U.S. forces launched a new wave of airstrikes against Iran overnight as violence in the region widened, including an Iranian attack in Kuwait and a drone attack that hit a U.S. tanker at an Egyptian port.
The U.S. strikes hit dozens of targets affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the U.S. Central Command said, “including military command centers, missile and drone facilities, coastal surveillance and defense sites, and maritime capabilities.” Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported that the U.S. military struck three cities in the southern Bushehr province overnight.
U.S. officials said the strikes were intended as a “powerful response” to Iran’s attacks on U.S. forces in the Middle East. President Donald Trump had threatened to hit Iran “hard” after the United States shot down five ballistic missiles aimed at U.S. forces in Jordan, a key American partner in the region.
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The Iranian attack Thursday in northern Kuwait hit a building belonging to a Chinese company, killing one worker, the Kuwaiti army said.
The drone attack in Egypt appeared to mark the first time that country had been targeted in the widening war. Two vessels caught fire Wednesday after a blast at an Egyptian transit hub, including a U.S.-owned tanker for storing liquefied natural gas, according to maritime tracking firm Ambrey.
The Egyptian government said Thursday that a drone caused the fire at Damietta Port and that no party has so far claimed responsibility. Egyptian officials said there were no casualties.
Iran has sent missiles and drones across the region since the U.S. and Israel launched their attack in February.
The conflict has in recent days threatened to expand further, with Saudi Arabia joining U.S. strikes on Iran-aligned militias in Iraq and Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis announcing a Red Sea blockade.
Speaking in the Oval Office on Thursday, Trump said he had been briefed on the incident in Egypt. “It’s a little more of the same, but it’s going to be straightening out,” he told reporters. “In the meantime, we’re going to be hitting them very hard.”
The latest hostilities mark a new interruption to talks to end the war, which has now entered its sixth month.
Dana Stroul, a senior Pentagon official during the Biden administration, said that both Trump and Tehran appeared “stuck,” with neither side seeing benefits to continuing the conflict or believing that negotiations will yield a decisive outcome.
“There is increasing pessimism in both capitals about the inability of the sides to commit to a diplomatic agreement,” she said.
Stroul, now a research director at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said it “almost seems like both sides continue to launch military strikes from a position of weakness.” Trump appears unwilling to launch major military operations that could threaten his base of political support in the midterm elections this fall, while Iran appears to see a “unique moment of maximum leverage.”
To date, 18 American service members have been killed and more than 600 wounded in the conflict, according to the Pentagon.
The Iranian Health Ministry said more than 3,500 people have been killed in the war.
Lior Soroka in Tel Aviv and Mohamad El Chamaa and Suzan Haidamous in Beirut contributed to this report.
