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Wedding strike and missile response
The United States and Iran exchanged new attacks in what the Al Jazeera report described as the biggest round in more than a month, with the U.S. Central Command saying it struck dozens of military targets along Iran’s southern coast.
“Iran said that the US bombing of a house during a wedding celebration in the city of Kuhestak has killed at least four people.”
Iran said the U.S. bombing of a house during a wedding celebration in the city of Kuhestak killed at least four people, while Esmaeil Baghaei, the spokesman for Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said more than 68 people, including women and children, were wounded.
The Al Jazeera report also said the province of Khuzestan saw two locations near Ahvaz and Aghajari hit in missile attacks, with seven people killed at three locations and eight others injured, and that at least 18 people were killed across Iran in total.
Iran responded by firing ballistic missiles towards Jordan, Bahrain, Kuwait and Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region, and Iran’s military said it launched attacks on U.S. bases and assets in Jordan, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Iraq’s Erbil.
In Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Tehran will reciprocate if the U.S. returns to the terms of the June Memorandum of Understanding that halted the military hostilities, which the report said expired on August 17.
Kheibar Shekan and competing claims
As the conflict entered a new phase after a lull in fighting for a month, Al Jazeera explained that Iran’s Kheibar Shekan missile—meaning Castle Breaker—has been used in strikes on U.S. military targets and infrastructure in the Middle East this week.
The report said the medium-range ballistic missile has a range of roughly 1,450km (901 miles) and a payload range of 449kg to 590kg, and it described solid-fuel propulsion as allowing it to be launched within minutes during a crisis.
Al Jazeera also tied the missile to recent retaliation, saying state broadcaster IRIB reported Iranian forces deployed the missile in retaliatory attacks on US assets in Jordan this week.
In the same reporting cycle, the Al Jazeera account of the broader exchange of attacks said Tehran accused the U.S. of hitting a wedding party, killing at least four people, while the U.S. military said it bombed targets belonging to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, including air-defense and radar systems.
The Al Jazeera report quoted Captain Tim Hawkins, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, saying, “The U.S. military never targets civilians, unlike the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.”
Gulf basing rules and escalation risk
A Financial Times report cited by Al-Manar TV Lebanon and also echoed in Arabi21 said Iranian attacks on U.S. military facilities in the Gulf have driven Washington to reconsider its basing rules and future footprint after nearly four decades of relying on large bases across Gulf states.
“Iran utilized short-range missiles and drones to target U.S. facilities, exposing the vulnerability of massive bases”
The Al-Manar TV Lebanon report said the U.S. presence has relied for nearly four decades on a network of large military bases, but that six months of war with Iran placed the future of these facilities in question, pushing Washington to shift troops and aircraft to locations further out of reach of these weapons, including Israel and Jordan.
It also said the report highlighted that a significant portion of the U.S. base infrastructure in the Gulf sits above ground, leaving it exposed to attacks, and that Iran targeted aircraft hangars, supply facilities, radars, and command-and-control centers.
In Kuwait, the Al-Jarīdat al-Ḥiṣriyya al-Miṣriya al-Miṣriya report said Kuwait’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned repeated Iranian attacks as a violation of Kuwait’s sovereignty and a threat to its security and the safety of its citizens and residents.
The same report said Kuwait’s Foreign Ministry emphasized that continued “blatant attacks” reflect an adversarial approach and constitute a dangerous escalation that threatens the region’s security and stability, as well as undermining diplomatic efforts aimed at de-escalation and reducing tensions.