The Contagion Is Real: A Worldwide Alert and an Eighth Night of Bombs
The eighth night ran lighter as the tankers for a wider offensive keep landing in Israel. CENTCOM owes the country two names as soon as today.
American bombers flew their eighth consecutive night over Iran overnight — and commanders described the strikes as lighter than recent nights, the rhythm of a force holding its breath. The refueling tankers the administration promised Israel keep landing ahead of the "massive offensive... wider in scope" Trump has been weighing since Tuesday. CENTCOM owes the country two names as soon as today: the soldiers killed Friday at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan, held twenty-four hours for their families. One American remains missing. Iran kept firing across the Gulf — a Kuwaiti oil facility burning in Copernicus satellite frames, sirens in three capitals.
The State Department escalated from "reconsider travel to the Middle East" to a worldwide alert for every American overseas. The Navy resumed its blockade of Iranian ports, redirecting five commercial vessels and disabling a sixth. The US embassy warned of a threat in Aqaba as Jordan denied evacuation reports. Germany raised its terror threat to "high." Iraq began studying a pipeline to bypass the Strait of Hormuz entirely — the clearest sign the region expects the strait to stay a battlefield.
