Iran says it hits US military targets in Gulf

Iranian armed forces launched attacks on US military infrastructure in Gulf states on Thursday following US strikes on Iran’s southern coastal and eastern provinces, further eroding a ‌three-week-old ceasefire.

Iranian media later reported multiple explosions across southern Iran, including Bushehr, where one of the country’s nuclear plants is located, along with Konarak, Choghadak and Bandar Abbas.

A US official said there had been no American strikes in recent hours.

The attacks came as Iran buried its slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at a shrine in Mashhad, capping a week of funeral processions and rallies.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Navy said the US attacks and intervention in redirecting shipping through the Strait of Hormuz were disrupting the waterway’s reopening.

The Guards said the number of vessels transiting the strait under Iranian supervision had recovered to about 50% of pre-war levels over the past two weeks, adding that permission was being granted only to ships using routes designated by Tehran.

Any further US intervention will draw a “crushing response”, the Guards said.

The US military said its strikes were aimed at keeping the strait open after it accused Iranian forces of attacking three tankers in the area.

The military said on Thursday the United States had helped facilitate the transit of more than 800 commercial vessels and 380 million barrels of crude oil through the strait since early May and that Iran does not control the waterway.

TARGETING US BASES IN GULF STATES AND JORDAN

US Central Command said on Wednesday its forces had struck approximately 90 Iranian military targets, including air defence systems, coastal surveillance assets, and missile and drone storage ‌sites.

“This is ⁠in retribution for yesterday’s bombing of ships by Iran. If it happens again, it will get much worse!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

The US attacks had killed 14 people and injured 78 across five provinces on July 8 and 9, Iranian state media reported. The Fars news agency said one US strike had hit a rail bridge used for trade with Russia and China.

Bushehr is home to a Russian-built nuclear power plant and a local official later told state media that a US projectile had hit the perimeter area of the facility. The perimeter had already been hit several times before an April 8 ceasefire.

Iran’s army said in a statement released by state media that it had launched attacks on U.S. ⁠Patriot systems in Kuwait, an early-warning site in Qatar and a US Army fuel depot in Bahrain.

Kuwait said its armed forces had engaged a cruise missile, three ballistic missiles and 10 drones in its airspace, and that one person had been injured by falling shrapnel.

Sirens also sounded in Jordan after missiles launched from Iran were detected, the state news agency reported. Eight were intercepted, with no injuries or damage reported.

The Revolutionary Guards later said Iran had fired 10 ballistic missiles at Jordan’s ⁠Azraq military base, used by U.S. forces, and also at a U.S. military control center in the Middle East, without elaborating.