The US launched a 12th consecutive night of strikes on Iran early Wednesday, signalling no let-up in the escalating conflict as both sides increasingly targeted civilian infrastructure. The latest attacks came as Washington sought to reassert control over the Strait of Hormuz and restore commercial shipping through the strategic waterway.
At least two people were killed after a US missile struck near the passenger terminal at the Shalamcheh border crossing on the Iran-Iraq border. The route is used daily by thousands of Shia Muslim pilgrims travelling to the holy city of Karbala, Reuters and Xinhua reported, citing Iranian media.
The strikes came as tensions sharpened over the strait, which remains largely closed, and as diplomatic efforts showed little public sign of progress. President Donald Trump warned earlier on Wednesday that the United States would destroy a bridge or power plant each time Iran fired at a ship in the strait, while Iran said it would respond in kind to any attack on its infrastructure.
"From this point forward, any time the Islamic Republic of Iran shoots at a ship in the Strait of Hormuz, whether it be by Missile, Rocket, Drone, or any other device or weapon, the United States will bomb and destroy ONE BRIDGE OR POWER PLANT," Trump wrote on social media.
However, the tug-of-war between Iran and the US persisted in the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday. Iran's Revolutionary Guards said that one of three tankers travelling through the strategic energy chokepoint caught fire after an explosion on what it described as a mined route south of the strait.
It also said the two other tankers turned back soon after the incident and warned that no vessel would be allowed to enter or leave the strait without Iran's coordination, despite US President Donald Trump's repeated assertions that the US controls it.
Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said Tehran would follow an "eye for an eye" doctrine. "Any aggression against Iran, including our infrastructure, will compel a powerful and decisive response," he posted on X on Wednesday.
Iranian state media said US missiles struck areas late on Wednesday near Ahvaz, Ramshir and Andimeshk in western Iran. Early on Thursday, the same media reported that two people were killed in a US missile strike in the town of Shalamcheh on the Iraqi border.
In Kuwait, military officials said on social media that the country's air defences were "confronting attacks by hostile drones, following the sinful Iranian aggression." Iran has responded to US attacks by targeting energy facilities and desalination plants that supply drinking water in neighbouring Gulf states. International law generally prohibits such attacks unless the infrastructure is being used for military purposes.
The war's economic impact is also deepening. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's traded oil and gas passed in peacetime, has shaken the global economy well beyond the Middle East. A fresh threat by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen to target Saudi shipping in the Red Sea has also put another major trade chokepoint at risk.
The conflict is also imposing mounting costs on the United States. Trump travelled to Dover Air Force Base on Wednesday for the arrival of the remains of four US service members.
A day earlier, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth told a Senate hearing that the US had spent USD 37.5 billion on the war so far. The continued airstrikes are taking place as the unpopular war threatens wider economic disruption and pushes up fuel prices ahead of the US midterm elections this fall.
Iran says it has the right to manage traffic through the strait and could potentially charge fees there. Before the war, the passage was open to all vessels and toll-free. Tehran has also attacked ships using a route through the strait that is overseen by US forces and was intended to remain outside Iranian control.
Iran's parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, who has led negotiations with the US, appeared to dismiss Trump's warning. "We have repeatedly said that the situation of the strait will not return to prewar conditions," he wrote on social media.
There was little sign of a diplomatic breakthrough. Before the latest strikes, Iranian Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni visited Pakistan, which has been a key mediator in the conflict, in an effort to revive diplomacy. It remained unclear, however, what arrangement could end a war that has increasingly become a struggle for control of the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran's Interior Ministry spokesman Ali Zeinivand said "diplomacy isn't called off" and that messages were still being exchanged, according to IRNA, though he gave no further details.
An Arab diplomat told international news agency Associated Press that Gulf states were becoming more pessimistic about finding a way to stop the escalation and were especially concerned by the latest threats.
The diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said countries in the region, along with Pakistan and Turkey, were still pushing for de-escalation, but that the chances of improvement currently appeared bleak.
With American strikes continuing for a 12th night, Iranian retaliation expanding to infrastructure and shipping, and mediators still unable to secure progress, the conflict around the Strait of Hormuz remains unresolved, with military, diplomatic and economic pressures all rising.
Source: Reuters