US strikes on Iran reach a tenth night, and CENTCOM puts a number on the shipping it says it is protecting

Approximately 900 commercial vessels. That is what US Central Command says its forces have helped move through the Strait of Hormuz since early May, along with 450 million barrels of crude oil. The figure appeared in a release on July 20 announcing another round of strikes on Iran, sourced here to the command's own statement.

CENTCOM said it completed the latest strikes at 9 p.m. ET on July 20. It said US forces hit Iranian military command centres, maritime capabilities, missile and drone launch sites, and air defence systems, and that the aim was to degrade Iran's ability to keep attacking commercial vessels transiting the strait. It was the tenth consecutive night by the command's own count. Its July 18 release said eight.

The strikes have run without pause through American losses. CENTCOM said on July 19 that three service members had been killed and one remained unaccounted for, in separate incidents in Jordan and northern Iraq days earlier. The stated purpose has not moved. The command frames each wave as protection for civilian mariners in the corridor, not as a wider campaign, and it repeated on July 20 that its forces remain prepared to hold Iran accountable for aggression toward vessels transiting the strait.