Iran attacked US military bases across the Middle East in the early hours of Tuesday after a new wave of American strikes on Iran, the second such bombardment in the space of several days.
“US forces struck Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps targets,” including “air defence facilities, radar systems, naval assets and facilities, mine-laying capabilities and communications facilities”, US Central Command (CENTCOM) said on X as it announced the end of the latest bombing campaign.
Iran said it had carried out a “decisive retaliatory operation”, targeting US “bases and interests” in the region with missiles and attack drones, according to the state-affiliated Tasnim news agency.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps later said it had attacked American bases in Jordan, Iraq and Bahrain.
“If Tehran retaliates against this completely justified attack, it will be hit again, much harder and stronger,” US President Donald Trump warned on Truth Social.
Jordan intercepts Iranian ballistic missiles
Jordan’s armed forces said they had destroyed 10 ballistic missiles launched from Iran, while another three fell in remote, uninhabited areas. No injuries were reported.
Kuwait also said it had been targeted by missiles and drones, while warning sirens sounded in Bahrain early in the morning, according to AFP correspondents.
Ebrahim Zolfaghari, a spokesman for Iran’s central military command, promised “greater and more destructive retaliation” if the American attacks continued, while warning “every country cooperating with the aggressor US military”.
The latest US strikes on Iran have again raised the risk of a broader regional confrontation, with Tehran directing its response at American military positions and allies across the Middle East.
Four killed in southern Iran
According to the Iranian Red Crescent, four people, including a child, were killed and more than 50 others injured in a US missile strike in southern Iran.
The American bombardment began only hours after Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian proposed a return to diplomacy, despite negotiations having remained in complete deadlock for some time.
He said that if the US honoured commitments made under the so-called Islamabad memorandum of understanding, signed in mid-June before collapsing several weeks later, “the Islamic Republic will immediately take reciprocal measures”.
Iranian state television reported numerous explosions in the south of the country near Bandar Abbas and Qeshm Island in the Gulf, where one of Iran’s key oil export terminals is located.
Iranian state media also reported that an airport in the southern province of Kerman had been targeted.
Oil and gas prices jump
The latest American strikes came after two very large oil tankers were hit by “projectiles of unknown origin” while passing through the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz, according to Greek maritime risk management company MARISKS.
Energy prices jumped following the renewed hostilities.
US benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude rose above the symbolic $90-a-barrel mark for the first time since late July, while European gas prices reached a three-year high.
The escalation came after the US struck Iran again following roughly a month of relative calm, with Tehran answering through attacks on American facilities in Jordan and the United Arab Emirates.
Strait of Hormuz remains central to tensions
Iran wants to introduce charges for services provided to ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz, where navigation had been free before the war began.
The Trump administration, meanwhile, has promised a campaign aimed at economically “suffocating” Iran through sanctions, although the precise form of the measures has yet to be clarified.
Iranian authorities called on the public on Monday to reduce fuel consumption, particularly petrol, as Tehran faces difficulties with imports due to a US Navy blockade of Iranian ports in the Gulf.
With the US carrying out strikes against Iran and Tehran retaliating across the region, the Strait of Hormuz remains at the centre of the confrontation because of its importance to global energy supplies and regional security.
USS Abraham Lincoln arrives in Thailand
Thousands of kilometres away, the US aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln arrived in Thailand on Tuesday morning after spending more than nine months at sea, AFP journalists reported.
The carrier had initially been deployed in the South China Sea before being ordered to sail to the Middle East at the beginning of the war in late February.
The serious deterioration in living conditions for members of its crew has recently triggered heated debate in the United States.
Also read: Two Turkish commercial ships collide off Istanbul
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