The United States launched fresh attacks against Iran on Thursday, prompting Tehran to retaliate, as US leaders accused their counterparts of dragging out negotiations for a deal to end the three-month war.
The second straight day of tit-for-tat strikes, with Iran targeting US bases across the Gulf, sent oil prices rising again.
US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that “Iran keeps playing us for suckers and will now have to pay the price", despite having repeatedly stated that negotiations with Tehran were close to an end.
Hours later, US Central Command (CENTCOM) said, “American forces began 'additional self-defence strikes' at 5:15 pm on Wednesday Washington time, early Thursday in Iran, in response to what it called Tehran’s unwarranted and continued aggression.
Iranian media reported explosions across the south near the Strait of Hormuz, with explosions heard in Bandar Abbas, Qeshm and Minab, and sources reporting hits by ‘enemy projectiles’ in Kargan and Sirik.
CENTCOM said later that it had completed its strikes on Iranian military surveillance capabilities, communication systems, and air defence sites.
“American forces fired precision munitions on Iranian targets that posed a threat to US forces and international commercial ships transiting regional waters," the command said.
The renewed hostilities came as Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said that if Trump required it, we would negotiate with bombs, and we are excellent at it.
In response to the US strikes, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps stated that they had struck US targets at bases in Kuwait and Bahrain and that they also hit and destroyed the ‘Sheikh Isa air base', according to the state-run IRNA news agency.
Iranian media reported, “the army had conducted drone strikes targeting communications antennas and radar facilities belonging to the US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain.”
“An air raid alert was issued in Bahrain, and residents were urged to head to the nearest safe place,” the Gulf nation’s interior ministry said on X.
Kuwait closed its airspace temporarily as its military said that its air defence systems were working to intercept ‘hostile aerial targets'.
Iran also renewed its warning over the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway for oil and gas transport that it has essentially closed.
“Are you making the sacred Strait of Hormuz unsafe? We will make the regiona nightmarel for you,” Majid Mousavi, the head of the Iranian Guards’ aerospace force, said in a social media post.
The Iranian navy said that it had hit two ships trying to sail through the Strait of Hormuz, state television IRIB and the Mehr agency reported.
Another Iranian news agency, Tasnim, quoted the country’s military operational command as saying the crucial waterway was completely closed and that ‘any vessel traffic’ there would be targeted.
CENTCOM denied that, saying, “commercial ships are continuing to transit in and out of the Strait of Hormuz tonight."
Trump said on Wednesday that the US military had secretly helped 100 million barrels of oil pass through the contested strait.
Earlier, American broadcaster Fox News reported that Trump said Iranian leaders had called him directly in the White House Situation Room as the US bombs began falling.
