US launches 12th night of strikes on Iran as Tehran threatens retaliation

The United States launched a 12th continuous night of strikes against targets in Iran, as Tehran threatened to launch more of its own attacks across the Gulf region, warning that “no infrastructure will be safe” unless its own security is guaranteed.

US Central Command (CENTCOM) said on Wednesday that the strikes were launched “to further degrade Iran’s ability to threaten civilian mariners and commercial vessels transiting regional waters”.

Iranian media reported attacks in Bushehr, Ahvaz, Jask, Andimeshk, and Sirik, all in southern Iran, while the deputy governor of Khuzestan province said that two people had been killed and 11 wounded in a missile attack on the Shalamcheh border crossing between Iran and Iraq.

Meanwhile, Kuwait said that its air defences had confronted an Iranian drone attack.

Iran has said that strikes in the Gulf will not stop if the US continues to attack and threaten Iran.

Iran’s chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf delivered the message in a post on X Wednesday, after US President Donald Trump threatened to attack more Iranian power plants and bridges.

“In a region where we do not sell oil, no one will sell oil,” Ghalibaf said. “If our security is not ensured, no infrastructure will be safe.”

Ghalibaf’s statement, echoing similar threats by other Iranian officials, came after yet another night of US attacks on Tuesday, some of which hit Iranian power plants and roads.

Both sides have been targeting civilian infrastructure, which is a war crime under international law unless it is being used for military purposes.

Iran’s Ministry of Health said US attacks since late last month have killed 53 people, including three children, and injured 590 others.

Iran has responded to the US onslaught with repeated attacks on US allies Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan this week, including hitting water and power plants in Kuwait.

An Iranian attack on an air base in Jordan on Friday killed three US service members, while a fourth US soldier was killed in Erbil, Iraq on Sunday during a controlled detonation of an attack drone. Their deaths brought the total number of US personnel killed during the war to 18, according to the US military.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran would retaliate “an eye for an eye” against any future attacks.

“Any aggression against Iran, including our infrastructure, will compel a powerful and decisive response,” Araghchi said.

Iran’s military said threats from Washington “will have no result other than the expansion of the war”.

“Neither side wants to look weak by backing down,” Mehran Kamrava, professor of government at Georgetown University in Qatar, told Al Jazeera.

But he said Iran is “running out of options in terms of the number of regional targets they can attack” without causing more severe lasting damage to its regional standing.

Trump ‘had enough of waiting’

The escalating attacks have led both sides to say they have abandoned the interim peace deal they signed last month, at least for now.

A major point of contention has been the status of the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has insisted on maintaining control over. The US military’s Central Command (CENTCOM) has said the strait “ remains open for transit” despite “threats and attacks” by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Iran-allied Houthis in Yemen have also threatened a second vital energy route, the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, by declaring a blockade of Saudi ports, prompting five tankers to change course in the Red Sea.

Trump raised the stakes on Wednesday by saying the US would attack one power plant or bridge in Iran every time Iranian forces target a ship in the Strait of Hormuz.

“President Trump had enough of waiting on the Iranians, and it does not seem there is any mediator with the credibility to bring the Iranians to the table,” Muhanad Seloom, assistant professor at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, told Al Jazeera.

As mediators rushed to salvage the faltering US-Iran agreement, Rubio said Wednesday Iran is not serious about diplomacy even though Iranian officials have been reaching out to Washington.

“If they’re serious, we’re serious. If they’re not, then we will do what’s necessary to protect our interests, and also the interests of our allies,” Rubio told reporters at a meeting of southeast Asian foreign ministers in Manila.