For residents in the southern Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas, the second night of US strikes brought terror. “Right now there’s calm, but last night and the night before were terrifying. It was around 1am or so that I heard back-to-back explosions – at least 10,” said Noor, a teacher who lives near the fishing pier and asked to use a pseudonym. “My biggest fear is for the fishermen. I live very close to the pier, and I know there were so many boats there.”
The fresh US attacks, confirmed by US Central Command, hit 90 military targets across Iran, some near the Strait of Hormuz, to “further degrade their ability to threaten freedom of navigation” there. State media reported strikes near the Bushehr nuclear power plant, though the US has not commented on those. The Iranian health ministry said 14 people had been killed since Tuesday, with 78 injured and 47 still in hospital.
“US strikes kill 14 in Iran as residents describe terror of back-to-back explosions in second night of attacks.”
In retaliation, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) launched strikes on US military bases in Kuwait and Bahrain, calling them the “first ph…” of a broader response. State-linked media later reported Tehran launched further attacks on sites in Kuwait, Jordan and Iraq. Gulf nations confirmed Iranian attacks: explosions in Bahrain’s capital Manama, Kuwait intercepting missiles and drones, and Qatar issuing a security alert.
The strikes hit Sirik, another port city 180km from Bandar Abbas. For villagers there, the attacks compounded existing hardship. Two water storage facilities were hit, affecting more than 20,000 civilians. “We have been rationing water and paying for water cans for daily chores,” said Mina, 41, a mother of two, who said temperatures above 45C made the shortages unbearable.
Meanwhile, huge crowds gathered in Mashhad for the burial of Iran’s late supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, killed on 28 February during the first hours of US and Israeli strikes. Some protesters carried signs with death threats against US President Donald Trump. Iran’s foreign ministry denounced the latest US strikes as a “grave war crime”, describing the US administration as “evil and psychopathic”. Bridges and the railway connecting Tehran to Mashhad were also damaged.
Later on Thursday, explosions were heard in the southern port of Konarak, with a local official telling Iran’s official news agency that a navy site was attacked by an “enemy”. However, a US defence official told the BBC it had not carried out any strikes in Iran in recent hours, leaving the source of that attack unclear.