US-Iran War Escalates: 11 Consecutive Nights of Strikes, $37.5B Cost

The United States military launched strikes against Iran for the eleventh consecutive night, with explosions reported in the northwestern city of Tabriz, the capital Tehran, and the southern city of Sirik. US Central Command confirmed the attacks, and President Trump warned that the US was "not finished" and threatened to bomb a suspected Iranian nuclear site called Pickaxe Mountain "very heavily."

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, testifying before Congress for the first time since the conflict resumed, disclosed that the war has cost the United States $37.5 billion — up from a previous estimate of roughly $29 billion in mid-May. He characterized Iran as weakened but declined to offer a timeline for the war's end. The administration is seeking tens of billions more in emergency funding, facing opposition from Democrats. With midterm elections six months away, the cost and open-ended nature of the conflict are becoming politically contentious.

The war is producing cascading regional effects. Iran has widened strikes on Gulf states, and its Houthi allies in Yemen threatened to blockade Saudi ports, prompting two tankers carrying Saudi crude to Asia to reverse course in the Red Sea. The US also announced it would allow American airlines to fly directly to Lebanon for the first time since 1985, following a meeting with Lebanon's president, while the Lebanese army began deploying in southern towns under a US-backed framework agreement with Israel.

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