The United States launched a fresh barrage of strikes against Iran on Tuesday night, targeting Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) military assets along the country’s southern coast. Tehran retaliated with ballistic missiles and drones against US-linked targets across the region in the most serious escalation in weeks.
The latest exchange of fire threatens to reignite a conflict that has lasted more than six months, disrupted shipping through the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz and sent global energy prices sharply higher. Oil prices rose by more than USD 4 a barrel, settling at a five-week high.
US Central Command said it had completed a new wave of strikes against IRGC targets, including air-defence sites, radar systems, maritime assets, mine-laying capabilities and communications facilities.
The US said the operation was carried out in response to recent Iranian attempts to attack commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and American troops deployed in the region.
“The strikes follow recent attempted attacks by the IRGC against commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and against American service members deployed to the region,” Centcom said.
Iran responded soon after, with the IRGC saying it had launched what it called a “regretful response to the aggressors” and warning that the latest US attacks had only strengthened Tehran’s determination to confront American forces.
The IRGC claimed it had launched a heavy ballistic-missile attack against a US base in Jordan and “killed a large number of US forces”. Two US officials told news agency Reuters that there had been no casualties from the Iranian attack on facilities in Jordan based on initial information, although they cautioned that the situation remained fluid.
IRAN RETALIATES ACROSS REGION
Jordan’s military said 13 ballistic missiles entered its airspace during the Iranian attack. Its air-defence systems intercepted 10 of them, while the remaining three fell in remote areas away from population centres.
Explosions believed to be interceptions were seen over Aqaba, where the United States has military facilities.
Iranian media also reported a large-scale drone attack against a US base in Bahrain. Bahrain said Iranian drones had been intercepted and destroyed.
Kuwait’s army separately said its air-defence systems were responding to a hostile drone attack following what it described as Iranian aggression.
The IRGC also claimed its ground forces carried out coordinated missile and drone attacks against US bases in Erbil, northern Iraq. It said the strikes destroyed a repair facility, technical-equipment warehouses and a system used to control a US surveillance balloon, while also setting fuel tanks ablaze and killing several US personnel.
Neither the Iraqi government nor the US military immediately confirmed those claims.
The latest attacks come after Iran had already targeted US allies in the region with missiles and drones following the outbreak of the war in February.
WEDDING STRUCK IN SOUTHERN IRAN
The US strikes also caused civilian casualties, according to Iranian officials and state media.
Five people were killed and at least 65 wounded when a US strike hit a home hosting a wedding near Sirik, a coastal area in southern Iran, the Iranian Red Crescent said. Iranian media reported that a four-year-old child was among those killed.
Iranian officials condemned the attack, with Ebrahim Azizi, chairman of the Iranian parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, saying, “Make no mistake: these crimes will not go unpunished”.
The US military said it was aware of reports of civilian casualties but noted that they originated from Iranian state media.
“The US military never targets civilians, unlike the IRGC,” US Central Command spokesman Capt. Tim Hawkins said, according to news agencies.
US STRIKES SOUTHERN IRAN
The US operation began at about 7.30 pm local time on Tuesday, according to Centcom. Iranian state media reported explosions across several locations in southern Iran, including Bandar Abbas, Chabahar, Jask, Sirik and Asaluyeh, as well as Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran’s official IRNA news agency said four projectiles struck areas in Chabahar and Konarak, without immediately specifying the damage.
Iranian state television reported that the US strikes hit a fishmeal factory on Qeshm Island and civilian sites in Hormozgan province. It said a fishing pier and a Ports and Maritime Organisation tower in Sirik were among the locations hit.
The civilian Jiroft airport in Kerman province was also reportedly struck. Iranian state television said a projectile hit outside the runway but caused no casualties or damage to airport infrastructure.
Iran’s electricity grid management company Tavanir said parts of the power network in Hormozgan province had also been hit, causing outages that authorities were working to restore.
Witnesses in Bandar Abbas told media that the explosions were stronger than those during Sunday’s attacks and that smoke could be seen rising from the eastern part of the city.
TRUMP THREATENS BIGGER ATTACK
President Donald Trump warned Tehran against retaliating for the US operation and threatened an even more severe military response.
“If the failed Nation of Iran retaliates for this very justified attack, they will be hit again at a much harder and higher level,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
He added that the latest operation would “not be the biggest attack of them all”, saying that a larger strike was “waiting in the wings” and that, when it was over, “there will be very little left of the Islamic Republic of Iran”.
In a separate interview with Fox News, Trump said he believed another agreement with Tehran was unlikely to hold.
“I think an agreement with them isn’t worth the paper it’s written on. We gave them a lot of chances,” he said.
Trump later said Washington was not trying to force Iran back to the negotiating table.
“I’m not trying to force Iran to the bargaining table,” he wrote on social media. “I couldn’t care less if they sign a worthless, to them, agreement. I like our position now much better, with almost total control of the Hormuz Strait and their economy totally collapsing.”
Iranian officials, meanwhile, vowed to continue retaliating to the US campaign.
IRGC spokesman Hossein Mohebi warned that Washington “will regret its new attacks”, while Iran’s Armed Forces General Staff and joint military command threatened what they described as “crushing and devastating blows” against the United States.
STRAIT OF HORMUZ AT CENTRE OF CONFLICT
The latest escalation is closely tied to the battle for control of the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway through which roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil normally passes. Iran has effectively closed the strait to shipping since the war began, while the United States has maintained a counter-blockade and sought to reopen the crucial shipping route.
The US said its strikes on Sunday targeted Iranian rocket launchers on Larak Island that Washington believed could be used to lay sea mines in the strait.
Trump said Tuesday’s strikes were also retaliation for what he described as Iran’s failed attempt to place mines in the waterway and for an Iranian missile attack on a US military base in Jordan.
The IRGC, however, said the latest US attacks had only “tightened the lock” on the Strait of Hormuz and strengthened Iran’s resolve.
Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf was quoted by Iranian media as saying, “If the enemy wants us not to export oil from the Persian Gulf, no one will be able to export oil.”
CONFLICT RETURNS AFTER MONTH-LONG LULL
The latest fighting comes after a month of relative calm between Washington and Tehran, during which the two sides largely refrained from direct military action while continuing to exchange threats.
The renewed hostilities began Sunday, when US forces struck Iranian rocket launchers on Larak Island in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran responded by firing missiles at US sites in Jordan, which Jordanian forces intercepted, while the United Arab Emirates said it stopped an Iranian drone over its waters.
The attacks followed a weekend exchange of fire, the first since July and Monday’s attacks on two tankers near the Strait of Hormuz.
The six-month-old conflict had increasingly shifted into an economic confrontation before the latest military escalation, with Washington relying heavily on sanctions and efforts to isolate Iran economically.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has warned that Washington is preparing additional sanctions against countries doing business with Iran.
Tehran, however, has shown little indication that the economic pressure will force it to change course.
The latest escalation also came just hours after Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Tehran was prepared to return to an interim ceasefire arrangement agreed with Washington in June, provided the United States did the same.
“If the U.S. returns to its commitments in the memorandum of understanding, the Islamic Republic of Iran will immediately reciprocate,” Iranian state media quoted Pezeshkian as saying at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Kyrgyzstan.
The June agreement had called for an immediate ceasefire and opened a 60-day period for negotiations aimed at reaching a broader settlement. The arrangement subsequently collapsed, largely over disagreements about Iran’s control of the Strait of Hormuz.
– Ends
Published By:
Akshat Trivedi
Published On:
Sep 2, 2026 01:37 IST