Full story
Strikes, retaliation, oil shock
The U.S. launched a barrage of airstrikes against Iran on Tuesday, prompting Iranian retaliation in a widening conflict that Reuters said drove up global energy prices and weighed on President Donald Trump's popularity at home.
“The U.S. launched a barrage of airstrikes against Iran on Tuesday, prompting Iranian retaliation”
Reuters reported that the strikes followed a weekend exchange of fire — the first since July — and attacks on Monday on two tankers leaving the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has effectively closed to shipping.
The Iranian Red Crescent reported that five people were killed and 50 wounded at a wedding near Sirik, while Mehr said a 4-year-old child was among those killed and IRNA put the number of wounded at 68.
In response to the U.S. attacks, Reuters said Tehran struck back at U.S. assets in Jordan, Bahrain and Iraq and warned it would prevent oil being exported from the Gulf, despite Trump's threat to hit Iran "hard" and Scott Bessent's warning of new sanctions.
Reuters also quoted Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf saying, "If the enemy wants us not to export oil from the Persian Gulf, no one will be able to export oil."
Officials trade warnings
U.S. Central Command said it completed a wave of strikes against IRGC targets on Tuesday, including air defense sites, radar systems, maritime assets and facilities, mine-laying capabilities, and communications sites, Reuters reported.
Reuters said Trump warned Iran against responding to Tuesday's assault, threatening to strike again "at a much harder and higher level," and added that it would not be the biggest attack "waiting in the wings."
In the same Reuters account, the IRGC said it fired back with a heavy ballistic missile attack on a base in Jordan and "killed a large number of U.S. forces," while Reuters reported that two U.S. officials said there were no casualties so far from the Iranian attack on facilities in Jordan.
The BBC reported that the Iranian Red Crescent said four people including a young child were killed and more than 50 injured when shrapnel from a U.S. missile attack hit a home where a wedding celebration was taking place in Sirik in southern Iran.
BBC also quoted U.S. Navy Captain Tim Hawkins, speaking for Centcom, saying, "The US military never targets civilians, unlike the IRGC."
Regional stakes and next moves
Reuters said Jordan's armed forces reported that its air defense systems dealt with 13 ballistic missiles that entered the kingdom's airspace, 10 of which were intercepted and three fell in remote areas, while Bahrain said Iranian drones were intercepted and destroyed.
“Jordan's armed forces said its air defense systems dealt with 13 ballistic missiles”
Reuters reported that the IRGC also said its ground forces carried out combined missile and drone attacks on U.S. bases in Erbil in northern Iraq, destroying a repair facility, warehouses for technical equipment and a system used to control a U.S. surveillance balloon.
The BBC added that by early Wednesday, Iran had launched a barrage of ballistic missiles at a US Marine base in Jordan's Aqaba in retaliation for the Sirik attack, while the Jordanian Armed Forces said it intercepted 13 ballistic missiles, 10 of which were destroyed, and three fell in remote areas.
In the BBC account, Donald Trump warned that Iran would be hit again at "a much harder and higher level" if it retaliated, and the BBC said the attack followed the first known U.S. strikes on Iran since late July earlier this week.
Reuters also said the conflict had shifted into an economic standoff before the weekend strikes, and that the U.S. and Iran reached a deal in June that quickly fell apart over interpretations of Iranian control of the Strait of Hormuz.