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Iran claims drone strikes on bases in Bahrain and Kuwait, as US strikes Qeshm Island and ports along the Strait of Hormuz.
The United States has launched fresh strikes on “multiple targets” in Iran on President Donald Trump’s orders, with Tehran retaliating with attacks on US bases in Bahrain and Kuwait and two vessels in the Strait of Hormuz.
The US military said the strikes late on Wednesday were “in response to Iran’s unwarranted and continued aggression”.
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Iranian state media reported explosions on Qeshm Island and in the cities of Bandar Abbas and Sirik along the Strait of Hormuz.
Blasts also hit the southern city of Kargan, wounding at least two people.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) accused the US of “repeated violations” of their April ceasefire, and said the Strait of Hormuz was “closed until further notice”.
It said all traffic in the vital waterway, including oil tankers and commercial vessels, would be affected, and flatly rejected Trump’s previous claims that the US military had helped ships pass through the strait.
The IRGC added that “two oil tankers attempting to illegally pass through the strait were hit”, and claimed drone strikes on Bahrain’s Sheikh Isa Air Base and Kuwait’s Ali Al Salem Air Base and the Ahmad Al-Jaber Air Base.
The escalation comes a day after the two sides exchanged tit-for-tat strikes over the downing of a US Apache helicopter in the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran said it targeted the US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain, the Ali Al Salem airbase in Kuwait, as well as an airbase in Azraq, Jordan, while the US bombed Qeshm Island as well as the ports of Sirik, Jask and Bandar Abbas.
Speaking to reporters at the White House on Wednesday, Trump accusing Iran of stalling negotiations for a peace deal and threatened to hit the country “very hard”.
“We’ll see what happens with the deal. We were really close to a deal. But they keep tapping us along. They keep playing us for suckers,” he said.
Earlier in the day, the US president wrote on his Truth Social platform that Iran had taken too long to negotiate a peace deal and “now they will have to pay the price”.
In a subsequent interview with Fox News, he also threatened to strike power plants and bridges in Iran if it was unwilling to sign an agreement.
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian hit back in a post on X.
“Critical infrastructures are the lifeblood of the people. Threats to target them – from transportation networks to the electricity and water industries – are not a show of strength but a sign of desperation in the face of a nation’s will,” he wrote.
“Iran, relying on the knowledge and capabilities of its specialists, national unity, and solidarity, will stand firm against any pressure or threat,” he added.
The US-Iran escalation comes days after Israel and Iran also traded fire in their most serious clash since the April ceasefire. That truce had ended weeks of devastating US-Israeli strikes on Iran and Iranian retaliatory attacks across the Gulf.
Progress toward a peace deal remains slow, however.
The two sides are engaged in indirect talks aimed at securing an interim agreement that would halt hostilities while deferring Iran’s nuclear programme to future negotiations.
But sticking points remain, with Iran demanding the release of frozen assets and relief from sanctions. Complicating matters further is Israel’s intensifying campaign in Lebanon against Iranian-backed Hezbollah.
Iran maintains that any peace deal with Washington must include an end to fighting in Lebanon, while Israel insists its campaign there is a separate conflict.
English (US) ·