Jordan, saying it was targeting Muwaffaq Salti Air Base; Jordan's army said it destroyed eighteen and the other two fell in unpopulated areas, with no casualties. The IRGC Navy then warned the crews of tankers near Kuwaiti and Bahraini ports to abandon their ships.

Political event · September 24 – 25, 2026 · Qatari mediation Theater

On September 24 and 25, 2026, Iran's foreign minister Abbas Araghchi set out a plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to normal traffic within a week if the United States carried out its commitments under the June 17 memorandum on an accelerated timeline: releasing $12 billion in frozen Iranian assets, lifting oil sanctions and ending the naval blockade. All hostilities, including in Lebanon, would stop for the seven days, and talks on a final deal would begin on the seventh. Qatar carried the proposal. Within hours The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump had ruled it out, and he posted a map relabelling the waterway the 'Trump Strait'; the Journal also reported that he had told aides he expected a new bombing campaign after the midterm elections. Indirect talks through Qatar nonetheless continued into October.

Political event · October 8 – 22, 2026 · Persian Gulf and Saudi Arabia Theater

On October 8, 2026, Trump said the United States would not attack Iran at any time before the November 3 midterm elections, citing 'productive discussions' — a day after The Atlantic reported he had asked the Pentagon for strike options to use before the vote. The blockade tightened instead: the Treasury sanctioned seventeen more shadow-fleet vessels the same day, and CENTCOM disabled another ship on October 10. On October 18 Netanyahu repeated his pledge to topple Iran's government. On October 21 the IRGC announced an 'offensive and asymmetrical' doctrine, the State Department ordered non-emergency staff and their families out of Saudi Arabia after Houthi attacks there, and Trump said that 'something one way or the other' would happen 'fairly soon.' The next day the IRGC Navy said four vessels it accused of illegal oil transfers had been struck and set on fire in the northern Gulf, and three more had hit mines west of the strait.