Iran strikes back against latest US attacks
Iran struck US interests around the Middle East on Wednesday, vowing “severe” consequences for renewed American attacks on the Islamic republic.
The latest fighting over the Strait of Hormuz once again expanded to US military bases in the region and drew Washington’s Gulf allies deeper into the six-month conflict.
US President Donald Trump had warned earlier of “much harder and higher” attacks if Iran retaliated to the US strikes which Iranian state media said had killed 11 people in the country’s south and southwest.
Tehran said it launched ballistic missile attacks on two US bases in Jordan, according to Iranian media.
The Jordanian army said it intercepted 10 ballistic missiles fired from Iran, and did not confirm any injuries or hits.
Missile and drone attacks were also reported in Kuwait, where the army said they were responding to Iranian hostilities, and Agence France-Presse (AFP) reporters in Bahrain heard air raid alerts ring out early on Wednesday.
Iran’s army said it launched drone attacks targeting US forces at an air base in Bahrain, a key Washington ally in the Gulf.
In Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Wednesday that they struck US bases with missiles and drones, destroying a maintenance center, warehouses and equipment, state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reported.
The latest round of conflict began when Washington hit Iranian targets on Sunday, the first known strikes in several weeks, after which Tehran’s forces targeted US troops in Jordan and the United Arab Emirates and projectiles struck two oil tankers in unclaimed attacks.
More US strikes came on Tuesday, with Iranian state television reporting explosions in the country’s south along the Hormuz strait and on an island in the Gulf, and that US forces hit an airport in the southern province of Kerman.
‘Large and powerful’
Trump said the “large and powerful” strikes were “in retaliation for the Iranians’ failed attempt at adding sea mines to the Strait” and “the Iranians shooting eight missiles, all successfully knocked down, at our Military Base in Jordan.”
Revolutionary Guards spokesperson Hossein Mohebi warned on X that Washington “will regret its new attacks,” saying that “severe punishment awaits the aggressors.”
And Ebrahim Zolfaghari, the spokesperson for Iran’s Khatam-al Anbiya central military command, warned on Wednesday that “any country that cooperates with the aggressive American army will face more severe, more widespread and destructive responses.”
After six months of war, the foes remain at an impasse, with Iran keeping the Strait of Hormuz closed and the United States persisting with a counterblockade of Iranian ports.
Despite the diplomatic deadlock, Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian vowed on Tuesday to match any US move to return to a deal aimed at ending the war.
He also warned that a return by the United States to “a policy of pressure and threats could derail the path of diplomacy.”
