Heavy bombardment of Iran. The IRGC shoots down two American drones

The US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced that it had carried out strikes on Iran for the seventh night in a row with the aim of "further weakening its military capabilities".

The command said in a statement on Saturday morning, July 18,  that "US forces have changed the route of 4 commercial ships as part of the naval blockade on Iran."

In turn, the Iranian news agency announced the sound of 5 explosions in Yazd in the center of the country, and Mehr News Agency said that an explosion was heard on the southern outskirts of the city of Lar in the southern province of Fars, while several sites in Ahvaz were bombed.

On the other hand, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps announced that its air defenses shot down two US MQ-9 and RQ-11 Raven drones in the airspace of the provinces of Bushehr and Khuzestan in the south of the country.

In a statement, the IRGC Navy threatened to strike the US command in the region, saying, "The Americans are approaching at every moment, the zero hour to start operations, against CENTCOM naval units in the region."

The official Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) quoted the Revolutionary Guards as saying that the movements of US forces are subject to monitoring and monitoring.

Explosion of two oil tankers in Hormuz

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said two oil tankers exploded and caught fire as they were about to cross the mined route south of the Strait of Hormuz.

"The Strait of Hormuz has become very dangerous and completely closed due to the US military's aggressions," a statement from the Revolutionary Guards said, adding that "as long as the US aggressions continue, neither fertilizer nor any drop of oil and gas can be exported from the region."

He called on ships to refrain from entering the mine-laden route in the Strait of Hormuz in order to preserve their investments and the lives of their crews.

Later, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced the interception of four "violating" tankers that tried to pass through the Strait of Hormuz in a joint operation with missiles and drones.

Ship traffic in the Strait of Hormuz fell on Thursday to just eight in the lowest movement in three weeks, according to the navigational data website Kpler.

Pentagon reveals human toll

The number of U.S. troops wounded in the Iran war has risen to 13 since last Monday, according to the U.S. War Department.

The Associated Press reported that data from the Defense Casualty Analysis System revealed that the 13 wounded soldiers were divided between 10 Army soldiers and three Navy sailors, while no additional information was available, including the date or location of their injuries.

CBS News, citing U.S. officials, reported that a number of U.S. military personnel were injured after their facility was bombed in an Iranian attack on two Jordanian bases this week.

Captain Tim Hopkins, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, declined to provide any details about casualties or U.S. bases and assets that were bombed in the renewed wave of fighting, according to the Associated Press.

Khamenei's adviser criticizes Iraq's prime minister

The advisor to the Iranian Supreme Leader for international affairs, Ali Akbar Velayati, attacked the visit of Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi to the United States, noting that it came at an inopportune time and represents an insult to Iraq's history and role.

Velayati said in an article published in Iranian newspapers that al-Zaidi's visit to Washington came "untimely," describing it as "regrettable and undermines the efforts of the proud and mujahideen Iraqi people."

Velayati added that "the visit was carried out after the martyrdom of one of the greatest and most influential religious scholars in the era of occultation," considering that keeping it on time "inflicted a blow on the dignity of the Iraqi people, and this is a great shame for every Muslim and every free personality, whether Iraqi or non-Iraqi."

Velayati questioned the purpose of the visit, saying that "he did not know what Mr. Zaidi was expecting and what his purpose was from it," explaining that "if he had consulted religious and capable Iraqi figures, he would have realized Iraq's place in Islamic history."