Iran launched drone and missile attacks against US military interests across the Middle East on Wednesday, vowing “severe” consequences after renewed American strikes on the Islamic Republic.
The latest escalation over the Strait of Hormuz spread to US military bases and pulled Washington’s Gulf allies deeper into the six-month conflict.
US President Donald Trump had earlier warned that Iran would face “much harder and higher” attacks if it retaliated against US strikes that Iranian state media said killed 11 people in southern and southwestern Iran.
Iranian media reported that Tehran launched ballistic missile attacks on two US bases in Jordan.
The Jordanian army said it intercepted 10 ballistic missiles fired from Iran but reported no injuries or confirmed hits. It added that three other missiles landed in remote areas.
Missile and drone attacks were also reported in Kuwait, where the army said it was responding to Iranian hostilities. In Bahrain, AFP reporters said air raid alerts sounded early Wednesday.
Iran’s army said it launched drones targeting US forces at an air base in Bahrain, a key American ally in the Gulf.
In Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said it struck US bases with missiles and drones, destroying a maintenance centre, warehouses and military equipment, according to state-run IRNA.
The latest escalation followed Washington’s strikes on Iranian targets on Sunday, the first known US attacks in several weeks.
Iran subsequently targeted US troops in Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, while two oil tankers were also hit by projectiles in separate incidents that remained unattributed.
More US strikes followed on Tuesday, with Iranian state television reporting explosions in southern Iran along the Hormuz Strait and on an island in the Gulf.
The broadcaster also reported that US forces struck an airport in Kerman province.
IRNA said four projectiles hit areas within the counties of Chabahar and Konarak but gave no details about possible damage or casualties.
Iranian authorities reported further casualties from the US strikes. IRNA said seven people were killed and eight wounded in a missile attack in southern Khuzestan province.
Iran’s Red Crescent separately said shrapnel from a US missile killed four people, including a child, and wounded more than 50 others in Kuhestak, Hormozgan province.
The US military did not directly address the reported wedding strike. However, US Central Command spokesman Tim Hawkins said American forces “never target civilians, unlike the IRGC”, referring to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
‘Large, powerful strikes’
Trump said the US strikes were “large and powerful” and described them as retaliation for Iran’s alleged attempt to place sea mines in the Strait of Hormuz.
He also cited Iran’s reported launch of eight missiles towards a US military base in Jordan, saying all were successfully intercepted.
Revolutionary Guards spokesman Hossein Mohebi warned on X that Washington “will regret its new attacks”, adding that “severe punishment awaits the aggressors”.
Ebrahim Zolfaghari, spokesperson for Iran’s Khatam-al Anbiya central military command, also warned that countries cooperating with the US military would face what he described as “more severe, more widespread and destructive responses”.
Six months into the conflict, the United States and Iran remain locked in a confrontation over the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran has kept the strategic waterway closed, while Washington continues its counter-blockade of Iranian ports.
The United States said its forces struck Iranian rocket launchers on Larak Island on Sunday to prevent Tehran from planting mines along key shipping lanes.
The wider Middle East war began in late February after US and Israeli attacks on Iran that killed its Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
A fragile ceasefire later collapsed following attacks on commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping route through which about one-fifth of the world’s oil supplies flowed before the war.
Trump warned on Truth Social on Tuesday that Iran would face another round of attacks if it retaliated.
He said the next strikes would come at a “much harder and higher level”, adding that an even larger attack was “waiting in the wings”.
“There will be very little left of the Islamic Republic of Iran!” Trump wrote.
Despite the escalating military confrontation, Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said Tuesday that Tehran remained prepared to match any US move towards a deal aimed at ending the war.
Pezeshkian, however, warned that any return by Washington to what he described as “a policy of pressure and threats” could undermine diplomatic efforts.
Meanwhile, Greek maritime risk management firm Marisks said two crude tankers were hit by “unknown projectiles” late on Monday.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency confirmed one of the incidents, saying no casualties or environmental damage had been reported.
