DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) \u2014 The United States intensified its strikes targeting Iran early Thursday, hitting targets further north as American forces also fired into a ship it accused of trying to break its naval blockade on the Islamic Republic. Iran retaliated with missile and drone fire targeting Bahrain, Jordan and Kuwait before dawn and warned its attacks may escalate. <\/p>\n
Days of back-and-forth strikes by the U.S. and Iran across the Middle East \u2014 and renewed threats to the Strait of Hormuz<\/a> \u2014 have shredded the interim deal to end the Iran war and could tip the region back into all-out war. Already, Iranian officials say U.S. strikes have killed more than 35 people and wounded over 300 others. <\/p>\n Strikes also reached into areas around Iran\u2019s capital, Tehran, for the first time in this latest round of violence, showing a widening set of targets for the Americans. <\/p>\n When the U.S. and Israel launched the war on Iran on Feb. 28, Tehran effectively closed the strait to shipping traffic, a move that sent the price of oil, fertilizer and many other goods soaring<\/a> far beyond the region and gave Iran major leverage in negotiations. <\/p>\n Col. Ebrahim Zolfaghari, a spokesperson for the Iranian military\u2019s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, escalated Iran\u2019s threats by referencing U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s repeated warning America could hit Iranian bridges and power plants. <\/p>\n \u201cAll the infrastructure in the region will be crushed under the steel blows of the powerful armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran\u201d should Trump\u2019s threat be carried out, Zolfaghari said.<\/p>\n \u201cUnder no circumstances and in no way will we allow America, as a foreign and extra-regional country, to interfere in the Strait of Hormuz,\u201d he added. \u201cThis is Iran\u2019s invincible red line.\u201d<\/p>\n US and Iran trade threats as attacks intensify<\/p>\n Those rising prices pose a particular challenge<\/a> to Trump and his Republican Party, which hopes to retain control of Congress in elections in November. But Washington has struggled to successfully reopen the waterway, leading to Trump reimposing the naval blockade Wednesday. Mediators have sought to calm the tensions, but so far have been unsuccessful.<\/p>\n Trump again insisted Iran was ready to strike a peace deal, but he did not elaborate.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \n Sign up for Morning Wire:<\/strong> \u201cThey don\u2019t like what we\u2019re doing, and they do want to settle. We\u2019ll find out whether or not we settle with them, or we just finish it off,\u201d he said Wednesday at the U.S. Army War College in Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n Trump separately said on social media that Tehran made a goodwill gesture by releasing an American citizen wrongly detained in Iran since 2024. He didn\u2019t release further details. Human rights lawyer Jared Genser released a statement identifying the detainee as his client Dena Karari, a U.S.-Iranian citizen who runs a nonprofit and was charged with espionage. <\/p>\n Iran did not immediately acknowledge the release and her case was not publicly known, as is sometimes the case with detentions in the Islamic Republic. <\/p>\n Both the US and Iran launch attacks as blockade is reimposed<\/p>\n The U.S. strikes early Thursday hit around Tehran, state media reported. It also reported that American attacks targeted Semnan province, home to Iran\u2019s ballistic missile production and space program.<\/p>\n Iranian media also reported strikes Thursday morning around the provinces of Hamedan, Hormozgan, Khuzestan, Lorestan, Markazi, and Sistan and Baluchistan. <\/p>\n On Wednesday, the U.S. resumed striking Iran during daylight, further showing the increasing tempo of the attacks. An attack on Greater Tunb Island, a strategic point in the Strait of Hormuz, targeted Iranian defense and missile sites, Central Command said.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the U.S. military said it opened fire on the Curacao-flagged oil tanker Belma sailing toward Kharg Island, Iran\u2019s main oil export terminal<\/a> in the Persian Gulf. After the ship \u201cignored multiple warnings,\u201d a U.S. aircraft disabled the merchant vessel by firing a missile into the ship\u2019s smokestack. <\/p>\n Another American strike Wednesday targeted a barracks for Iran\u2019s 388th Mechanized Infantry Brigade, which operates tanks and armored vehicles, in Sistan and Baluchestan province, Iranian state television reported. The report said Americans fired at least 13 missiles in the attack and the seven dead included conscripts and career soldiers. A number of troops were wounded.<\/p>\n Iran retaliated Thursday with missile and drone attacks on Bahrain, Jordan and Kuwait, authorities in those countries home to U.S. forces said. There was no immediate acknowledgment of damage or casualties from the attacks. <\/p>\n Meanwhile, Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi condemned an overnight drone attack on the city of Irbil in Iraq\u2019s semiautonomous northern Kurdish region. The drone, which authorities said had been intercepted, came during his trip to the U.S.<\/a> in which he said Iraq would work to disarm non-state armed groups, including those backed by Iran. <\/p>\n The Strait of Hormuz remains at the heart of the fighting<\/p>\n The latest round of fighting is focused on the Strait of Hormuz<\/a>. How to reopen the strait has bedeviled the U.S. since Iran choked it off in the early days of the war.<\/p>\n During the interim deal, some ships began moving through the passage using a route near Oman overseen by the U.S. military that is outside Tehran\u2019s control.<\/p>\n In recent days, Iran attacked ships using that route and back-and-forth attacks ensued. The U.S. has threatened to reopen the strait by force<\/a>, but experts say that would require a much bigger armada if not tens of thousands of ground troops. Imposing the blockade is another way to put pressure on Iran.<\/p>\n
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