The United States has conducted six consecutive nights of strikes targeting civilian infrastructure in southern Iran, resulting in seven reported deaths. These attacks mark a significant escalation in hostilities between the two countries.
The strikes follow a recent interim US-Iran deal that both sides accuse each other of violating. Regional states are increasing military preparedness amid fears the conflict could expand further.
The United States is attacking Iran for a sixth consecutive night, with strikes targeting civilian infrastructure in the country’s south, according to local media reports.
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Iranian media reported seven deaths amid explosions and attacks in Qeshm Island, Bandar Abbas, Chabahar, Iranshahr and Bandar-e Khamir.
US Central Command said the latest assaults began at 18:00 GMT on Thursday, describing the operation as an effort “to further degrade Iranian military capabilities”.
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Casualties were feared in the Bandar Abbas and Bandar-e Khamir areas, where earlier reports had described attacks on trans port infrastructure, including the Kehvarstan Bridge and a railway station.
The battles come days after US President Donald Trump threatened to potentially hit Iranian infrastructure – is the latest sign of peril for an interim US-Iran deal the two signed last month. Both sides have since accused the other of violating the memorandum of understanding (MoU) amid a week of spiralling hostilities.
The US military also said forces under Central Command had redirected three commercial vessels attempting to bypass its blockade of Iran in the Gulf of Oman, disabling one vessel that failed to comply and boarding another.
Al Jazeera’s Aksel Zaimovic, reporting from Doha, Qatar, said Gulf states are strengthening their air defences and military preparedness around crucial infrastructure “in this time of uncertainty”.
‘Time of uncertainty’
Earlier on Thursday, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed an attack on an airbase used by US forces in Bahrain, saying it was in response to a “barbaric” US attack that forced the evacuation of a children’s cancer hospital in the southwestern city of Ahvaz.
The IRGC also claimed further attacks on Kuwait and Jordan.
Kuwait said it was responding to continued Iranian missile and drone attacks after the military earlier reported that 32 drones had targeted vital facilities, causing material damage.
Iranian officials, meanwhile, signalled they were prepared to widen the confrontation. Army spokesman Mohammad Akraminia warned Iran’s attacks “will spread to new areas” if US strikes continued, while another military spokesman also accused Washington of destabilising security in the Strait of Hormuz, saying conditions in the strategic waterway “will never return to how it was before the 40-day war”.
Ali Ahmadi, executive fellow at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy, said Tehran had so far treated the prospect of widening the conflict as leverage rather than an immediate military objective.
“It’s better essentially used as a threat than something that one would actually do,” Ahmadi told Al Jazeera, referring to the threat of expanding attacks on regional shipping.
US ‘always open to diplomacy’
Earlier in the week, Trump threatened to target Iran’s power plants and bridges if Tehran did not return to the negotiating table, which Iranian Brigadier General Ebrahim Zolfaghari warned would be met with a “crushing blow” on regional infrastructure.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Thursday Trump would hold Iran “accountable”, but “is always open to diplomacy”.
“They [Iranian officials] have expressed they still want to make a deal to the president. We’re talking to them, but again, the president is not going to allow them to fire on ships in the strait without paying a consequence for that,” said Leavitt.
Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Wednesday that Tehran has no plans to engage in talks with the US and is focused solely on defending the country.
Sina Azodi, assistant professor of Middle East Politics at George Washington University, said both the US and Iran are “trying to force the other side to blink first and capitulate to the other side’s demands”.
“The US side wants the Iranians to come back to the negotiations and yield to the American demands,” Azodi told Al Jazeera. “On the Iranian side, they want the United States to first lift the blockade and also fully implement that MoU that was reached.”
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