- Iran responds by attacking the US air base in Jordan with ballistic missiles.
- Kuwait and Bahrain activate air defense measures after Iranian attacks.
- Iran warns that regional infrastructure will be a target if US threats continue.
TEHRAN: The United States launched new attacks on Iran on Thursday, with bridges and transportation infrastructure among the apparent targets, as Tehran responded with attacks on America’s allies in the Gulf.
The renewed fighting over the vital Strait of Hormuz came a month after the signing of a preliminary agreement aimed at ending the conflict, which erupted in late February with massive attacks between the United States and Israel against Iran.
The US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced it was carrying out a new wave of strikes on Thursday night to “further degrade Iranian military capabilities,” the sixth consecutive night of strikes 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 to global oil and gas flows.
Three people were killed in the attack on bridges in Hormozgan province, state television reported on Telegram.
Tehran state television earlier reported two explosions in the western city of Bushehr, home to Iran’s only civilian nuclear plant, in a “continuation of US enemy aggression.”
Tehran had previously warned it would attack infrastructure across the region if US President Donald Trump followed through on his threat to attack power plants and bridges in Iran, although the White House said it remained “open to diplomacy”.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard 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 back down’
Iranian state media said the hospital was evacuated following US airstrikes in the area that Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei called “barbaric.”
Hani, a 34-year-old teacher from Ahvaz, said the attacks were “very intense,” adding: “My hands are shaking. There were at least 11, 12 explosions. My ears are exploding.”
Meanwhile, U.S. allies in the Gulf responded to the attacks: Kuwait said early Friday that its air defenses were again fighting off missile and drone attacks, and Bahrain sounded air raid sirens.
A senior Iranian military spokesman called on the United States to withdraw from the region, saying “we will never back down from 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 United States has also reimposed its blockade on 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 ships had been diverted since the blockade resumed.
Infrastructure threats
Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Tahir Andrabi said Islamabad would “continue to encourage all parties to end the violence and resume talks at a technical level” under the memorandum of understanding it helped mediate last month.
But Iran’s chief negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, warned that a deal “only has meaning when its clauses are valid and being implemented.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Thursday that Trump would hold Iran accountable for breaking its word, but said “at the same time he is always open to diplomacy.”
“They have expressed that they still want to reach an agreement 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,” he said.
Trump previously threatened to attack Iranian power plants and bridges unless Tehran returned to the negotiating table, telling Fox News: “Next week things are going to get really bad for them.”
On Thursday, the spokesman for Iran’s military headquarters said that if the United States followed through on its threats, “the entire infrastructure of the region” would be “crushed.”
Since last week, new US strikes have killed at least 30 people in Iran, government spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani said.
