US Central Command (CENTCOM) said it had completed its 11th consecutive night of strikes against Iran at 8:15 p.m. ET on Tuesday, as US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth told the Senate that the American war effort against Tehran has now cost $37.5 billion.
CENTCOM said its forces had targeted Iranian military operations centres, maritime capabilities, aircraft hangars, drone storage facilities and military logistics infrastructure, aimed at further degrading Iran's capacity to threaten commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
The command said Iran had attacked more than 30 commercial vessels transiting the waterway over the past three months, describing the attacks as unwarranted and a threat to freedom of navigation. Despite this, CENTCOM said the Strait had remained open, with its forces having facilitated the transit of approximately 900 commercial vessels and 450 million barrels of crude oil since early May.
The strikes came hours before Hegseth appeared before the Senate Appropriations Committee, where he put the total cost of the war at $37.5 billion so far — a sharp rise from the roughly $29 billion Pentagon officials had estimated in mid-May, a figure that had not accounted for damage to US bases.
The revised estimate came as the administration pressed lawmakers for $67 billion in supplemental defence funding, part of a wider $95 billion Republican package covering other White House priorities.
Hegseth's testimony, which he called an "urgent, necessary" funding request, faced repeated pushback from Senate Democrats, who questioned both the war's cost and its lack of a clear endpoint.
Senator Patty Murray warned that the conflict was "spiraling out of control again," while committee members cited unnamed sources suggesting the actual bill could run considerably higher once military construction for damaged bases is factored in.
The hearing came days after the Pentagon disclosed that three more American service members had died in the conflict, taking the death toll to 17, with more than 100 injured since early July.
The renewed exchanges came after strikes and counter-strikes between Washington and Tehran intensified through July, following the collapse of an earlier ceasefire reached in April.
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