Explosions were heard across Iran overnight, shortly after neighbouring Gulf states began to report attacks – the latest salvo in a sixth day of renewed hostilities that have shattered a fragile interim ceasefire.
Tehran said it had struck US military targets in Jordan, Kuwait and Bahrain, while Washington continued to pound Iranian sites. The US military said it inflicted a six-hour wave of strikes in multiple locations to “degrade Iran’s ability to threaten innocent mariners” in the Strait of Hormuz.
“Iran strikes US bases in Gulf states as US launches new wave of strikes, Strait of Hormuz remains closed.”
The exchanges came after President Donald Trump warned Iran it had “better behave” or face further military action should it not return to negotiations. On Tuesday, Trump threatened to target Iran’s energy infrastructure if talks failed.
Iran’s top negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, told state media Tehran had “no reason” to abide by any agreement that did not benefit the country. He added that Iran’s national security depended on maintaining what he described as “Iranian arrangements” in the Strait of Hormuz.
In the latest attacks, the US targeted command centres, air defence sites and coastal surveillance facilities across Iran – including in the port city of Bandar Abbas and Greater Tunb Island – US Central Command (Centcom) said. Explosions were heard across Iran and air defences were triggered in Tehran, Iranian state media reported.
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, Esmaeil Baqaei, said a children’s cancer treatment centre in the western city of Ahvaz had been evacuated after strikes on a nearby location.
Shortly after, US allies in the Gulf reported attacks. Kuwait’s military said it intercepted drone attacks, while Bahrain’s interior ministry told citizens to remain calm and head to the nearest safe place. The Iranian military said it targeted US communication systems and fuel storage facilities in Jordan.
On Wednesday, Centcom said it had “completed a morning round of strikes against Iran at 7:30 a.m. ET”, launching precision munitions against coastal defence systems and cruise missile storage and launch sites on Greater Tunb Island during a 90-minute wave. The strikes followed seven hours of attacks on Tuesday. Iran’s Mehr news agency reported US projectiles had hit a location on Iran’s Hengam Island in the Strait of Hormuz.
The Strait of Hormuz – a critical waterway off Iran’s coast that Tehran effectively blocked in response to US-Israeli strikes – remains closed. On Tuesday, the US said it had resumed a blockade on Iranian ports, which was previously lifted as part of a memorandum of understanding struck last month. The following day, the US fired on and disabled an unladen, Curacao-flagged oil tanker that Centcom said was attempting to sail toward a blockaded Iranian port.
In response, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps warned the US that it should “expect the closure of other oil and gas export routes that serve the interests of the United States and its allies”.
The interim ceasefire deal signed last month was meant to lead to further negotiations, including on Iran’s nuclear programme, and to a permanent truce, but a return to talks has faltered. “We have no plans for negotiations at the moment and are focused on defence,” Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei told the Tasnim news agency. He said the interim ceasefire was a set of mutual obligations, and as long as the US breached its commitments, Iran would refrain from fulfilling its own.
The war, which began with US and Israeli strikes against Iran on 28 February, has triggered Iranian attacks on Gulf states that host US bases and caused major disruption to global energy supplies, with the Strait of Hormuz – which carried about a fifth of global oil and gas shipments before the war – still closed.