DUBAI — The United States launched a new wave of strikes against Iran on Wednesday, according to the US Central Command.
“At 6 a.m. ET today (1000GMT Wednesday), US Central Command forces began launching a wave of strikes against Iran,” the commander said on the US social media company X.
“The strikes are designed to further degrade military capabilities Iranian forces have used to attack commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz,” it added.
Tensions between the US and Iran have escalated in recent days over the Strait of Hormuz, with the two sides exchanging attacks despite a Pakistan-mediated memorandum of understanding aimed at ending the conflict and reaching a lasting peace agreement.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said on Wednesday it had targeted what it described as command-and-control, logistics, fuel and military equipment facilities belonging to the US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain, Reuters reported.
This was in response to what it said were US actions in the Indian Ocean and efforts to control the strait of Hormuz and restrict shipping routes.
The IRGC said the strait of Hormuz will remain closed until the “end of America’s evils”, according to Reuters news agency.
It claimed the Guards also attacked Kuwait’s Mina Abdullah, and “set fire to and destroyed” a US military logistics and support center. The reports cannot be independently verified.
The Guards warned that if Washington sought to block the region’s oil and gas exports by controlling maritime routes, other export routes serving US and allied interests could also be closed, saying regional energy exports would be “for everyone or for no one”.
Seven Iranian army personnel were killed and 13 others wounded after a missile strike hit a barracks in southeastern Iran early Wednesday. Iranian military described it as the first direct US attack on the Iranian army since the current conflict began.
State broadcaster IRIB reported that the US military fired 13 missiles at a residential area and accommodation facility at a barracks of the Iranian army’s ground forces in the city of Bampur, in Sistan and Baluchestan province.
The Iranian army said seven members of the 388th Brigade were killed and 13 others were injured in the attack, while several others were wounded and are receiving medical treatment.
The military condemned the strike and vowed a “decisive response” to what it described as “US aggression.”
Previous rounds of Israeli strikes that began on June 13 and the joint US-Israeli attacks on Feb. 28 did not directly target Iranian army or Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps facilities.
Government spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani said Wednesday that more than 30 civilians have been killed in recent attacks on southern Iran in the recent US attacks.
The maritime traffic control center at Chabahar Port, southeastern Iran, was hit by US projectiles during overnight attacks, damaging its structure, the Ports and Maritime Affairs authority in Sistan and Baluchestan said on Wednesday.
The authority’s public relations department said in a statement that the port’s maritime traffic control center was struck following US attacks on Chabahar Port.
The maritime watchtower is a civilian facility mainly used for search and rescue operations for fishermen at sea, as well as for securing maritime trade, it said.
No casualties were immediately reported in the statement.
This came after a wheat storage silo and another site in Iran’s southwestern Khuzestan province were hit by US projectiles overnight, a provincial official said, according to Fars News Agency.
Valiollah Hayati, Khuzestan’s deputy governor for security and law enforcement affairs, said a wheat silo in Hoveyzeh County and another site in Dasht-e Azadegan County were struck.
Hayati said no casualties had been reported.
He added that assessments were underway and that further details would be announced later.
Earlier Tuesday, US President Donald Trump said strikes on Iran would continue and intensify in the coming days, warning that the US would begin targeting the country’s power plants and bridges next week unless Tehran returned to the negotiating table.
Source: Saudi Gazette