US expands strikes to northern Iran and disables ship trying to breach blockade

The US intensified its strikes on Iran early on Thursday, hitting targets further north as American forces also fired into a ship the US accused of trying to break its naval blockade on the Islamic Republic.

Iran retaliated with missile and drone fire targeting US allies in the region before dawn and warned its attacks may escalate.

Days of back-and-forth strikes by the US and Iran across the Middle East, and renewed threats to the Strait of Hormuz, have shredded the interim deal to end the Iran war and could tip the region back into all-out war.

Already, Iranian officials say US strikes have killed more than 35 people and wounded more than 300 others.

Strikes also reached into areas around Iran’s capital, Tehran, for the first time in the latest round of violence, showing a widening set of targets for the Americans.

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When the US and Israel launched the war on Iran on February 28, Tehran effectively closed the strait to shipping traffic, a move that sent the price of oil, fertiliser and many other goods soaring far beyond the region and gave Iran major leverage in negotiations.

Colonel Ebrahim Zolfaghari, a spokesperson for the Iranian military’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, threatened that Iran could launch widespread attacks on regional infrastructure if the US acts on President Donald Trump’s repeated warnings that America could hit Iranian bridges and power plants.

“All the infrastructure in the region will be crushed under the steel blows of the powerful armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran” should Mr Trump’s threat be carried out, he said.

“Under no circumstances and in no way will we allow America, as a foreign and extra-regional country, to interfere in the Strait of Hormuz,” he added. “This is Iran’s invincible red line.”

The US strikes on Thursday hit around Tehran, state media reported. It also reported that American attacks targeted Semnan province, home to Iran’s ballistic missile production and space programme.

Iranian media also reported strikes around the provinces of Hamedan, Hormozgan, Khuzestan, Lorestan, Markazi, and Sistan and Baluchistan.

On Wednesday, the US resumed striking Iran during daylight, further showing the increasing tempo of the attacks.

An attack on Greater Tunb Island, a strategic point in the Strait of Hormuz, targeted Iranian defence and missile sites, Central Command said.

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Meanwhile, the US military said it opened fire on the Curacao-flagged oil tanker Belma sailing toward Kharg Island, Iran’s main oil export terminal in the Persian Gulf.

After the ship “ignored multiple warnings”, a US aircraft disabled the merchant vessel by firing a missile into its smokestack.

Another American strike on Wednesday targeted a barracks for Iran’s 388th Mechanized Infantry Brigade, which operates tanks and armoured vehicles, in Sistan and Baluchestan province, Iranian state television reported.

The report said Americans fired at least 13 missiles in the attack and the seven dead included conscripts and career soldiers. A number of troops were wounded.

Iran retaliated on Thursday morning with missile and drone attacks on Bahrain, Jordan and Kuwait, authorities in those countries home to US forces said.

Kuwait reported a new round of incoming fire later on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi condemned an overnight drone attack on the city of Irbil in Iraq’s semiautonomous northern Kurdish region.

The drone, which authorities said had been intercepted, came during his trip to the US in which he said Iraq would work to disarm non-state armed groups, including those backed by Iran.

The latest round of fighting is focused on the Strait of Hormuz, as Iran attacks ships using a US-controlled route through the vital waterway.

The US has threatened to reopen the strait by force, but experts say that would require a much bigger armada if not tens of thousands of ground troops.

The price of Brent crude oil, the international standard, traded above 85 dollars a barrel on Thursday, more than 15% higher than the price before the war, but still well below the nearly 120 dollars reached at the height of the conflict.

Mr Trump again said Iran was ready to strike a peace deal, but he did not elaborate.

“They don’t like what we’re doing, and they do want to settle. We’ll find out whether or not we settle with them, or we just finish it off,” he said on Wednesday.