WASHINGTON/TEHRAN: The United States and Iran traded drone and missile strikes on Friday, as Tehran announced it had targeted American assets across the region, in the biggest escalation since the two foes returned to outright war. A month after the two sides agreed a memorandum of understanding aimed at ending their conflict, Iran accused US forces of hitting civilian infrastructure, including an airport, a railway station and two bridges. Iranian state media reported at least eight people dead and 20 wounded.
It signaled an apparent expansion of American strikes with a focus on Iranian infrastructure, which US President Donald Trump has previously threatened to hit, but there was no immediate comment from US officials. The war began on Feb 28 with deadly US-Zionist strikes on Iran, which retaliated by effectively closing the Strait of Hormuz and launching attacks on Zionist and American interests across the Gulf.
Iranian Revolutionary Guards aerospace force commander Majid Mousavi said “effective and targeted strikes from across Iran against the enemy will continue” until the US ends its operation against Iran’s coastal facilities in the south and around the strait. Iran’s energy ministry urged citizens to reduce their electricity use and switch off air conditioners in peak hours – even as temperatures in some areas soared – after the power grid came under strain from what it said were US strikes on energy facilities.
Iran’s military had threatened infrastructure across the region in the event of any attacks on its own, and on Friday launched widespread strikes in what appeared to be the largest exchange of fire since the deal was signed last month.
Calls to resume talks
The battle over the strategic Strait of Hormuz has rekindled the war, with Tehran and Washington trading fire for six days running. Iran’s health ministry said at least 38 people had been killed and more than 400 injured in the country since fighting resumed. Tehran claims control over Hormuz, a key shipping route for the global oil and gas trade that was open for free passage before the war.
Mediators have attempted to bring both sides back to the negotiating table and China and Pakistan’s foreign ministers called for the US and Iran to stop fighting and resume talks. As part of the wider escalation, the US has also reimposed its blockade of Iran’s ports. Attacks on ships in the waterway have continued, with the UK Maritime Trade Operations agency on Friday saying a tanker was struck by a projectile off the coast of Oman overnight. – AFP