Published on •Updated
The United States and Iran traded strikes for a second straight day, as US leaders accused their counterparts of dragging out negotiations for a deal to end the three-month war.
Iranian media reported explosions across the south near the Strait of Hormuz, with explosions heard in Bandar Abbas, Qeshm and Minab, and sources reporting hits by “enemy projectiles” in Kargan and Sirik.
CENTCOM said later that it had “completed” its strikes on “Iranian military surveillance capabilities, communication systems, and air defense sites”.
American forces “fired precision munitions on Iranian targets that posed a threat to U.S. forces and international commercial ships transiting regional waters”, it added.
The strikes came after US President Donald Trump, who had repeatedly said negotiations with Tehran were close to an end, said Wednesday that Iran keeps “playing us for suckers” and will now “have to pay the price”.
Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth said that if Trump required it, “we’ll negotiate with bombs, and we’re very good at it”.
Strait of Hormuz ‘completely closed’
Iran responded to the US strikes by targeting US bases on Bahrain and Kuwait. An air raid alert was issued in Bahrain and residents were urged to “head to the nearest safe place”, the Gulf nation’s interior ministry said on X.
Kuwait closed its airspace temporarily as its military said its air defence systems were working to intercept “hostile aerial targets”.
Iranian media said the army had conducted drone strikes targeting communications antennas and radar facilities belonging to the US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain.
The Iranian navy said it also hit two ships attempting to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, adding that the crucial waterway was “completely closed” and that “any vessel traffic” there would be targeted.
CENTCOM denied that, saying “commercial ships are continuing to transit in and out of the Strait of Hormuz tonight”.
“Are you making the sacred Strait of Hormuz unsafe?! We will make the region hell for you,” Majid Mousavi, the head of the Iranian Guards’ aerospace force, said in a social media post.
The international benchmark for crude oil traded above $93 a barrel on Wednesday, up more than 25% since the start of the war.
Trump claimed Wednesday that the US military had secretly helped 100 million barrels of oil pass through the contested strait.
Trump has urged Iran to sign a deal to end the war and suggested earlier this week that an agreement could be reached in days. He complained that negotiators were taking too long, after having suggested that a deal was days away earlier this week.
“We were really close to a deal, but they keep tapping us along,” Trump told reporters on Wednesday.
Hegseth suggested the strikes could extend into a third night, saying they would be “strong” and “clear”.
Additional sources • AFP, AP