![\"Donald](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1_Trump-Opening-Bells-26187546568412.jpg\")
<\/p>\nEXCLUSIVE: Donald Trump, who welcomed Iraq’s new prime minister to the White House on Tuesday, is set to deploy US Marines and Special Forces to Kharg Island<\/p>\n
17:14, 14 Jul 2026Updated 17:14, 14 Jul 2026<\/p>\n
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Donald Trump speaks after ringing the opening bell for the New York Stock Exchange last week(Image: AP Photo\/Mark Schiefelbein)<\/p>\n
US forces may be planning a partial ground invasion of Iranian territory in a bid to smash Tehran\u2019s<\/a> iron-grip on the Strait of Hormuz<\/a>.<\/p>\n In a major operation, US Marines and Special Forces could be ordered to deploy to Kharg Island <\/a>so they can control Iran\u2019s fire-power onto the key waterway. It has followed another day of 120 massive strikes on Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps missile firing points and troops positions.<\/p>\n Saudi Arabia has opened up a new front in the war, bombing the airport in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa and Iran\u2019s Houthi proxies fired missiles at the kingdom.<\/p>\n The strikes are the first claimed by the Houthis <\/a>against Saudi Arabia since an informal truce in March 2022 following Houthi attacks on Saudi energy infrastructure.<\/p>\n The Houthis attacked Saudi targets, they claimed, in response to Riyadh opening fire on the airport, an attack approved by Yemen\u2019s government<\/a> to prevent an Iranian plane landing there. It said government forces would respond to any hostile aircraft violating Yemen’s airspace “by all available means”, and held Iran responsible. The latest attacks by the US followed Iran targeting shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, claiming they had travelled outside of the shipping lane designated by the IRGC.<\/p>\n Sanaa airport hit in airstrike(Image: AL-MASIRAH TV\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n Tuesday\u2019s attacks on Iran mark a fourth round of powerful bombing raids on the country, aimed at forcing the Tehran regime to open up the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n The US struck the Iranian city of Bushehr, Iran’s state news agency IRNA reports, citing a local official. Projectiles hit the city at four points in what the agency called the “continuation of the ceasefire violation by the American enemy.\u201d<\/p>\n It came after reports that explosions were heard west of the strategic port city of Bandar Abbas, in Joghatai and Bushehr. The province of Bushehr is the location of Iran’s only working nuclear power plant.<\/p>\n The UAE said one crew member had been killed and several others injured after two vessels were hit by Iranian missiles in the Strait of Hormuz, near Oman.<\/p>\n Tehran claimed two “offending” tankers had been struck after ignoring warnings and attempting to pass through a “mined route”. US President Donald Trump<\/a> Trump announced on Monday that the US naval blockade of Tehran’s ports would be reinstated today, insisting the US would “take over” the strait and acting as its “guardian angel”.<\/p>\n Mourners raise fists at commemoration for slain Ayatollah, in Tehran(Image: AP Photo\/Vahid Salemi)<\/p>\n He said he would impose a 20% tax on all cargo for ships crossing – a move for which the UN’s shipping agency said there was “no legal basis”.<\/p>\n Iran, meanwhile, said it would control the waterway “forever”. Sources told the Mirror<\/a> some of the impact sites of explosions in the US strikes have been hit as many as five times in a five hour onslaught of strikes. The latest US bombing runs battered IRGC sites all along Iran\u2019s southern coastline in preparation for the US to take control of the Strait.<\/p>\n![\"Sanaa](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0_TOPSHOT-YEMEN-SAUDI-CONFLICT-AVIATION.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Mourners](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0_APTOPIX-Iran-War-26195524063022.jpg\")
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