The United States struck dozens of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) targets across Iran overnight on Wednesday, while Tehran vowed retaliation amid suspected Iranian attacks on Kuwait and Jordan.
US Central Command said the strikes targeted military command centres, missile and drone facilities, coastal surveillance and defence sites, and maritime capabilities. It did not disclose the precise locations.
The attacks followed US President Donald Trump’s warning that Iran would be “hit very hard” after the IRGC launched ballistic missiles at a US base in Jordan on Wednesday. Iranian media reported explosions across Qeshm and Kish islands and the provinces of Fars, Bushehr, Khuzestan and Hormozgan.
Three people were killed when a residential building on Qeshm island was struck, according to Iran’s Fars news agency. The victims were a couple and their two-year-old child. Two other children, aged seven and nine, were wounded, while another child was recovered from the rubble.
Iranian state broadcaster IRIB said people remained trapped beneath the debris in Qeshm’s Chah-Tango neighbourhood after the building was “hit by enemy projectiles”. The director-general of crisis management for Hormozgan governorate said “efforts are ongoing to rescue three other members of this family”.
US forces also targeted areas near Kazerun in Fars province and three cities in Bushehr province, home to Iran’s only nuclear power plant. No casualties were reported in Bushehr.
At least seven locations were struck in Ahvaz, Khuzestan province, while “some locations in Abadan” were also targeted. Power outages were reported in parts of Ahvaz. Explosions were also heard in Bandar Abbas and on Abu Musa, Kish and Qeshm islands. Airport operations and passenger ferry services on Kish reportedly continued normally.
The IRGC threatened an immediate response, saying: “with the help of God Almighty, the aggressor will be punished today”. Jordan’s armed forces said its air defence systems intercepted and destroyed five Iranian missiles targeting the kingdom early on Thursday.
Kuwait’s Defence Ministry said one worker was killed when an Iranian attack struck a building belonging to a Chinese company in the country’s north.
The conflict has also spread beyond Iran and the Gulf. Egypt said a drone attack caused a fire that damaged two ships at the Mediterranean port of Damietta, though no group claimed responsibility.
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis have announced a blockade in the Red Sea and targeted Saudi-flagged ships, while Ukraine said it struck vessels carrying Iran-linked military cargo in the Caspian Sea.
Burcu Ozcelik of the Royal United Services Institute said tit-for-tat strikes were likely to continue alongside diplomacy. “The real danger is that this settles into a prolonged period of sustained confrontation, where regular military exchanges become the norm rather than the exception,” she said.
“The moment to watch for is a direct attack that prompts a collective Gulf military response against Iran, as well as the threat that the Houthis escalate in the Bab al-Mandeb.”
