THE United States Central Command (CENTCOM) says it has launched a “heavy wave of strikes against Iran”, following Iranian missile attacks on US forces a day earlier.
It claimed to have hit dozens of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) targets early on Thursday, according to a statement posted on X, including “military command centres, missile and drone facilities, coastal surveillance and defence sites, and maritime capabilities”.
The strikes came hours after US President Donald Trump promised to hit Iran, “very hard”, after it targeted a base in Jordan where US troops are stationed.
Reporting from Tehran, Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar said these latest strikes are “concentrated in Iran’s southern provinces, particularly those along the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz”, similar to the US attacks during a recent 13-day campaign.
Iranian officials say a residential building on Qeshm Island was hit, with three people trapped under the rubble, and two injured people taken to hospital.
The explosions were heard as far as the port city of Bandar Abbas in Hormozgan province, leading to initial reports that the port was hit.
The island has experienced power outages, and authorities are working to restore electricity and remove debris, the officials said.
A deputy security minister in Khuzestan province told Iran’s state broadcaster IRIB that US forces targeted “some locations in Abadan”.
Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reported US strikes on the outskirts of the city of Kazerun in the southwestern Fars province, as well as two loud explosions on the island of Kish in the Gulf.
Authorities say operations at Kish island’s airport and passenger ferry services remain unaffected.
The IRGC said that as long as Washington’s threats continue, Tehran’s resistance will also continue.
Ryan Bohl, a senior Middle East analyst with RANE network, says the US has two likely escalation options.
“The first is the repeat of what America was doing prior to last Friday, which is focusing on targets and infrastructure related to Iran’s blockade of Hormuz,” he said.
“Or it could be an escalation towards the bridges and power plant strategy that President Trump has repeatedly threatened over and over again.”
The US is eager to end Iran’s control of the Strait of Hormuz, through which a large percentage of global oil shipping passes.
Earlier, Iran rejected an Omani proposal on co-managing shipping routes through the strait.
The US Treasury Department announced new sanctions on Wednesday on two Iranian firms it said are integral to an IRGC-backed “scheme” that forces commercial vessels to buy insurance to transit Hormuz.
“The United States will not allow Iran to hold global commerce hostage or use international shipping to finance the IRGC’s terrorism, aggression, and repression,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent wrote on X.