July 23, 2025
“In just five months, Trump has overseen nearly as many US airstrikes (529) as were recorded across the entire four years of the previous administration (555),” said ACLED President Clionadh Raleigh.
Among the countries bombed by Trump are Iran, Iraq, Syria, Somalia, and Yemen. The majority of strikes were carried out against Yemen.
“The US military is moving faster, hitting harder, and doing so with fewer constraints. Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, and now Iran are all familiar terrain, but this isn’t about geography – it’s about frequency,” Raleigh added.
The surge in attacks contradicts Trump’s campaign promises, which framed him as “anti-war.”
In March this year, Trump renewed the Biden government’s campaign against Yemen with much greater intensity.
Months of brutal and deadly attacks struck the country in response to the Yemeni Armed Forces’ (YAF) naval operations against Israeli interests and its missile and drone strikes in support of Palestine.
Yemeni forces consistently responded to US attacks by targeting US warships in the Red Sea, during both Biden and Trump’s terms.
A ceasefire between Sanaa and Washington was reached in May, after the US campaign burned through munitions and failed to impact Yemeni military capabilities significantly.
However, the campaign took a heavy toll on civilians and compounded the humanitarian crisis the country has faced due to over a decade of war.
An investigation released by Airwars last month revealed that Trump’s war on Yemen killed almost as many civilians in less than two months as in the last 23 years of Washington’s military action in the country combined.
“In the period between the first recorded US strike in Yemen to the beginning of Trump’s campaign in March, at least 258 civilians were allegedly killed by US actions. In less than two months of Operation Rough Rider … at least 224 civilians in Yemen [were] killed by US airstrikes – nearly doubling the civilian casualty toll in Yemen by US actions since 2002,” it said.
In Iraq, Syria, and Somalia, Trump has also continued to strike what Washington says are ISIS and Al-Shabab targets.
Despite vowing to end “forever wars,” Trump has recently threatened to expand them.
On 22 July, the US president threatened to launch new attacks on Iran, after late June bunker-buster strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities which were carried out on behalf of Israel.
Trump ordered 529 attacks on several countries in just five months of his presidency, nearly matching Biden’s four-year total
US President Donald Trump has ordered hundreds of airstrikes across West Asia and Africa since his return to office, carrying out more attacks in the first five months of his second term than former president Joe Biden did during his entire presidency, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED).
“In just five months, Trump has overseen nearly as many US airstrikes (529) as were recorded across the entire four years of the previous administration (555),” said ACLED President Clionadh Raleigh.
Among the countries bombed by Trump are Iran, Iraq, Syria, Somalia, and Yemen. The majority of strikes were carried out against Yemen.
“The US military is moving faster, hitting harder, and doing so with fewer constraints. Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, and now Iran are all familiar terrain, but this isn’t about geography – it’s about frequency,” Raleigh added.
The surge in attacks contradicts Trump’s campaign promises, which framed him as “anti-war.”
In March this year, Trump renewed the Biden government’s campaign against Yemen with much greater intensity.
Months of brutal and deadly attacks struck the country in response to the Yemeni Armed Forces’ (YAF) naval operations against Israeli interests and its missile and drone strikes in support of Palestine.
Yemeni forces consistently responded to US attacks by targeting US warships in the Red Sea, during both Biden and Trump’s terms.
A ceasefire between Sanaa and Washington was reached in May, after the US campaign burned through munitions and failed to impact Yemeni military capabilities significantly.
However, the campaign took a heavy toll on civilians and compounded the humanitarian crisis the country has faced due to over a decade of war.
An investigation released by Airwars last month revealed that Trump’s war on Yemen killed almost as many civilians in less than two months as in the last 23 years of Washington’s military action in the country combined.
“In the period between the first recorded US strike in Yemen to the beginning of Trump’s campaign in March, at least 258 civilians were allegedly killed by US actions. In less than two months of Operation Rough Rider … at least 224 civilians in Yemen [were] killed by US airstrikes – nearly doubling the civilian casualty toll in Yemen by US actions since 2002,” it said.
In Iraq, Syria, and Somalia, Trump has also continued to strike what Washington says are ISIS and Al-Shabab targets.
Despite vowing to end “forever wars,” Trump has recently threatened to expand them.
On 22 July, the US president threatened to launch new attacks on Iran, after late June bunker-buster strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities which were carried out on behalf of Israel.
The head of Israel’s Mossad agency vowed one day after the war ended that it would continue operations in Iran
“Many of them were acts of sabotage,” three Iranian officials said, including one member of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
A European official also told NYT that he “assessed the attacks as sabotage and suspected Israel of involvement.”
“A lot of us think that it is Israel’s doing and that war is going to start again,” a resident of the city of Kashan told the outlet, adding that he feels “scared and paranoid” about a potential resumption of the war between Iran and Israel.
Mahdi Mohammadi, Iranian politician and senior advisor to the head of Iran’s parliament, said, “if anyone thinks we are dealing with linear events that we can predict, they are naïve.”
“We are not even in a ceasefire now; we are in a fragile suspension, and any minute it can end, and we are back at war,” Mohammadi added.
One person was killed on Saturday by a fire that erupted at Iran’s largest oil refinery, Abadan. Firefighters put out the blaze and operations remained unaffected, state media said, blaming the fire on a leaky gas pump.
On 14 July, seven people were injured in an explosion at a residential complex in the city of Qom.
The unit that exploded “appeared to have been rented by operatives who had left the building after turning on the stove and oven gas, as if to deliberately spark a blaze,” two Iranian officials told NYT.
Another recent explosion struck a high-rise building that offers housing to Iranian judiciary employees.
The report claims Tehran has “shrugged off” the incidents in public so as not to “corner itself” into retaliation.
The 12-day Israel–Iran war came to an end on 24 June.
One day later, the director of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, David Barnea, vowed to continue operations inside the Islamic Republic.
“We will remain vigilant, keeping a close eye on all the projects in Iran, which we know of, in the deepest way. We will be there as we have been until now,” Barnea said.
Throughout the war, the Mossad was behind the launching of hundreds of small, internally-developed drones which launched attacks across the country, particularly against air defenses and other military sites.
Tehran has been working to clear the country of spies, regularly announcing arrests and the foiling of espionage networks.
The NYT report comes as Tel Aviv has been threatening to resume its war against Iran.
During a situation assessment with senior military officials, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Tuesday evening that Tel Aviv may consider resuming its campaign against Tehran.
He called for an effective enforcement plan to prevent Iran from restoring its nuclear and missile programs.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told Al Jazeera that Iran's forces are prepared to carry out hard blows targeting Israel's depth. “We do not want war and do not rely on the certainty of a ceasefire; we will defend ourselves with power.”
Earlier on 22 July, US President Donald Trump also said the US military would strike Iran again if necessary.
The talks in Tehran focused on resisting western pressure as Iran prepares to meet with European powers in Istanbul over sanctions threats
The discussions, held under the auspices of Iran’s Foreign Ministry, addressed “the latest developments in the nuclear negotiations and efforts to lift sanctions imposed on Iran,” the semi-official news agency said.
All three parties reaffirmed their commitment to maintaining “close coordination and exchanging views on issues related to the nuclear agreement,” with emphasis on continued consultations to counter western policies, particularly US sanctions.
Delegates agreed to maintain open coordination channels and to convene again at multiple levels in the coming weeks. The statement described these plans as “joint efforts to support regional stability and enhance strategic cooperation.”
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs Kazem Gharibabadi said that Iran’s upcoming meeting with the European Troika in Istanbul will include a review of “Iran's position on activating the trigger mechanism,” alongside discussion of “possible solutions to outstanding issues, and how to manage the current situation.”
Gharibabadi reiterated that “activating the trigger mechanism is entirely illegal,” adding that “other parties have no legal justification for doing so.”
The Istanbul meeting, scheduled for Friday, will be held at the level of deputy foreign ministers from Iran, the UK, France, and Germany, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei confirmed on 22 July.
The talks follow recent threats from the three European governments saying Iran's “failure” to resume nuclear negotiations will result in the reimposition of international sanctions.
Earlier this week, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that if the European Union and its member states “want to have a role, they should act responsibly, and put aside the worn-out policies of threat and pressure, including the 'snap-back' for which they lack absolutely [any] moral and legal ground.”
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