The United States launched new airstrikes against Iran early Thursday, and Tehran responded by targeting US-allied countries in the Mideast in exchange of fire that threatened a temporary deal aimed at helping end the conflict in the Middle East.
The back-and-forth attacks, including the previous day, have also threatened a ceasefire, but Thursday’s seemed bigger all around, with sirens going off at least three times in Bahrain, home to the US Navy’s 5th Fleet headquarters, and missiles aimed at Kuwait and Qatar.
Sirens sounded Thursday afternoon in Jordan, where the US has deployed troops and aircraft.
An Iranian official accused the US of launching an airstrike late on Thursday that targeted an area near Iran’s nuclear power plant, and another explosion was reported elsewhere in the country in the afternoon.
The strikes came hours after US President Donald Trump said Iran’s latest attack on ships in the Strait of Hormuz signaled the end of a fragile ceasefire and threatened to escalate the conflict if they did not stop. That raises concerns that the region could return to a war that would devastate several countries and could halt electricity exports with significant difficulty for the global economy.
In Iran, two days of US airstrikes have killed at least 14 people and wounded 78 others, Iran’s Health Ministry said on Thursday – most of them reportedly members of the army.
In Kuwait, the military said falling debris injured one person when it fired three missiles, a cruise missile and 10 drones. Bahrain said it fired incoming fire, without elaborating.
There was no immediate damage in Qatar, and Jordanian government spokesman Mohammad al-Momani said all fires from Iran had been contained.
Related Videos
The US strikes have achieved many goals
The U.S. military’s Central Command said it hit about 90 targets across Iran, releasing black-and-white photos of what appeared to be runway strikes and missile strikes.
The US said the strikes were aimed at “degrading” Iran’s ability to “threaten freedom of movement” on the route, through which a fifth of the country’s oil and natural gas exports passed before the war began with the US and Israeli strikes on February 28.
Get the latest country news
Get the best Canadian news delivered to your inbox as it happens so you never miss a trending story.
The attacks on ships – and the threat of them – have almost stopped traffic on the waterway during the conflict, sending the price of oil soaring and raising the prices of many basic goods, including food, far from the region.
Iranian state media reported explosions in several locations, including Bushehr, home to Iran’s largest nuclear power plant, and southern port cities.
In Iran’s southwestern Khuzestan province, at least three people died on Thursday, state media reported. In Iranshahr, authorities said a strike killed a firefighter at the airport. The attacks followed the deaths of at least nine members of Iran’s military in Wednesday’s strikes, according to state media. It was not immediately clear when the other deaths occurred and who was killed.
For the first time since April, US strikes also appeared to target Iranian bridges. State media reported a strike on a railway bridge in Iran’s northeastern province of Golestan, while the Revolutionary Guard said two bridges were attacked on the route to Mashhad, where officials plan to bury the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Thursday.
Meanwhile on Thursday, the state-run IRNA news agency quoted Ehsan Jahanian, a local official in Bushehr, as accusing the US of a strike near Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant. He said the strike took place in the middle of the day, hours later the US military’s Central Command said it had ended its strike in Iran. Central Command did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
During the war in Iran, many strikes hit the area around this plant, managed by Russian experts, but did not damage the plant itself.
Trump warns that ‘it will be very bad’ if attacks on ships happen again
After leaving the NATO summit in Turkey, Trump posted several videos on his social media showing that the bombing in Iran and issued a warning to the Islamic Republic.
“This is retaliation for Iran’s bombing of ships yesterday. If it happens again, it will be worse!” Trump wrote.
Trump said earlier in the day that recent fighting and backlash would not lead to “long-term” military action.
“Whatever happens will happen very quickly,” Trump said.
Trump also renewed his previous threats to strike Iranian infrastructure, including power and desalination plants, and to seize Kharg Island, through which 90 percent of Iran’s oil exports pass.
The firefight began after Iran attacked three tankers in the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday.
The new attack, despite the cease-fire, could signal a split within Iran’s leadership. The hard-liners want to ensure permanent control over the waterway, which is an important global oil transportation route and has become a key missile in confrontation with the West. Pragmatists want a lasting peace deal to lift international sanctions and provide much-needed economic relief.
The Speaker of the Parliament Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, who is an important mediator in the negotiations to end the war once and for all, scorned in an article on X on Thursday morning: “America still has not learned that bullying and breaking promises are no longer paid. Let me make it clear: If you strike, you will be beaten.”
The strikes are raising fears that the war may start again
Trump fueled concerns that the war could resume by saying on Wednesday that a temporary ceasefire was “finished.” He added that he would allow the talks to continue, although he doubted the outcome.
“They can talk, but I think they are wasting their time,” he said.
Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Kazem Gharibabadi, who is also a senior negotiator, responded with X saying that Trump’s words “are not a sign of strength but an acknowledgment of the failure” of US policy towards Iran.
Negotiations to reach a final agreement were supposed to begin after the funeral of Khamenei, who was killed in the early stages of the war. The funeral, which ends on Thursday, was supposed to be a tense time.
The talks are designed to focus on more pressing issues, including fully reopening the strait and rolling back Tehran’s controversial nuclear program.
