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Strikes, blockade, threats
The United States launched fresh strikes on Iran on Wednesday evening, with President Donald Trump warning Tehran it "better behave" as US Central Command said the attacks targeted "Iranian military capabilities used to threaten vessels" moving through the Strait of Hormuz.
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CNN reported the US military launched two more waves of strikes aimed at Iranian targets "used to threaten vessels freely transiting through the Strait of Hormuz," while also saying it had "redirected" two commercial vessels since reimposing its naval blockade of ships going to and from Iranian ports.
NBC News said the US reimposed a naval blockade and intensified its airstrike campaign in retaliation for Tehran’s attacks on ships trying to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, and Iranian officials said the strikes hit an Iranian army barracks, killing at least seven troops and wounding hundreds of people.
NBC News also said the interim deal to end the conflict had been shredded as fighting over the Strait of Hormuz intensified, and it noted the US first imposed a blockade in April and then lifted it last month after signing an interim deal that set a 60-day period for negotiations over issues including Iran’s nuclear program.
In parallel, Al Jazeera reported that US Central Command completed a 90-minute round of strikes at 7:30am Washington, DC, time, and said the strikes were precision munitions against coastal defense systems and cruise missile storage and launch sites on Greater Tunb Island.
Officials trade accusations
Iran’s top negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf told state media Tehran had "no reason" to abide by the deal if it did benefit from it, while Trump’s escalation came after he said a 20% toll he had threatened to impose in the Strait of Hormuz would be replaced by "massive" trade and investment deals with Gulf states.
The BBC quoted Trump responding to reporters about whether he would give a deadline before attacking bridges and power plants, saying: "I don't like giving deadlines, but they pretty much know, they know the story... they better behave."
CNN reported that Iran currently has "no plans for negotiations," according to its Foreign Ministry spokesperson, who added that Iran would not adhere to any agreement if the US "breaches its obligations."
NBC News said Iran’s parliament speaker and lead negotiator Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf warned Iran was prepared for a fuller military confrontation if the US did not live up to the interim deal, and it said Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard threatened to halt all energy exports from the Middle East over the blockade.
Al Jazeera added that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed it had launched overnight attacks on US military assets in Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan, and it said Jordan’s military reported intercepting and shooting down three Iranian ballistic missiles that entered the country’s airspace early on Wednesday.
Casualties, hospitals, next moves
NBC News said US strikes hit an Iranian army barracks and Iranian officials reported at least seven troops killed and hundreds wounded, while it also said more than 35 people had been killed and more than 300 wounded by U.S. airstrikes in recent days, according to Hossein Kermanpour, a spokesperson for the Iranian Health Ministry.
Al Jazeera reported that Iranian government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani said more than 30 civilians had been killed in recent US attacks across southern Iran, and Hossein Kermanpour added that more than 260 people had been injured in the latest US attacks, with 222 discharged after receiving treatment.
CNN said families and patients at Shahid Baghaei Hospital in Ahvaz were temporarily evacuated after a projectile from a US strike landed nearby, and it reported that Valiollah Hayati, deputy governor for security and law enforcement of Khuzestan Province, said a strike caused damage to nearby homes and shattered windows of some housing units.
The Guardian reported that at least 30 people had been killed in southern Iran in US attacks in recent days and more than 260 had been injured, citing Iran’s health ministry, and it also said US Central Command disabled an unladen oil tanker attempting to sail toward an Iranian port by firing hellfire missiles into the ship’s smokestack.
Looking ahead, Al Jazeera said the renewed tensions followed Washington’s resumption of its naval blockade of Iranian ports, while the BBC said rescue teams and officials were still dealing with the immediate fallout of the latest strikes as the US military said it had "further degraded Iran's ability to attack commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz" earlier in the day.
