The United States struck Iran and Tehran hit back at Gulf states on Thursday, as the foes battled over the vital Strait of Hormuz in the renewed Middle East war.
The key oil and gas artery, which Iran insists it controls, is central to the rekindled fighting that has entered its sixth day despite the foes’ preliminary deal in June aiming to end the war.
US forces hit Iranian military targets in multiple locations including coastal Bandar Abbas to “degrade Iran’s ability to threaten innocent mariners” in the Strait of Hormuz, Central Command (CENTCOM) said.
Earlier strikes had targeted coastal defense and cruise missile sites on Greater Tunb Island in the Gulf, CENTCOM added.
Iran’s official IRNA news agency reported explosions in several areas of the country on Thursday, including Lorestan in the west and Senman in the north, while air defenses were triggered in parts of Tehran.
Soon after, US allies in the Gulf began reporting attacks, with Kuwait saying it intercepted Iranian drones and Bahrain sounding air raid sirens.
At the heart of the renewed fighting is the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway crucial to global oil and gas flows.
Iran blockaded Hormuz after the war erupted with US-Israeli strikes on February 28, using the waterway for leverage against its foes for months.
The strait was briefly reopened after the US-Iran deal last month, before Tehran vowed last week it would be closed again “until the US ends its aggression.”
Iran’s military said it targeted US military facilities in Jordan with drones, “in response to the enemy aggression,” state television IRIB said.
Earlier, the US military said one of its aircraft fired on and disabled an empty oil tanker that was trying to break the naval blockade of Iran’s ports.
In Iraq, Kurdish forces said the US-led coalition downed eight explosive-laden drones over Erbil, the capital of the northern Kurdistan region, where AFP journalists heard explosions and saw smoke near the US consulate.
Hours later, Iraqi Prime Minister condemned the “drone attack” without identifying their origin.
Meanwhile, Iran has asked Yemen’s Houthi militia to stand ready to close the Bab El-Mandeb oil route if the United States strikes Iranian power infrastructure, three sources told Reuters on Thursday, posing a potent new threat to global energy supplies.
The idea has been discussed within the Islamic Republic’s leadership, and the message has been conveyed to Iran’s Houthi allies, two senior Iranian sources and a regional source familiar with the matter said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The sources said the Houthis had been informed recently of Tehran’s request, which has not been previously reported.
They did not give further details on how it had been conveyed or whether it was after US President Donald Trump’s threat to attack Iranian power infrastructure on Tuesday.
Iran’s foreign ministry and a spokesperson for the Houthi group were not immediately available to respond to Reuters’ request.
Houthis deploy drones near Bab El-Mandeb, says source
A source close to the Houthis said the group had completed preparations to attack shipping by deploying missiles and drones near Bab El-Mandeb strait, the gateway to the Red Sea, in Yemen’s highlands overlooking Hodeidah and the Gulf of Aden and was awaiting the order to begin.
With the Hormuz strait already shut, any Houthi attacks on vessels or ports in the Red Sea would leave the Middle East’s two main oil export routes disrupted simultaneously, opening a new front in both the energy crisis and Iran’s wider conflict with the US.
Representatives of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) who are already in Yemen will control the decision on when to close the Bab El-Mandeb strait, said the source close to the Houthis.
Iran views the Houthis as part of its regional “Axis of Resistance,” an alliance that also includes Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Iraqi Shiite armed groups that have already joined the regional conflict between Tehran and Washington.
But the Houthis have not formally entered the fray.
The US says Iran has provided the Houthis with weapons, funding and training, including support channelled through Hezbollah. Tehran has denied the accusation.
‘No reason to adhere’
But despite renewed hostilities, mediated talks between the two sides have not formally ended.
“Next week it gets really bad for them,” US President Donald Trump told Fox News, threatening to hit power plants and bridges unless Tehran returns to the negotiating table.
But Iran’s top negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf warned that “a memorandum of understanding only has meaning when its clauses are valid and being implemented. If Iran is not to derive any benefit from the memorandum of understanding, we have no reason to adhere,” he said in a statement.
Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has remained low, with maritime tracker Kpler reporting only 21 transits on Tuesday, and oil prices ticked higher after the latest escalation.
The United States has also reimposed a blockade of Iran’s ports.
Written with reports from Arab News, Alarabiya News
