(Reuters)
DUBAI, July 21 – U.S. forces bombed targets in southern Iran overnight after President Donald Trump said Tehran would pay dearly for the deaths of American soldiers, while Iran targeted U.S. sites in Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan and a tanker was hit in the Strait of Hormuz.
The exchanges came a day after Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis said they would impose a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia, opening a potential new front in the war and raising the threat to global energy supplies and trade beyond the Gulf.
Despite the escalating cycle of attacks that has all but wrecked an interim peace agreement signed last month, signs that Tehran and Washington want to resume diplomacy kept oil prices, opens new tab in check.
U.S. Central Command said it had completed its latest round of strikes on Iran, saying it hit Iranian military command centers, maritime capabilities, missile and drone launch sites, and air defence systems.
Explosions were heard around the city of Shiraz in southern Iran, while Konarak and Chabahar on the southern coast also came under attack, according to state media.
Iran responded with renewed attacks across the Gulf, where recent strikes on desalination facilities have raised concerns about water shortages and underscored the growing threat to civilian infrastructure.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they targeted infrastructure in Bahrain belonging to U.S. tech company Amazon in retaliation for what they described as a U.S. strike on the construction site of Iran’s planned Darkhovin nuclear power plant.
Iranian state media reported that Iranian forces also targeted accommodation facilities used by U.S. military personnel at Bahrain’s Sheikh Isa Air Base. There was no immediate comment from the U.S. military, Bahrain or Amazon on the reported incidents, which Reuters was unable to verify.
The Iranian army said it launched drone attacks against three U.S. military bases in Kuwait on Tuesday. The Revolutionary Guards said they attacked a U.S. military site in Jordan, and Jordan said its forces intercepted and destroyed five Iranian drones.
