Tehran has launched missile and drone attacks at US targets in Jordan, Kuwait, Iraq and Bahrain after American forces resumed strikes against Iran on Tuesday.
The Iranian Red Crescent said five people, including a child, were killed and more than 50 injured when shrapnel from a US missile attack hit a home where a wedding celebration was taking place in Sirik in southern Iran.
The US military said it was aware of the reports but that it never targeted civilians.
US Central Command (Centcom) said US strikes on Iran followed “recent attempted attacks” by Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) against commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and American forces in the region.
The IRGC said the US would “regret” the strikes. By early Wednesday, it had launched a barrage of ballistic missiles at a US Marine base in Jordan’s Aqaba in retaliation for the Sirik attack, according to Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency.
The Jordanian Armed Forces said it had intercepted 13 ballistic missiles, 10 of which were destroyed, while three fell in remote areas. There were no deaths or injuries.
Separately, the Kuwait army said its air defences were responding to Iranian missile attacks early Wednesday.
Several explosions were also reported in Bahrain, according to Iranian state media.
Irna news agency also reported that the IRGC had struck US bases in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region, destroying a maintenance centre, warehouses and equipment.
After about a month-long pause, the US resumed attacks on Iran earlier this week, when it announced it had struck two rocket launchers which were used to lay mines in the Strait if Hormuz. Tehran retaliated by firing missiles at air bases in Jordan and a drone at the UAE.
Centcom said the latest attacks against IRGC targets had started at 12:00 ET (16:00 GMT) and been completed by early Wednesday.
Iranian state media reported projectiles had hit the areas of Chabahar and Konarak and an airport in Jiroft, and that explosions were heard in Qeshm island and Bandar Abbas.
Iranian state media and the Iranian Red Crescent reported that civilian sites on Iran’s southern coast had been bombed, with a child among those killed at a wedding ceremony in Sirik county, which lies on the Strait of Hormuz.
US Navy Captain Tim Hawkins, speaking on behalf of Centcom, told the BBC it was aware of reports from Iranian state media of the attack in Sirik.
He added: “The US military never targets civilians, unlike the IRGC.”
The US and Israel launched wide-ranging strikes on Iran on 28 February, with Iran responding by attacking Israel, US bases and allied states in the Gulf, and effectively closing the Strait of Hormuz to marine traffic.
A US-Iran agreement, known as the Memorandum of Understanding, to extend an April ceasefire between the two countries was signed in June.
However that agreement has expired, leading to a resumption of hostilities. Both the US and Iran have also fired on shipping, with Tehran targeting vessels it says have sought to cross the strait without its permission and the US enforcing a naval blockade of Iranian ports.
On 24 August, Washington also announced a fresh sanctions campaign against Iran and those countries that continued traiding with it.
Speaking at a G20 finance ministers meeting, the US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said many US allies “came forward and said they will do whatever is necessary” concerning the sanctions against Iran.
Iranian officials and state media have largely dismissed the campaign as a continuation of previous US economic measures, which they argue followed Washington’s military failure in the recent conflict.
Source: BBC
