US launches new strikes on Iran, Tehran hits back in widening conflict

Unrest, Conflict and War

The strikes follow recent Iranian attempts on commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, according to Reuters.

In short:

The US and Iran have exchanged strikes after a weekend of fighting, the first such exchange since July.

Five people died and fifty were hurt at a wedding near Sirik, the Iranian Red Crescent said. The US gave no immediate comment on the reports.

Tehran hit US assets in Jordan, Bahrain and Iraq, and warned it would stop oil exports from the Gulf.

The US carried out many air strikes on Iranian targets, leading to Iranian retaliation, marking the most serious escalation in weeks and pushing global energy prices higher.

The strikes came after a weekend of fighting, the first since July, then attacks on Monday on two tankers leaving the Strait of Hormuz, the key oil route that Iran has largely blocked.

Global oil prices rose over $4 a barrel on Tuesday, reaching a five‑week high.

Tehran struck back at US assets in Jordan, Bahrain and Iraq and stayed defiant, warning it would block oil exports from the Gulf, despite President Trump’s threat to hit Iran “hard” and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s warning that new US sanctions were coming.

Five people were killed and fifty injured at a wedding near Sirik on the Strait of Hormuz, the Iranian Red Crescent reported.

The Mehr news agency said a four‑year‑old child was among those killed, while IRNA, citing a provincial official, put the wounded count at sixty‑eight.

There was no immediate US reaction to the reports.

Iran war updates: Review how the day’s events unfolded in the Middle East on our blog.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said the US attacks would “tighten the lock” on the Strait of Hormuz, which carried one‑fifth of the world’s oil before the war.

“If the enemy wants us not to export oil from the Persian Gulf, no one will be able to export oil,” Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf was quoted as saying by Iranian media.

Neither strike threats nor new economic sanctions have noticeably changed Tehran’s stance, which has faced heavy sanctions for fifty years.

The US strikes came after a month of relative calm when the US and Iran mostly held fire while exchanging hostile statements.

US Central Command said it completed a wave of strikes on IRGC targets on Tuesday, hitting air‑defence sites, radar, maritime assets, mine‑laying gear and communications sites.

Iranian media reported several strikes, including a US missile near Ahvaz and at the civilian Jiroft airport, while explosions were heard in Chabahar, Bandar Abbas and Asaluyeh, a key gas hub on the Gulf coast.

Iran’s state broadcaster also reported explosions on Qeshm Island, on the north side of the strait.

State news agency IRNA also reported explosions in Jask and Sirik.

Iran fires back

Mr Trump warned Iran not to respond to Tuesday’s attack, threatening to strike again “at a much harder and higher level”.

“It will not be the biggest attack of all; that one is waiting in the wings, and when it comes there will be very little left of the Islamic Republic of Iran!” he wrote on social media.

US President Donald Trump had threatened to hit Iran “hard” in response to renewed Iranian strikes, Reuters reported.

Even so, the IRGC said it fired back with a heavy ballistic missile at a base in Jordan, claiming it killed many US forces.

Two US officials told Reuters no casualties were reported from the Iranian attack on Jordan facilities, though the information was initial and could change as attacks continued.

Iranian media also said the military hit a US base in Bahrain with a large drone attack, and Kuwait’s army said its air defences responded to a hostile drone attack.

Since the US and Israel struck Iran on Feb 28, Iran has answered with missile and drone strikes on US allies in the region.

Jordan’s armed forces said its air‑defence systems dealt with 13 ballistic missiles, intercepting ten and letting three fall in remote areas. Bahrain said it shot down Iranian drones.

The IRGC said its ground forces carried out combined missile and drone attacks on US bases in Erbil, northern Iraq, destroying a repair shop, equipment warehouses and a system that controlled a US surveillance balloon, setting fuel tanks on fire and killing several US personnel.

Neither Iraq nor the US confirmed the attack.

Scale of fresh US‑Iran hostilities unclear

The six‑month conflict had become an economic standoff before the weekend strikes, when US forces hit Iran’s Larak Island on Sunday and Iran responded by launching missiles at two US air bases in Jordan.

In a Fox News interview, Mr Trump downplayed the chance of another cease‑fire. The US and Iran reached a deal in June that quickly fell apart, mainly over how Iran controls the Strait of Hormuz.

“I think an agreement with them isn’t worth the paper it’s written on. We gave them many chances,” Mr Trump told Fox News.

Although he warned of a US response to Iranian strikes, Mr Trump also told reporters on Monday that they did not signal a return to full‑scale war, and a senior Iranian source told Reuters the clash was “limited and contained”.

But promises by both sides to respond to further attacks show how quickly a conflict fought through sanctions, blockades and economic pressure could turn back into military action.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said early Tuesday that Tehran would reply immediately if Washington kept its promises under the June Memorandum of Understanding meant to stop the fighting.

The MOU announced an end to fighting that has killed thousands in Iran and Lebanon since US and Israeli strikes began on Feb 28. It also postponed many hard issues and opened a 60‑day negotiation period that ended without a new deal.

听力练习