The United States launched fresh attacks against Iran on Thursday, prompting Tehran to retaliate, as US leaders accused their counterparts of dragging out negotiations for a deal to end the three-month war. The second straight day of tit-for-tat strikes, with Iran targeting US bases across the Gulf, sent oil prices rising again. US President Donald Trump, who had repeatedly said negotiations with Tehran were close to an end, said on Wednesday that Iran keeps “playing us for suckers” and will now “have to pay the price”.

Hours after, US Central Command (Centcom) said American forces began “additional self-defence strikes” at 5:15pm on Wednesday Washington time — early Thursday in Iran — in response to what it called Tehran’s “unwarranted and continued aggression”. Iranian media reported explosions across the south near the Strait of Hormuz, with explosions heard in Bandar Abbas, Qeshm and Minab, and sources reporting hits by “enemy projectiles” in Kargan and Sirik.

Centcom said later that it had “completed” its strikes on “Iranian military surveillance capabilities, communication systems, and air defence sites”. American forces “fired precision munitions on Iranian targets that posed a threat to US forces and international commercial ships transiting regional waters”, the command said. The renewed hostilities came as Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said that if Trump required it, “we’ll negotiate with bombs, and we’re very good at it”.

In response to the US strikes, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said they had struck US targets on bases in Kuwait and Bahrain, and that they also “hit and destroyed Sheikh Isa air bases”, according to the state-run IRNA news agency. Iranian media said the army had conducted drone strikes targeting communications antennas and radar facilities belonging to the US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain.

An air raid alert was issued in Bahrain and residents were urged to “head to the nearest safe place”, the Gulf nation’s interior ministry said on X. Kuwait closed its airspace temporarily as its military said its air defence systems were working to intercept “hostile aerial targets”. Iran also renewed its warning over the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway for oil and gas transport which it has essentially closed.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)