Harry SekulichAnd
Toby Mann
Bahrain Ministry of Interior/X
The United States and Iran exchanged strikes across the Middle East for the second day in a row, further straining the fragile ceasefire agreed between the two countries in April.
The US Central Command (Centcom) said it carried out a wave of “self-defense strikes” targeting military, surveillance and radar sites in southern Iran.
It came hours after President Donald Trump vowed that U.S. forces would hit Iran “hard” and said Tehran had taken “too long to reach a deal” to permanently end the war.
Tehran responded to the attack with a series of strikes targeting US military assets across the region, with bases in Bahrain and Kuwait coming under Iranian fire for the second day in a row.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) also said it fired ballistic missiles at a US command center in Jordan, state media reported.
He said he destroyed “a large number” of US fighter jets and “facilities” after firing 12 ballistic missiles at Muwaffaq Salti airbase in Jordan.
Jordanian state media reported that 20 missiles were intercepted and shot down by the country’s air defense systems and air force, citing an unnamed military official.
The missiles were fired towards Azraq, in central Jordan, he added, “without causing human casualties or material damage”.
Bahrain’s interior ministry said its air raid sirens had been activated and shrapnel from intercepted Iranian drones had damaged homes and vehicles in the capital Manama and the town of Hamad.
An 11-year-old girl was treated for a “minor injury,” the ministry said, calling the Iranian strikes a “sin.”
Meanwhile, the Kuwaiti military posted on X that its air defense systems had intercepted “hostile air targets.”
Kuwait said it had temporarily closed its airspace due to the Iranian attacks, before reopening it early Thursday.
In Iran, state media reported explosions around Tehran, the port city of Bandar Abbas and other southern areas near the Strait of Hormuz.
Separately, the IRGC said it hit two oil tankers passing through the crucial shipping channel shortly after state media reported it was “completely closed to any type of vessel” – although there was no immediate confirmation of a strike.
Centcom, however, said that “commercial vessels continue to transit in and out of the Strait of Hormuz.”
Oil prices rose shortly after the shipping channel closed and news of the apparent attack on the ships broke.
Brent crude oil, considered the global benchmark, climbed to around $95 a barrel after rising about 2%.
Hours before the United States launched its latest attack, Trump warned: “We hit them hard yesterday and we’re going to hit them hard again today.” »
Trump wrote on Truth Social that Iranian leaders had “taken too long to negotiate a deal.”
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Iran had a chance to make a deal but did not take it, adding that bombs would be “dropped on key facilities” in the country.
The US president added that Iran would be attacked again if no peace deal was reached.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Iran would “remain firm in the face of any pressure or threat.” Iran’s Foreign Ministry previously accused the United States of “harming the diplomatic process through the contradictory messages it sends.”
In April, the United States and Iran agreed to a ceasefire that was initially expected to last two weeks. The two camps have since exchanged intermittent fire, but without resuming large-scale hostilities.
However, recent efforts to broker negotiations between Washington and Tehran have stalled and attacks are increasing.
In a statement on
“We must not downplay the risks of minor shootings escalating into mass shootings. All parties must work toward a diplomatic settlement. No more attacks. No more excuses,” he said in a statement.
