- As Tehran ignites violent retaliation with missiles, drones attacks on regional allies
- Six days of fighting edge closer to all-out war, threatens last month’s peace deal
- Chaos, confusion bring US no closer to resolution on Strait of Hormuz
The United States (US) has intensified its attacks on Iran, hitting targets near Tehran and striking a ship it accused of trying to break its blockade, while Iran retaliated by firing missiles and drones at US allies in the region.
This is as six consecutive days of back-and-forth attacks threaten to pull the region back into a total war, casting serious doubt about an interim deal reached last month meant to achieve a permanent peace.
Reports confirmed that the attacks have been accompanied by escalating rhetoric from both sides, as the US enforced its naval blockade and Iran said it had shut the strait of Hormuz, which before the conflict handled about a fifth of global oil and gas exports.
Also, reports have emerged indicating that Iran requested its allies in Yemen, the Houthis, to be prepared to close the oil route through the Red Sea if the US targeted Iranian energy infrastructure, and Reuters said this is a threat that, if followed through, could paralyse the global energy market.
Speaking on ongoing developments in the Gulf region, the Houthi leader, Abdul Malik al-Houthi, also threatened that all Saudi oil and other critical facilities could be targeted by the group if Riyadh intervened in Yemen. The threat came after Saudi struck Sanaa airport, leading to retaliatory missile strikes from the Houthis on Saudi Arabia.
Meanwhile, the US launched its latest wave of strikes on Iran early on Thursday, hitting areas around Tehran for the first time in the current round of fighting, as well as striking other provinces, Iranian state media reported.
According to Iranian media, US missiles also hit locations near the port city of Bandar Abbas, as well as Qeshm island where drones and missiles are stored, late on Thursday afternoon.
Confirmed reported also said the US fired on a tanker sailing towards Kharg island, Iran’s biggest oil export terminal with US Central Command saying a Hellfire missile was fired at the ship after it “ignored multiple warnings”.
US attacks had killed more than 35 people and wounded more than 300 others in recent days, Iranian authorities said, even as Tehran accused the US of carrying out a “barbaric attack” after a cancer hospital in south-west Iran was evacuated because of strikes nearby.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Esmaeil Baghaei, said on X: “This barbaric attack, reminiscent of Israel’s atrocities against healthcare facilities, caused severe suffering and anxiety upon the hospitalised children”, adding that “211 patients undergoing chemotherapy” were evacuated.
On Thursday, July 16, Iran responded with missiles and drones targeting Bahrain, Jordan and Kuwait, which host US bases. Iraq’s Prime Minister, Ali al-Zaidi, also said there was an overnight drone attack on the city of Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan. The attack, which was intercepted, came as al-Zaidi pledged during a trip to the US to disarm non-state armed groups.
Iraqi authorities also briefly suspended crude oil loading at all of its terminals on Thursday after a drone crashed into an oil tanker in Basra without causing damage, Reuters reported. Crude oil loading resumed later in the day.
Iran warned that it could expand its attacks in the region in response to comments from Donald Trump, the US president, that he could strike power plants, bridges and a nuclear facility.
“All the infrastructure in the region will be crushed under the steel blows of the powerful armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” said Col Ebrahim Zolfaghari, an Iranian military spokesperson, warning further that: “Under no circumstances and in no way will we allow America, as a foreign and extra-regional country, to interfere in the strait. This is Iran’s inviolable red line.” – With The Guardian report
