US and Iran Trade Fresh Strikes as Gulf Crisis Deepens

The United States has launched a fresh wave of airstrikes against Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) targets in Iran, prompting immediate retaliation from Tehran and sharply escalating a conflict that has rattled global energy markets. The strikes, the second round in three days, mark the most serious exchange since a brief period of relative calm.

Global oil prices jumped by more than $4 a barrel on Tuesday, settling at a five-week high, as the escalating hostilities threatened vital shipping lanes. The latest US action came after a weekend exchange of fire and Monday's strikes on two tankers leaving the Strait of Hormuz, a critical waterway for global oil supplies that has seen most tanker traffic halted due to Iranian threats.

Iranian state media reported multiple explosions across the country, including near the city of Ahvaz, at the civilian Jiroft airport, and in the southeastern port of Chabahar. The Iranian Red Crescent reported that five people were killed and 50 wounded at a wedding near Sirik, a coastal area on the Strait of Hormuz. There was no immediate US reaction to these reports.

In response, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it launched a heavy ballistic missile attack on a US Marine Corps base in Jordan, claiming to have killed a large number of US forces. However, two US officials said initial information indicated no casualties from the attack on facilities in Jordan. Jordan's armed forces said its air defense systems intercepted 10 of 13 ballistic missiles that entered its airspace, with the remaining three falling in remote areas.

President Donald Trump threatened Iran with further, more severe attacks if Tehran retaliates. In a social media post, he warned that a bigger attack was "waiting in the wings" and that "very little" would be left of Iran if it continued. He also dismissed the prospects of a new ceasefire, telling Fox News that an agreement with Iran "isn't worth the paper it's written on."

Tehran remained defiant. Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf was quoted as saying, "If the enemy wants us not to export oil from the Persian Gulf, no one will be able to export oil." The IRGC said the US attacks would "tighten the lock" on the Strait of Hormuz, which carries a fifth of the world's oil under normal conditions.

The conflict, which began in late February, has killed thousands in Iran and Lebanon. A June Memorandum of Understanding intended to halt the fighting collapsed, largely over interpretations of Iranian control of the Strait of Hormuz, and a subsequent 60-day negotiation period passed without further agreement.