Iran retaliates as US widens Gulf strikes

Iran launched missile and drone attacks on US military facilities across the Gulf on Friday after American forces completed a sixth consecutive night of strikes on Iranian military infrastructure, deepening a cycle of retaliation that has disrupted regional shipping and unsettled energy markets.

Tehran said its forces targeted US facilities in Bahrain and Kuwait during the early hours of Friday. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards also claimed an attack on an American special operations command centre at Al-Tanf in Syria, saying the operation answered the killing of Iranian personnel in southeastern Iran.

Explosions were heard in Doha, where Qatar’s Interior Ministry said a child was injured by falling shrapnel. Iran has also directed attacks at US military positions in Jordan during the week, widening the geographical scope of the confrontation beyond the immediate waters of the Gulf.

The US military said fighter aircraft, drones and warships used precision weapons against dozens of targets on Qeshm Island and around Bandar Abbas. The targets included coastal surveillance systems, air-defence sites, logistical facilities and maritime capabilities used by Iran’s navy and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Bandar Abbas contains Iran’s largest commercial port and major naval installations overlooking the Strait of Hormuz. Qeshm Island, positioned close to the shipping channel, hosts military infrastructure linked to Iran’s missile, surveillance and coastal-defence network.

Iranian authorities reported strikes on five bridges, Bandar Khamir railway station and Iranshahr Airport in Sistan-Baluchestan province. Seven people were reported killed when bridges were hit in Bandar Khamir, a southern port west of Bandar Abbas. Independent confirmation of the casualties and the damage was not immediately available.

Washington’s campaign has increasingly focused on infrastructure that allows Iran to monitor and threaten traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. Earlier attacks hit command centres, cruise-missile sites and coastal defences on Greater Tunb Island, one of several strategically located islands used by Iran to project military power across the waterway.

The latest exchanges followed the collapse of a truce agreed last month after months of fighting. That arrangement included negotiations over shipping rules in Hormuz, but disagreements over Iran’s authority to regulate vessels and collect passage fees have remained unresolved.

Iran wants commercial ships to use a channel close to its coast and has proposed charging transit fees after a 60-day negotiating period. The United States has encouraged vessels to follow a route nearer Oman, rejecting Tehran’s claim to exercise control over an international waterway.

Traffic through the strait has again slowed sharply. The channel normally carries about one-fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas shipments, making any disruption a direct threat to fuel supplies, freight costs and inflation.

Iran has attacked vessels using a designated transit corridor, while the United States has restored its blockade of Iranian ports. American forces have redirected ships approaching Iran and disabled at least one tanker after it allegedly ignored warnings.

Tehran has also signalled that Yemen’s Houthi movement could be urged to disrupt the Bab al-Mandeb Strait if Washington attacks Iran’s electricity network or other civilian infrastructure. Closure of that route would threaten shipping between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden while complicating alternative export arrangements for regional energy producers.

US President Donald Trump has threatened further attacks on power facilities and bridges unless Iran returns to negotiations. He has not ruled out deploying ground forces, including a possible operation involving Kharg Island, the centre of Iran’s crude oil export system.

The White House has maintained that diplomacy remains possible even as military operations expand. Trump has said Tehran wants an agreement, while Iran insists that talks cannot resume unless Washington complies with the June memorandum and accepts what Iranian officials describe as national regulations governing Hormuz.

Iranian parliamentary speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf has described the confrontation as an existential war with the United States. Military officials have argued that destroying coastal positions would not remove Iran’s ability to strike the strait because missiles and drones could be launched from deeper inside the country.