- Iran responds by attacking the American air base in Jordan with ballistic missiles.
- Kuwait and Bahrain activate air defense measures after Iranian attacks.
- Iran warns that regional infrastructure will be targeted if US threats continue.
TEHRAN: The United States launched fresh attacks on Iran on Thursday, with bridges and transport infrastructure among the apparent targets, as Tehran responded with attacks on US allies in the Gulf.
The renewed fighting over the vital Strait of Hormuz came a month after the signing of an interim agreement aimed at ending the conflict, which erupted in late February with massive US-Israeli attacks on Iran.
The US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced it was launching a new wave of strikes on Thursday night to “further degrade Iranian military capabilities” – the sixth straight night of attacks by US forces.
Iranian state media reported attacks on two bridges, a railway station and an airport in the southern part of the Islamic republic, near the strategic strait crucial for global oil and gas flows.
Three people were killed in the attack on the bridges in Hormozgan province, state television reported on Telegram.
State television in Tehran earlier reported two explosions in the western city of Bushehr – home to Iran’s only civilian nuclear power plant – in a “continuation of the aggression of the US enemy”.
Tehran had previously warned it would target infrastructure across the region if US President Donald Trump followed through on a threat to attack power plants and bridges in Iran – although the White House said he remained “open to diplomacy”.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Thursday they attacked a US air base in Jordan with ballistic missiles in response to what they described as a US attack near a children’s cancer hospital near Ahvaz in the southwest.
‘Never use back’
Iranian state media said the hospital was evacuated after US airstrikes on the area, which Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei called “barbaric”.
Hani, a 34-year-old teacher from Ahvaz, said the strikes were “very intense,” adding: “My hands are shaking. There were at least 11, 12 explosions. My ears are exploding.”
US allies in the Gulf, meanwhile, responded to the attacks, with Kuwait early Friday saying its air defenses were again fighting missile and drone strikes and Bahrain sounding air raid sirens.
A senior Iranian military spokesman called on the US to pull out of the region, saying “we will never back down across the Strait of Hormuz”, state television reported.
The Strait of Hormuz was briefly reopened after the US-Iran deal in June, but Tehran said last week it would be closed again “until the US ends its aggression”.
The US has also reimposed its blockade of Iran’s ports.
On Thursday, the US military said forces had boarded a ship in the Gulf of Oman to “ensure full compliance”, adding that three vessels had been diverted since the blockade was resumed.
Threats to infrastructure
Pakistan’s foreign ministry spokesman Tahir Andrabi said Islamabad would “continue to encourage all sides to stop the violence and resume technical-level talks” under the memorandum of understanding it helped broker last month.
But Iran’s top negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf has warned that a deal “only makes sense when its clauses are valid and being implemented”.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Thursday that Trump would hold Iran “accountable” for going back on its word, but said “he’s always open to diplomacy at the same time.”
“They have expressed that they still want to make a deal with the president. We are talking to them, but again, the president will not allow them to shoot at ships in the strait without paying a consequence for it,” she said.
Trump has previously threatened to hit Iranian power plants and bridges unless Tehran returned to the negotiating table, telling Fox News: “Next week it’s going to be really bad for them.”
On Thursday, the spokesman for Iran’s military headquarters said that if the US followed through on its threats, “all infrastructure in the region” would be “shattered”.
Since last week, renewed US strikes have killed at least 30 people in Iran, government spokesman Fatemeh Mohajerani said.
