President Trump is not letting up on Iran. CENTCOM announced late Sunday night that it had just finished conducting another round of strikes for the ninth day in a row.

The focus is completely on degrading Iran’s military capability, after they spent the time during the “memorandum of understanding” ceasefire to re-arm themselves. And Iran is plenty mad that the strikes also hit something else on Saturday night.

During an eighth consecutive day of strikes on the country, the US attacked the partly built Darkhovin nuke facility in the southwest of the country, according to Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization — an assault that came the day after two American service members were reported killed, with a third still missing.

“An attack on a peaceful nuclear facility under international safeguards is a clear violation of international law,” the organization raged on social media.

The group did not reveal the extent of the possible damage from the attack, which the US has yet to confirm.

Yeah, the bullshit meter just went off. Iran is building yet another nuclear site, and thinks that we WON’T target it? Have they met President Trump, the man who has said repeatedly that they can never have a nuclear weapon? Forget the deaths of American troops – a partially built nuclear facility is the equivalent of painting a target for the president.

Unfortunately, the service member who was missing after the deaths of two others is presumably dead, after remains were found. CENTCOM also announced the death of another American service member in Iraq, during the detonation of an Iranian drone.

CENTCOM Update on Recently Fallen U.S. Service Members

TAMPA, Fla. — Yesterday, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) announced the passing of two U.S. service members and the missing status of one in Jordan following an Iranian attack on July 17. After a thorough search, U.S.…

— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) July 19, 2026

The full post reads:

Yesterday, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) announced the passing of two U.S. service members and the missing status of one in Jordan following an Iranian attack on July 17. After a thorough search, U.S. military personnel found unidentified remains at the location earlier today. An examination process to verify the remains is ongoing.

Separately, a U.S. service member in northern Iraq was killed in action July 18 during a controlled detonation of unexploded ordnance from a downed Iranian one-way attack drone. A second service member was wounded and continues to receive medical treatment for a minor injury.

CENTCOM is withholding additional information, including the identities of the missing and fallen warriors, out of respect for the families during the notification process.

President Trump is being crystal clear. Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, and when you kill American troops, there will be consequences.

US President Donald Trump says the latest military strikes on Iran are being carried out in honor of US servicemembers killed in recent days.

“We hit them very hard again tonight, and we did that in honor of the, probably three, it’s probably three great patriots,” Trump tells reporters as he returns to Washington following the World Cup final.

Trump says “we feel very badly,” when asked about the military fatalities, adding that those who died were fighting so that “Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.”

Secretary Marco Rubio pointed out late Sunday night that Iran chose this path when they sponsored terrorism.

.@SecRubio: "Iran is a rich country. One of the reason why Iran is in shambles is because every penny that this regime ever gets — be it through sanctions relief or through the oil they're able to get out — they invest it in Hezbollah. They invest it in Hamas… They should be… pic.twitter.com/E3OrpuBAHa

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) July 20, 2026

The question, though, is “what is the end goal in Iran?” We can keep hitting them night after night after night, and they can keep sending drones and missiles into neighboring countries in hopes of hitting American assets. If the end goal is keeping Iran from getting nuclear weapons, then that will, by necessity, require regime change. The fact that Iran was building another nuclear facility after having previous ones bombed is as clear a signal as any that the IRGC and the regime are not going to stop. We do know the regime is on thin ice internally. The foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, admitted in an interview that he has not seen the nepo baby ayatollah, Mojtaba Khamenei, since he “took over.” Mojtaba has not been seen in public since the bombing that killed Ali Khamenei, he didn’t appear at the funeral (though his brothers did), and now there are rumors that he has left Iran altogether.

An Israeli security source cited by the Saudi al-Hadath outlet says Iranian leader Mojtaba Khamenei “is not in Iran.”

Khamenei, who was appointed supreme leader shortly after his father was killed in US-Israeli strikes on February 28 and has only communicated via written statements since, has had no public appearances.

The source tells al-Hadath that Khamenei’s messages are written by new Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps chief Ahmad Vahidi and other members of the IRGC.

“Iran’s internal divisions are deep and threaten the existence of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps,” the source is cited as saying.

Honestly, this would track with everything that we know or assumed up until this point. We know that Mojtaba was not supposed to be ayatollah (his own father didn’t want him to have the job), but the IRGC strongarmed the mullahs into making Mojtaba the new supreme leader. Ahmad Vahidi, as the head of the IRGC, is running the country as a military junta, with Mojtaba as the figurehead who is never seen. His crippling injuries have been assumed, but never directly confirmed. It is much easier for Vahidi to have an incapacitated Mojtaba “giving” him written directions (wink wink, nudge nudge) than allowing a new supreme leader to be chosen and seen in public. If Mojtaba is not dead, then it would have been easy for the IRGC to get him out of the country, even in his presumed condition, and just keep running the show on their own.

Regime change would have to begin with removing Vahidi, and that is going to be no easy task, even with Iran’s economy in a death spiral. That was the entire point of the mass murder of civilians earlier this year – to scare the population into compliance with the regime. In order to convince them that the IRGC has lost, President Trump is going to have to deliver a death blow to the economy of Iran. That can happen by taking out, or taking over, Kharg Island (which handles almost all of Iran’s oil exports), seizing total control of the Strait of Hormuz (and putting Iran in a position where they don’t have the weapons to threaten anyone in the Strait itself), or decimating infrastructure. Taking Kharg Island would be the fastest way to signal that it’s all over. And this needs to be over, like yesterday. Dragging it out benefits no one.

If President Trump really wants to honor the troops that have made the ultimate sacrifice, then it’s time to end the conflict by delivering a knockout blow.

Featured image: President Donald Trump on March 5, 2026, official White House photo by Daniel Torok on the White House Flickr account, cropped, public domain