Iran launched rocket and drone attacks on Wednesday against what it described as U.S. bases and interests in Jordan, Iraq and Bahrain, while Kuwait also reported coming under Iranian attack, according to state media and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The strikes followed American air strikes that killed at least 11 people in southern and southwestern Iran, according to the Iranian news agency IRNA.
Saudi Arabia's National Shipping Company said two Philippine sailors were killed after its oil tanker Sidr came under attack while transiting the Strait of Hormuz late Monday. The company confirmed the deaths on Wednesday via social media, without specifying the nature of the incident. The Greek maritime risk management company Maersk said "projectiles of unknown origin" hit the vessel. Saudi Arabia's foreign ministry condemned what it said was an Iranian attack on the tanker.
Iran's Revolutionary Guard said both tankers attempted to navigate outside the shipping lane designated by Iranian forces in the strait, allegedly at the instigation of the U.S. military, before hitting mines and suffering explosions that caused fires, according to its account. The U.S. Central Command said its forces had targeted Iranian Revolutionary Guard positions including air defense systems, radar installations, naval assets, mine-laying capabilities and communications sites before announcing the end of that round of strikes.
Iran's Revolutionary Guard said it struck American positions in Jordan, Iraq and Bahrain in what it described as a "decisive" operation targeting U.S. bases and interests in the region. The Jordanian military said air defense systems intercepted 13 ballistic missiles entering Jordanian airspace, shooting down 10, with three landing in uninhabited areas and no reported casualties or damage. The Revolutionary Guard claimed to have killed U.S. forces in Jordan, but two American officials told Reuters initial assessments show no indication of casualties.
In Iraq's Kurdistan region, the Revolutionary Guard said it mounted a combined missile and drone attack on American bases in Erbil, destroying a maintenance center, equipment stores and a system for directing an American surveillance balloon at one base, though U.S. and Iraqi authorities did not confirm these claims. In Bahrain, alarm sirens sounded early Wednesday and authorities said they intercepted and destroyed Iranian drones, while the Iranian military said it targeted American forces at an air base. Kuwait reported coming under attack from rockets and drones; authorities said they extinguished a fire at a residential complex after an Iranian drone strike in the capital.
China's President Xi Jinping, meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Cairo, expressed readiness to work with Middle Eastern countries to protect maritime navigation, according to China's official state media and Xinhua news agency. The U.S. State Department warned Tuesday that the security environment in the Middle East remained "complex" with potential for unexpected escalation, and urged Americans in the region to exercise caution and watch for possible flight cancellations, airspace closures or travel disruptions. The department also said Iran and groups it supports could target U.S. interests abroad, associated sites and American nationals worldwide.
American air strikes killed at least 11 people in Iran, according to IRNA, which said seven were killed and eight wounded in an attack on three sites in Khuzestan Province in southwestern Iran. Four people attending a wedding in the city of Kohstak in Hormozgan Province in the southeast were also killed. Iran's Red Crescent earlier reported more than 50 people wounded in the strikes, including from shrapnel, with IRNA later citing a local official raising the wounded total to 68. Iran's foreign ministry said the American strike on the wedding venue amounted to a "war crime." Foreign ministry spokesman Ismail Khatibzadeh wrote on X that "the true face of war crime is in Kohstak" where the U.S. "brutally bombed a wedding." The U.S. Central Command spokesman Tim Hawkins said the American military "does not target civilians."
