US launches new strikes against Iran, Iran retaliates and threatens retaliation

The US Middle East Military Command (Centcom) announced on Tuesday that it had launched new strikes against Iran, in a short statement published on the the region.”

The Iranian Red Crescent said four people, including a child, were killed and more than 50 others injured while attending a wedding in the south of the country. The official Irna news agency reported four projectiles in the south of the country, east of the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic passage for the oil trade, where maritime traffic fell considerably after the outbreak of war in the Middle East on February 28. The province of Sistan-Baluchistan (southeast), already hit several times at the time of the resumption of hostilities in July, was affected, according to regional manager Ali Khalilabadi, who did not specify whether there had been any damage.

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State television also reported “explosions in the city of Bandar Abbas and on the island of Qeshm”, but also on the island of Lavan located in the Gulf and which houses one of the Iranian oil export terminals. Jiroft airport, in the South, would be targeted.

An immediate Iranian response

The Iranian Revolutionary Guards assured Tuesday that they would make the United States “regret” their new attacks near the Strait of Hormuz. The Iranian Tasnim news agency reported in the evening that “a decisive operation carried out by the Iranian armed forces in response to the American enemy has begun” targeting “American bases and interests in the region”. Several alarm sirens were activated shortly after in Jordan. Explosions were seen above the southern city of Aqaba, according to the AP, and Jordanian air defense announced it had intercepted 10 of the 13 ballistic missiles sent. Three of them fell in isolated areas, away from populated areas.

US President Donald Trump, for his part, threatened to hit Iran “much harder” in the event of retaliation.

The United States carried out strikes on Sunday, the first in a month, against launchers located on an Iranian island. Iran responded by attacking American targets in Jordan and the United Arab Emirates using missiles and drones, while affirming through its President Massoud Pezeshkian that it did not want the war to continue.

Hydrocarbon prices jumped on Tuesday after these latest hostilities, with the American WTI barrel crossing the $90 threshold for the first time since the end of July, and European gas trading at the most expensive in three years.