Iran launched strikes against US interests across the Middle East on Wednesday, saying it would respond with “severe” consequences after renewed US attacks on the Islamic republic. The Iranian Red Crescent said shrapnel from a US missile hit a home where a wedding celebration was taking place in Kuhestak, in Hormozgan province. It said four people, including a child, were killed and more than 50 others were wounded. Iran’s state media and officials said the latest wave followed earlier American strikes that Tehran said killed 11 people in Iran’s south and southwest. The conflict, now in its sixth month, has widened again to bases and positions across the region, including facilities used by the United States and its Gulf allies. US Strikes And Reported Missile HitsWashington said it carried out attacks after Iran’s forces attempted to add sea mines to the Strait of Hormuz, a key shipping route. US President Donald Trump said the strikes were “in retaliation” and also referenced an earlier Iranian attempt to fire missiles at a US military base in Jordan, adding that eight were “successfully knocked down”. In Iran’s account of Wednesday’s escalation, Iranian forces targeted US bases in Jordan with ballistic missiles, Iranian media said. The Jordanian army said it intercepted 10 ballistic missiles fired from Iran and did not confirm any hits or injuries. 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 journalists reported air raid alerts early on Wednesday, while Iran’s army said it conducted drone attacks aimed at US forces at an air base. In Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they struck US bases with missiles and drones, destroying a maintenance centre, warehouses and equipment, according to IRNA. Iran also reported additional effects from the wider fighting. IRNA said seven people were killed and eight others were wounded in a missile attack in Khuzestan province. Escalation Across HormuzThe most recent round began on Sunday, when the United States carried out strikes against Iranian targets for the first time in several weeks. Iran then said its forces targeted US troops in Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, and projectiles struck two oil tankers in attacks that were not claimed. Further US strikes were reported on Tuesday. Iran’s state television said explosions occurred in the country’s south along the Hormuz Strait and on an island in the Gulf, and that US forces hit an airport in the southern province of Kerman. Earlier, the Iranian Red Crescent had attributed the wedding deaths to shrapnel from a US missile strike, but the US military did not address the wedding incident directly. US Central Command spokesman Tim Hawkins said the United States did not target civilians, contrasting this with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. Warnings From Washington And TehranTrump said on Tuesday that if Iran retaliated, it would be struck again “at a much harder and higher level” but that the biggest attack was still to come. Separately, he said he was not trying to force Iran into negotiations and added that he “couldn’t care less” whether the country reaches an agreement, while asking when Iranians would “rise up and fight”. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards spokesman Hossein Mohebi warned on X that Washington would “regret” the new attacks, saying “severe punishment” awaited them. Ebrahim Zolfaghari, a spokesperson for Iran’s Khatam-al Anbiya central military command, said any country cooperating with the US would face responses that would be “more severe, more widespread and destructive”. Stalemate Over Strait ClosureDespite diplomatic deadlock, Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Tuesday he would match any US move to return to talks aimed at ending the war. He warned that resuming a “policy of pressure and threats” could derail diplomacy. After months of fighting, the two sides remain in a standoff over access to the Strait of Hormuz. Iran keeps the strait closed, while the United States has continued a counter-blockade of Iranian ports. Washington said it attacked rocket launchers on the island of Larak on Sunday to prevent mine planting in key shipping lanes. The war began in late February with US-Israeli attacks on Iran that killed its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. A fragile ceasefire later collapsed after attacks on commercial ships in the Hormuz Strait, through which about one-fifth of world oil supplies flow. Join the discussion? 2 September 2026
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