US and Iran Exchange Strikes Amid Escalating Tensions

The United States has completed a new wave of strikes against Iran, hitting more than 80 targets, according to US Central Command (CENTCOM). In response, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) struck 85 US military sites in Bahrain and Kuwait. Iranian state media reported fresh explosions on Qeshm Island and blasts heard on Kharg Island. Iran’s supreme joint military command stated its armed forces would deliver a ‘devastating response’ and would not tolerate US interference in the management of the Strait of Hormuz. Press TV reported a large explosion rocked the Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait, while sirens were sounded in Bahrain following reported blasts. Iranian Parliament Speaker and chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said US violations included breaching Iran’s arrangements in the Strait of Hormuz, continuous threats of further attacks, the re-imposition of oil sanctions, and strikes on southern Iranian territory. ‘The era of bullying and extortion is over. It will yield no results,’ he wrote on X. The US strikes were prompted by attacks on three commercial oil tankers transiting the Strait of Hormuz, leading the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to revoke a licence that had permitted Iranian oil sales until 21 August.