Iran Strikes U.S. Bases Across Middle East After American Attacks

by Stefan J. Bos, Worthy News Chief International Correspondent

WASHINGTON/JERUSALEM/TEHRAN (Worthy News) – Iran attacked American military positions across the Middle East on Wednesday after the United States carried out its largest strikes against the Islamic Republic since July, raising fears that their six-month conflict is returning to full-scale regional warfare.

Iran claimed the U.S. attacks also hit a wedding party, killing and injuring scores of people.

Angered over the strikes, Tehran hit back, saying it targeted U.S. assets in Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain and Iraq with missiles and drones after American forces struck Iranian air defenses, radar systems, maritime assets, mine-laying capabilities and communications facilities along Iran’s southern coast.

Jordan’s military reported dealing with 13 Iranian missiles, intercepting 10 while three landed in remote areas. Iran claimed Americans were killed, but U.S. officials indicated initial assessments showed no U.S. casualties.

REGIONAL WAR FEARS

Kuwaiti authorities reported intercepting Iranian drones, while firefighters extinguished a blaze at a residential complex struck by a drone. Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy’s regional headquarters, also reported that Iranian drones were intercepted and destroyed.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards additionally claimed missile and drone attacks against U.S. positions in Erbil in northern Iraq and the deaths of several American personnel there, though neither Washington nor Iraqi authorities immediately confirmed those claims.

U.S. Central Command linked the American strikes to Iranian attempts to attack commercial shipping and U.S. forces. President Donald J. Trump warned Tehran that further retaliation would bring attacks “at a much harder and higher level.”

“Last night was like the end of the world,” Mahmoud, 38, a municipal worker in Sirik County along the Strait of Hormuz, recalled while describing the U.S. attacks.

WEDDING STRIKE

Iranian authorities said a U.S. strike hit a home in Kuhestak in southern Hormozgan province where the wedding celebration was taking place, killing five people, including a four-year-old child, and wounding at least 68.

Media in Iran showed injured children and extensive damage at the site. Worthy News could not independently verify the circumstances of the incident.

U.S. Central Command acknowledged reports of civilian casualties but stressed that they originated with Iranian state media. “The U.S. military never targets civilians, unlike the IRGC,” CENTCOM spokesman Captain Tim Hawkins maintained.

“It’s very difficult to live like this. We don’t know when America will strike,” said Mahpari, 28, a woman in the southern port city of Bandar Abbas. “My family and I are constantly worried about where will it strike.”

HORMUZ BATTLE

Media in Iran also reported American strikes on civilian sites, a fishing pier, electricity infrastructure and Jiroft Airport in Kerman province. Washington maintained that its operation targeted military infrastructure.

Much of the increasingly dangerous confrontation centers on the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway through which roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil normally passes.

Iran says it has effectively closed the strait and is demanding permission and payments from vessels seeking passage, while American forces have been escorting commercial shipping through the strategic waterway.

Iran also claimed two tankers were struck by mines while U.S. personnel were guiding them through the strait. Separately, Saudi Arabia’s national shipping company reported that two Filipino crew members were killed aboard an oil tanker in the area earlier this week.

GLOBAL MARKETS HIT

The renewed fighting sent stocks lower in Asia, Europe and the Gulf on Wednesday. Oil prices initially surged to their highest levels since late July before retreating, with Brent crude falling to about $94 a barrel after briefly topping $97 as traders weighed the risk of further supply disruptions.

The escalating conflict is also becoming an increasingly serious political liability for Trump ahead of November’s U.S. congressional elections.

Trump advisers have been seeking to keep the Iran war relatively contained amid fears that prolonged fighting, rising gasoline prices and American casualties could damage Republican prospects in the midterm elections, according to sources familiar with White House thinking.

A Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll conducted in late August found just 31 percent of Americans approved of the war, while 63 percent disapproved.

U.S. ELECTION PRESSURE

The conflict has also strained U.S. stocks of advanced interceptors and other munitions, while military officials have raised concerns about sustaining prolonged operations and maintaining readiness elsewhere.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian indicated shortly before the latest attacks that Tehran remained prepared to return to an interim ceasefire reached with Washington in June if the United States also honored its commitments.

That agreement collapsed within weeks amid disputes over the Strait of Hormuz, and no talks between the two sides have been held since.

With Washington and Tehran again exchanging fire across several countries, prospects for reviving the ceasefire appeared increasingly uncertain Wednesday.

Copyright 1999-2026 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.

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