US and Iran trade blows as Middle East conflict reignites

The United States launched fresh strikes on Iran on Thursday, while Tehran targeted US allies in the Gulf as the two sides clashed over the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz amid a renewed Middle East conflict.

The latest escalation came just a month after the two sides signed a preliminary agreement aimed at ending the war, which began in late February following a massive US-Israeli offensive against Iran.

US Central Command (CENTCOM) said Thursday evening that it had begun a new wave of strikes aimed at “further degrading Iranian military capabilities.” The operation marked the sixth consecutive night of US attacks.

Iranian state television reported two explosions in Bushehr, home to the country’s only civilian nuclear power plant, describing them as part of the “continuation of American enemy aggression.” It also reported several unexplained blasts in the coastal city of Bandar Abbas.

Iran’s official IRNA news agency separately reported “American enemy attacks on areas around Ahvaz.”

Earlier, Tehran had warned that it would target infrastructure across the region if US President Donald Trump carried out threats to strike Iranian power plants and bridges. The White House, however, said Trump remained open to diplomatic efforts.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said Thursday that it had launched ballistic missiles at a US airbase in Jordan in retaliation for what it called an American attack near a children’s cancer hospital in the Ahvaz area.

Iranian state media later reported attacks on bridges and an airport in southern Iran near the Strait of Hormuz, the key maritime passage that has become central to the latest escalation and is critical to global oil and gas supplies.

‘Never back down’

Iranian state media said a hospital in Ahvaz, southwestern Iran, was evacuated after US airstrikes hit the surrounding area. Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei condemned the attacks as “barbaric.”

Hani, a 34-year-old teacher from Ahvaz, described the strikes as “very intense.”

“My hands are shaking. There were at least 11 or 12 explosions. My ears are exploding,” he said.

Meanwhile, US allies in the Gulf responded to Iranian attacks. Kuwait said it had intercepted Iranian drones, while Bahrain activated air raid sirens.

A senior Iranian military spokesman called on the United States to leave the region and vowed that Tehran would “never back down over the Strait of Hormuz,” according to state television.

The waterway was briefly reopened following the US-Iran agreement in June, but Tehran announced last week that it would remain closed again “until the US ends its aggression.”

The United States has also reinstated its blockade of Iranian ports.

The US military said Thursday that its forces had boarded a vessel in the Gulf of Oman to “ensure full compliance,” adding that three ships had been diverted since the blockade was reintroduced.

Threats to regional infrastructure

Pakistan’s Foreign Office spokesman Tahir Andrabi said Islamabad would continue encouraging all sides to end the violence and resume technical-level negotiations under the memorandum of understanding it helped mediate last month.

Iran’s top negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, however, warned that any agreement would “only have meaning when its clauses are valid and being implemented.”

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday that Trump would hold Iran accountable for violating its commitments but stressed that the US president remained open to diplomacy.

“They have expressed that they still want to make a deal with the president. We are talking to them, but the president is not going to allow them to fire on ships in the strait without facing consequences,” she said.

Trump had earlier threatened to strike Iranian power plants and bridges unless Tehran returned to negotiations, telling Fox News that “next week it gets really bad for them.”

Iran’s military headquarters spokesman responded Thursday that if the United States carried out those threats, “all infrastructure in the region” would be “crushed.”

Since the renewed US offensive began last week, at least 30 people have been killed in Iran, government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani said.