US strikes Iran as Tehran targets Gulf bases

The United States expanded its strikes across Iran overnight as Tehran launched fresh attacks on US military assets in neighboring Gulf states, escalating renewed hostilities that have strained a preliminary deal to end the war.

US Central Command said early Thursday that American forces hit Iranian command centers, air defense sites, missile and drone capabilities and coastal surveillance facilities in an effort to “further degrade Iran’s ability to threaten innocent mariners” in the Strait of Hormuz. The BBC reported that the US military described the operation as a six-hour wave of strikes across multiple locations.

The targets included the port city of Bandar Abbas and Greater Tunb Island, a small island near the Strait of Hormuz that is believed to hold a naval base and is seen as strategically located along shipping routes. CENTCOM said an earlier wave of strikes late Wednesday hit coastal defense and cruise missile sites on Greater Tunb Island in a 90-minute bombing campaign.

Iranian media reported attacks in Bandar Abbas, Qeshm Island, Sirik, Chabahar, Konarak, Rask, Khondab, Khorramabad and Semnan. Air defenses were activated in Tehran and nearby Pakdasht and Parchin, and Iran’s military said an MQ-9 drone was downed over Andimeshk. Al Jazeera reported that a hospital in Ahvaz was forced to evacuate 211 patients after reportedly being hit in the strikes.

At least 35 people have been killed and more than 300 wounded in the latest wave of attacks, which began last Wednesday after CENTCOM launched strikes on Iranian port cities near the Strait of Hormuz, according to Al Jazeera. The US says those attacks were retaliation for Iran hitting three commercial ships in the Strait.

Iran’s military said it struck US assets in Kuwait, Bahrain and Jordan. It said it targeted radar systems, a Patriot defense system and fuel tanks at the Ali Al Salem airbase in Kuwait, as well as US communications systems and fuel depots at Jordan’s al-Azraq airbase. It also said drones targeted US Super Hawk radars and Patriot defense systems at Bahrain’s Sheikh Isa airbase.

Kuwait’s military said it intercepted drone attacks, while Bahrain’s interior ministry urged citizens to remain calm and go to the nearest safe place, the BBC reported. Jordan said it intercepted eight Iranian missiles Thursday. Iraqi authorities said five drones attacked Erbil, with two crashing near a US base and one shot down near the US consulate; Iran’s military has not claimed those attacks.

The conflict has also focused on the Strait of Hormuz. The BBC reported that the waterway remains closed after Tehran effectively blocked it in response to US-Israeli strikes. On Tuesday, the US said it had resumed a blockade on Iranian ports that had been lifted under a memorandum of understanding reached last month. CENTCOM said Wednesday it disabled an unladen, Curacao-flagged oil tanker attempting to sail toward a blockaded Iranian port; Al Jazeera reported the tanker was headed toward Iran’s Kharg Island and was hit with Hellfire missiles.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps warned that the US should “expect the closure of other oil and gas export routes that serve the interests of the United States and its allies.” In a separate statement cited by Al Jazeera, the IRGC said: “The export of oil and gas from the region will be either for everyone or for no one.”

Iran’s parliament speaker and lead negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, told state media Tehran had “no reason” to abide by any agreement that did not benefit the country. Al Jazeera reported that he said Iran was prepared for a fuller military confrontation if the US did not live up to the interim deal and described the fighting as “existential.”

President Donald Trump said Wednesday that Iran wanted to settle the conflict, though he gave no details. “They don’t like what we’re doing, and they do want to settle. We’ll find out whether or not we settle with them, or we just finish it off,” he said at the US Army War College in Pennsylvania. He had warned Tuesday that Iran’s energy infrastructure could be targeted if Tehran did not return to talks. Vice President JD Vance defended the war in an interview with podcaster Joe Rogan but said an agreement was needed to end the conflict.