U.S. Strikes on Iran Appear to Pause After Nearly Two Weeks of Nightly Attacks

Iran reported no U.S. strikes overnight, breaking a run of about two weeks of nightly attacks, and a U.S. official said the administration sees a possible opening for talks. The Associated Press, in a report carried by NBC News, said U.S. Central Command had not immediately commented.

Iran’s Health Ministry spokesperson, Hossein Kermanpour, posted that Iran had a “peaceful night,” the AP reported. Al-Monitor, citing an official, reported that after 12 consecutive days of U.S. strikes on Iranian military targets around the Strait of Hormuz, the United States has halted them, and that Iranian attacks on commercial ships in the strait have stopped for four days, which the official saw as a chance to restart diplomacy and reduce the conflict.

The circumstances of any talks were unclear, Al-Monitor reported, and the White House did not respond to its request for comment. On Wednesday, President Trump had posted on Truth Social that any Iranian attack on a ship in the strait would bring a U.S. strike on “one bridge or power plant,” including sites in or near Tehran, according to Al-Monitor.

The AP described how the fighting reached this point. A shaky ceasefire unraveled in early July after Iran was accused of striking three ships in the Strait of Hormuz, and the United States responded with strikes on dozens of targets in Iran while Iran fired on Arab states in the region. The AP also reported that U.S. forces fired on a merchant vessel in the Gulf of Oman that was trying to breach the renewed blockade of Iran’s ports.

The wider region remained tense. The AP reported that sirens sounded in Saudi Arabia’s Yanbu and Jizan provinces and that Bahrain issued missile alerts, with no casualties reported. The Houthis targeted two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea, and Saudi Arabia then struck the Yemeni port city of Hodeida. U.S. embassies warned Americans that departure options could become more limited, and, the AP said, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard told residents of neighboring countries to stay away from bases hosting U.S. troops.

The human toll is large. The AP reported that Iran’s Health Ministry says more than 3,400 people have been killed in Iran; the article also cites 18 U.S. service members and 24 Israeli civilians killed, and more than 4,000 killed in Lebanon along with 38 Israeli troops. The Iranian figures come from the Iranian government and were not independently verified by the AP.

The reports do not describe a ceasefire, and CENTCOM had not confirmed a halt. Trump’s threat against Iranian infrastructure, posted Wednesday, remains on the record, and the AP reported earlier in the week that Secretary of State Marco Rubio said any negotiation has to be real.