U.S., Iran Trade More Blows; CENTCOM Targets 90-plus Sites in Iran; Iran Attacks Kuwait, Jordan

Iran and the United States traded blows again yesterday in yet another escalation of the war U.S. President Donald Trump began on Israel’s behalf.

U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) reported striking nearly 100 targets in Iran, while Iran hit American military targets in Kuwait and attempted a strike in Jordan. Video posted online purports to show a burning airbase in Kuwait.

The latest suggests that the fragile ceasefire established in the memorandum of understanding (MOU) last month is all but broken.

More Than 90 Strikes

As The New American reported yesterday, the latest round of fighting began with what the U.S. military says was Iran’s attacking multiple ships in the Strait of Hormuz.

United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operation issued alerts about the attacks.

Two days ago, CENTCOM reported attacks on more than 80 targets in Iran. Yesterday, it reported “more than 90,” bringing the total number of targets to more than 170.

“U.S. forces struck approximately 90 Iranian military targets including air defense systems, coastal surveillance assets, missile and drone storage sites, naval capabilities, and military logistics infrastructure along Iran’s coastline,” CENTCOM reported.

Among the targets in the earlier attack were “more than 60 Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps small boats, to impose heavy costs for Iran violating the ceasefire by attacking three commercial vessels navigating the Strait of Hormuz.”

Citing Fars, Iran’s state news agency, Reuters reported that two days of strikes killed 14 people and wounded 78 in five provinces. The strike also hit a “rail bridge used for trade with Russia and China.”

“Several explosions were heard on Thursday morning in Iran’s Bushehr province and in Bandar Abbas, a ​port city on Iran’s south coast, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported,” Reuters continued:

Bushehr is home to a Russian-built nuclear power plant and a local official later told state media that a U.S. projectile had hit the perimeter area ​of the facility. The perimeter was already hit several times during the current conflict before an April 8 ceasefire.

U.S. strikes also hit a military site and a fishing dock in Bushehr province, its deputy governor said.

Iran Strikes Back

Retaliating, Iran attacked a U.S. Army fuel dump in Bahrain, an early-warning station in Qatar, and American Patriot missile batteries in Kuwait.

“Kuwait said its armed forces had engaged with a cruise missile, three ballistic missiles and 10 drones in its airspace, and that one person had been injured from falling shrapnel,” Reuters reported:

Sirens also sounded in Jordan on Thursday after missiles launched from Iran were detected in Jordanian airspace, the state news agency reported. Eight missiles were intercepted, with no injuries or damage reported, it said.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards later said Iran had fired 10 ballistic missiles at Jordan’s Azraq military base, ​which is used by U.S. forces, and also a ​U.S. military control center in the Middle East, ⁠without elaborating.

The target in Jordan, The New York Times reported, was Muwaffaq Salti Air Base.

The newspaper also identified the bridge.

“Online video verified by The New York Times shows damage to the Agh Tekeh Khan railway bridge near the Iranian city of Agh Qala,” the outlet explained:  

The footage from Iran’s northeastern province of Golestan emerged in the early hours of Thursday and shows a crater on the side of the bridge, with several people inspecting the damage. The railway line links Tehran to the country’s northern border with Turkmenistan.

The Iranian authorities have also said that U.S. strikes overnight hit a different railway line, which connects Tehran to the northeastern city of Mashhad, where Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was expected to be buried later on Thursday.

Said Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, speaker of Iran’s parliament, “America still hasn’t learned that bullying and breaking promises are no longer cost-free. Let me put it plainly: if you strike, you’ll get hit.”

“Don’t flail around pointlessly, or you’ll sink even deeper,” he further warned:

The Strait of Hormuz will only open with “Iranian arrangements,” not American threats.

MOU Dead?

The renewed fighting has all but wrecked the already-fragile MOU signed on June 17. Speaking at the close of the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, Trump said the deal is over.

“To me, I think it’s over,” he said, answering a reporter’s question:

I don’t want to deal with them. They’re scum. You know what scum is. They’re scum. They’re sick people. They’re led by sick people. They’re vicious, violent people.

A U.S. official confirmed Trump’s claim to CNN. The ceasefire “has at least temporarily ceased.”