Iran launches fresh strikes on US targets across Middle East as tensions escalate

Iran launched a new wave of attacks against US interests across the Middle East on Wednesday, intensifying an already volatile confrontation after American strikes on Iran and a deadly attack on a wedding gathering in the country's south.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said targets in Jordan, the UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain and Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region were hit. The latest attacks marked one of the most intense exchanges between Tehran and Washington in weeks.

US strikes hit Iranian military sites

The escalation followed US strikes announced by US Central Command on Tuesday. The American military said it had targeted air defence sites, radar systems, maritime assets, mine-laying capabilities and communications facilities linked to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

“The strikes follow recent attempted attacks by the IRGC against commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and against American service members,” Central Command said in a statement posted on X.

The US said the operation came after what it described as recent IRGC attacks involving commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and American personnel.

Trump warns Iran of tougher response

US President Donald Trump said the strikes were carried out in response to Iran's alleged attempts to place mines in the Strait of Hormuz and an earlier attack on a military base.

Trump warned that any Iranian retaliation would trigger an even stronger US response.

“If the failed Nation of Iran retaliates for this very justified attack, they will be hit again at a much harder and higher level, but it will not be the biggest attack of them all, that is waiting in the wings and, when it is over, there will be very little left of the Islamic Republic of Iran!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Iran vows to continue pressure

Iranian forces subsequently targeted American interests in Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan. The Revolutionary Guards said Camp Titin, a US Marine Corps base in Jordan, came under an “intense ballistic missile attack”.

Iran's Supreme National Security Council Secretary Mohsen Rezaei also warned Washington of a broader response.

“With these desperate moves, you will not escape the depths of the hell you have created for yourselves,” he said.

“You will soon see Iran’s new strategy on the battlefield, in diplomacy and against the economic blockade shatter your foundations,” he added.

Meanwhile, analysts warned that neither side could sustain the current confrontation indefinitely, with military pressure mounting on the US and Iran facing growing economic strain.