The American strikes hit an Iranian army barracks, killed at least seven troops and wounded more than 260 people across the country, Iranian officials said.
Days of back-and-forth strikes by the US and Iran across the Middle East – and renewed threats to the waterway crucial to global energy supplies – have shredded the interim deal to end the conflict and the region could tip back into all-out war.
The US first imposed a blockade in April and then lifted it last month after signing the interim deal that paused the fighting and set a 60-day period for negotiations over issues such as Iran’s nuclear programme.
Those talks have stalled as fighting over the Strait of Hormuz has intensified.
When the US and Israel launched the war on Iran on February 28, Tehran effectively closed the waterway to shipping traffic – a move that sent the price of oil, fertiliser and many other goods soaring far beyond the region and gave Iran major leverage in negotiations. Those rising prices pose a particular challenge to US President Donald 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.
Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard threatened on Wednesday to halt all energy exports from the Middle East over the blockade.
“The export of oil and gas from the region will be either for everyone or for no one,” it said.
The US carried out a wave of strikes, hitting dozens of targets overnight, the military’s Central Command said on Wednesday, and then resumed striking Iran during daylight – an unusual move that further signalled the increasing tempo of the attacks.
Within 17 hours of reimposing the blockade on Iranian ports, Central Command said US forces had “redirected” two commercial vessels attempting to run the blockade.
“The US military remains vigilant and prepared to ensure full compliance,” it said on social media.
Among the US military’s targets was Greater Tunb Island, which is viewed as a strategic point in the Strait of Hormuz. Central Command said the attack targeted Iranian defence and missile sites.
Another strike targeted a barracks for Iran’s 388th Mechanised Infantry Brigade, which operates tanks and armored vehicles, in Sistan and Baluchestan province, Iranian state television reported.
The report said the Americans fired at least 13 missiles in the attack and that the seven dead included conscripts and career soldiers. A number of troops were wounded.
Including those at the barracks, more than 30 people have been killed in recent days, Iranian government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani said, without elaborating.
Hossein Kermanpour, a spokesperson for the Health Ministry, meanwhile, said over 260 people were wounded in overnight strikes alone – a figure far larger than for any other round of recent violence between Iran and the US. He did not say how many people were killed overnight.
The army said it would make “a decisive response to this aggressive action by the American enemy,” according to state TV.
Missile alert warnings sounded in Bahrain and Kuwait early Wednesday as they faced incoming Iranian fire – a daily occurrence in recent days.
Jordan said it shot down three incoming Iranian missiles.
Iran claimed attacks on the three nations, all of which host US forces. (AP)
