US strikes reach Tehran as Iran targets Bahrain, Jordan and Kuwait

Summary

The United States stepped up its strikes on Iran early Thursday, hitting targets further north, including areas around Tehran, as Washington also said its forces fired on a ship accused of trying to break a renewed naval blockade on the Islamic Republic. Iran responded before dawn with missile and drone attacks aimed at Bahrain, Jordan and Kuwait, and warned that its attacks could intensify. The latest exchange has deepened fears of a wider regional war and further damaged an interim deal aimed at ending the Iran conflict. Iranian officials said US strikes have killed more than 35 people and wounded over 300 others. The attacks reaching areas around Tehran for the first time in this latest phase also underlined a widening range of American targets. When the US and Israel began the war on Iran on February 28, Tehran effectively shut the Strait of Hormuz to shipping, sending the prices of oil, fertiliser and many other goods sharply higher and giving Iran major leverage in negotiations. On Thursday, Col. Ebrahim Zolfaghari, spokesperson for the Iranian military's Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, escalated Tehran's warning by referring to US President Donald Trump's repeated threat that America could hit Iranian bridges and power plants. "All the infrastructure in the region will be crushed under the steel blows of the powerful armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran" if Trump's threat is carried out, Zolfaghari said. "Under no circumstances and in no way will we allow America, as a foreign and extra-regional country, to interfere in the Strait of Hormuz," he added.