Trump resumed Iran airstrikes after five-day pause, again defying bicameral war-powers resolution

On July 29, 2026, President Trump ordered U.S. forces to resume direct airstrikes on Iran, five days after declaring a pause in the bombing campaign to allow room for diplomacy. The resumption followed an Iranian missile attack a day earlier, in which the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it had targeted Muwaffaq Salti Air Base and a CENTCOM center in Jordan; Jordan's air defenses intercepted the missiles and the Jordanian military reported no casualties. Trump told Fox News the United States would be "hitting them hard," and U.S. Central Command said it "successfully completed a heavy wave of strikes against Iran" by 10 p.m. ET on July 29, hitting dozens of IRGC targets including military command centers, missile and drone facilities, coastal surveillance and defense sites, and maritime capabilities across southern Iran. Iranian state media reported that at least three civilians, including a couple and their two-year-old child, were killed when a residential building on Qeshm Island was struck, and the IRGC said three of its own personnel were killed.

The strikes extended a military campaign against Iran that Congress had directed the executive branch to end through the first-ever bicameral War Powers Resolution, passed in June 2026, absent a declaration of war or specific new authorization. Trump had paused the bombing campaign five days earlier to pursue diplomacy, and by his own account Iran had called the July 28 missile launch a mistake and asked the United States not to retaliate. Trump nonetheless ordered new direct strikes on Iran the following day, resuming hostilities without seeking the congressional authorization the War Powers Resolution required, continuing a months-long pattern of executive war-making the resolution was passed to stop.