U.S. Strikes Iran After Trump Says Ceasefire Is Over, Iran Hits U.S. Allies

The United States and Iran exchanged intense new attacks after President Donald Trump said the ceasefire was “over,” with the American military saying it hit around 90 targets in airstrikes across Iran on Wednesday.

NBC News reported that the U.S. struck “approximately 90 Iranian military targets including air defense systems, coastal surveillance assets, missile and drone storage sites, naval capabilities, and military logistics infrastructure along Iran’s coastline,” and that Tehran retaliated with attacks on U.S. allies across the Middle East.

Al-Yawm Al-Sabe'

Iran’s Foreign Ministry denounced the U.S. strikes as a “grave war crime,” saying they targeted civilian infrastructure including two railway bridges on the route to Mashhad.

The Guardian said the tit-for-tat strikes were the largest since Tehran and Washington signed a memorandum of understanding on 17 June aimed at extending the ceasefire and giving space for negotiations for a permanent truce, and it reported that the MoU calls for the reopening of the strait to commercial shipping for 60 days.

As fighting intensified, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was laid to rest in Mashhad after a multiday state funeral, with the CBS News live updates noting that the funeral procession took place Thursday and he was later buried in the northeast city of Mashhad.

CBS News also reported that President Trump said Iran “wants to make a deal so badly,” while NBC News said Trump warned, “This is in retribution for yesterday’s bombing of ships by Iran. If it happens again, it will get much worse!”

An-Nahar

NBC News said the U.S. military has been shooting down incoming Iranian projectiles, and it reported that there were no reports of any injuries or significant damage to U.S. facilities.

The Guardian reported that Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, said his country was prepared to resume its military campaign against Iran if needed, vowing to do so “with even greater force,” as sirens sounded at least three times in Bahrain where the U.S. navy’s fifth fleet is headquartered.

The renewed strikes left the peace process in limbo, with NBC News saying the exchanges “cast doubt on whether Washington and Tehran remained committed to reaching a final deal to end the war,” which was launched by the U.S. and Israel in February.

The Guardian said the attacks came hours after Trump said the MoU was “over” because of Iranian attacks on ships in the strait of Hormuz, and it reported that the U.S. military said it hit about 90 targets in Iran meant to degrade Iran’s capacity to “threaten freedom of navigation” in the strait.

NBC News reported that the Iranian Health Ministry said at least 14 people were killed and another 78 wounded in the two days of U.S. attacks, while it also said Iranian state media reported multiple explosions in cities across the country’s south and the Foreign Ministry denounced the strikes as targeting civilian infrastructure.

CBS News added that U.S. Central Command said that since early May U.S. forces have helped more than 800 commercial vessels and 380 million barrels of crude oil transit the strait, underscoring why the Strait of Hormuz remained a major sticking point in negotiations even as technical talks continued.