A missile in flight. PHOTO: ANADOLU AGENCY
Iran said that US strikes on its territory killed 11 people, state media reported, after a fresh attack in the southwestern province of Khuzestan, AFP reported.
“The Deputy Governor of Khuzestan Province for Security and Law Enforcement Affairs said that last night’s US missile attack on three locations in the province left seven people dead and eight injured,” Iranian state-run news agency IRNA said.
The attack follows a separate US strike on a wedding in Sirik, killing 5 people and wounding 50.
The US and Iran found themselves back in a war footing on Wednesday after the most significant exchange in weeks, with Washington threatening even more devastating strikes while Iran protested an attack that it said killed five and wounded dozens of civilians at a wedding.
The US military’s Central Command said it completed a wave of strikes against Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps targets on Tuesday, including air defence sites, radar systems, maritime assets and facilities, mine-laying capabilities, and communications sites.
Iranian media reported attacks on multiple targets around the country on Tuesday, many near the Strait of Hormuz, where Iran has been threatening oil tankers that dare transit the narrow waterway without authorisation.
Iran in turn said it struck US assets in Jordan and Iraq, according to official statements, while Iranian media reports said it also attacked Bahrain. Although the IRGC said it killed a large number of US forces in Jordan, two US officials told Reuters there had not been any casualties, according to initial assessments.
Read: Iranian state media reports ‘decisive operation’ against American bases after fresh US strikes
Jordan’s armed forces said its air defence systems dealt with 13 ballistic missiles that entered the kingdom’s airspace, 10 of which were intercepted and three fell in remote areas. Bahrain said Iranian drones were intercepted and destroyed.
The IRGC also said its ground forces carried out combined missile and drone attacks on US bases in Erbil in northern Iraq, killing several US military personnel. Neither Iraq nor the US had confirmed the attack.
The exchange of fire marked the first serious combat since July, ending a period in which the warring parties withheld fire but also showed little interest in returning to negotiations.
The lull came as the conflict appeared to be draining both sides. Iran’s already ailing economy has been battered by war and its conventional military forces have been degraded. Meanwhile, with US President Donald Trump confronting higher fuel prices ahead of November congressional elections, the US Army has used up much of its global stockpile of highly accurate long-range missiles, Reuters reported last month, raising concerns about the military’s readiness for future conflicts.
Nonetheless, the renewal of hostilities produced another exchange of defiant statements.
“I like our position now much better, with almost total control of the Hormuz Strait, and their economy totally collapsing,” Trump said. “They are just playing out the inevitable. When are the Iranian people going to rise up and fight?”
Iran warned the US and its allies.
“We warn that the continuation of American evil in the region will be met with heavier, more widespread, and devastating responses, and any country that cooperates with the aggressive American army must accept its dangerous consequences,” Iran’s joint military command said in a statement.
Five killed at wedding
In one of the more significant cases of civilian casualties in the war, five people were killed and 50 wounded at a wedding near Sirik, a coastal area on the Strait of Hormuz, the Iranian Red Crescent reported. The Mehr news agency said a 4-year-old child was among those killed, while the IRNA news agency, citing a provincial official, put the number of wounded at 68.
US officials have yet to comment on the incident.
“This cruelty cannot be separated from the chain of atrocities that preceded it,” Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson said in a statement, citing incidents including the blast at a school in Minab that killed 160 people, mostly children, at a girls’ school on the first day of the war.
The Pentagon has yet to issue an official finding on the Minab strike, but it may have been the result of US use of outdated targeting data, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
The foreign ministry statement pledged that Iran would respond to “these savage crimes with firmness.”
“Those governments and international institutions that remain silent in the face of such barbarism, or seek to justify such acts, must understand that their silence is not neutrality,” Iran said. “Those who remain silent today will not be immune to its consequences tomorrow.”
US strikes 2 Iranian government tankers amid wider attacks: Axios
The US military struck two Iranian government tankers late on Tuesday as part of a broader wave of attacks targeting Iran, according to US officials cited by the Axios news website.
The strikes marked the first time the US has targeted Iranian tankers in retaliation for attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz, rather than to prevent violations of a US naval blockade, Axios said.
A US official said the operation was part of a new “tanker for tanker” policy approved by President Donald Trump to deter Iranian attacks on tankers transiting the strategic waterway.
US officials said about 100 targets were struck Tuesday, including Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) air defence sites, radar systems, mine-laying capabilities, communications facilities, anti-ship cruise missile launchers and attack drone launchers.
The two Iranian tankers were anchored off Iran’s coast north of the US naval blockade line. US drones fired missiles that struck their engine rooms, said officials.
Iran responded by launching about 25 ballistic missiles, but US officials said only half reached Jordanian airspace. Ten were intercepted, while three landed without causing casualties.
Iran also launched about two dozen drones at US bases in Bahrain, most of which were intercepted. Ballistic missiles and drones were also fired at US bases in Kuwait, while two drones targeting a US base in Erbil in Iraq were intercepted.
The White House and the US military’s Central Command said the strikes were conducted in response to recent attempted IRGC attacks on commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz and attacks on US bases in the region.
Axios reported that the strikes were also part of a broader plan under consideration by Trump and his senior aides to prevent Iran from rebuilding radar and missile capabilities needed to threaten shipping in the strait.
A US official told Axios that the strikes degraded Iran’s capabilities and “bought at least a month” of lower threat levels for commercial ships.
Despite the exchanges of fire, US forces continued guiding vessels through the waterway. About 40 ships carrying millions of barrels of oil transited the waterway Tuesday, according to a US official.
Iranian media reported that a US strike hit a wedding ceremony in Kuhestak, killing at least four people and wounding dozens.
CENTCOM spokesman Capt. Tim Hawkins said, “We’re aware of the reports, which originated from Iranian state media. The U.S. military never targets civilians, unlike the IRGC.”
A US official added that “the Iranians have not only lost control of the Strait of Hormuz, they have also lost control over the conflict. They got nothing today.”
7 killed, 8 injured in US strikes on Iran’s Khuzestan province
Seven people were killed and eight others injured in missile strikes by the US on Iran last Tuesday in the southern Khuzestan province, according to reports.
Khuzestan Deputy Governor Valiollah Hayati told Iran’s official news agency IRNA that the casualties were caused by missile strikes on three locations in the province.
The Iranian official said the strikes targeted areas around the cities of Ahvaz and Aghajari in Khuzestan.
The US military’s Central Command announced that it had launched attacks against targets belonging to Iran’s IRGC.
Following that announcement, Iranian media reported that explosions were heard on Qeshm Island and in Bandar Abbas, Sirik, Chabahar, and Konarak.
