U.S. missiles struck targets across Iran on Friday and President Donald Trump vowed "major military punishment" for Tehran and its Houthi allies in Yemen, though he once again left open the door to a diplomatic deal with Iran.
Two weeks after the collapse of an interim truce meant to end the war, the Iranian armed forces responded by firing at U.S. bases in neighbouring Arab countries and warning people there that they could strike non-military buildings used by U.S. personnel.
Trump has threatened in recent days to expand the targets being struck in Iran to include energy plants and bridges, to send ground forces to seize its Kharg Island oil hub, and to bomb a deep-underground nuclear-linked site known as Pickaxe Mountain.
On Friday, he said he had not yet made a decision for new major strikes.
"We are talking to them. I think they're being serious. I think ... they are being by far the most serious that we've seen them, but that doesn't mean we get there," Trump told reporters at the White House.
Asked what is the exit strategy for the Iran war, Trump said: "There's a military exit where we just keep going just the way we are, and we can even make it a heavier dose, and it's knocking out everything they have. Or there's a smarter strategy that you make a deal."
But he added: "We're locked and loaded. We're ready to go."
The Strait of Hormuz, entrance to the Gulf, has so far been the focus of a war that has killed thousands in almost five months, stoked global inflation and fanned fears of an economic downturn.
The Houthis, who control northern and western Yemen, have also announced a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia, which has diverted millions of barrels of oil each day by pipeline to the Red Sea to skirt Iran's near-total blockade of Hormuz.
After the Houthis said they had struck two Saudi tankers in the Red Sea on Thursday, Trump said he would hold Iran accountable for any further attacks by the fighters.
The Saudi-led coalition in Yemen said it carried out strikes on Houthi military sites in Yemen's Hodeidah governorate on Friday, saying the sites were used to threaten commercial shipping.
The Houthi-affiliated Al Masirah TV said Saudi strikes hit facilities belonging to the state telecommunications corporation in Hodeidah city. The broadcaster also said Saudi forces targeted Kamaran Island, off Yemen's western coast.
IRAN THREATENS U.S. FORCES
The U.S. military launched air strikes on Iran late on Thursday and early on Friday, for a 13th consecutive night of attacks, prompting Iran to fire at neighbouring Arab countries that host U.S. bases.
U.S. missiles struck a Revolutionary Guards Navy headquarters in the Ziba Kenar area of the Caspian Sea province of Gilan, according to a security official in Gilan quoted by Iranian media. Provincial authorities said U.S. projectiles had also struck the port city of Bandar Anzali, according to the Iranian Labor News Agency (ILNA) news agency.
Four people were killed and five injured in a U.S. attack on the Iranian city of Ahvaz, the state broadcaster IRIB said.
In a statement carried by Iran's Fars news agency, the Revolutionary Guards warned the populations of Gulf countries of potential strikes against U.S. military personnel who may be using "buildings in cities as locations to direct their crimes".
Trump told Axios on Thursday he was considering relaunching major combat against Iran. "They haven't received enough pain yet," the U.S. news outlet quoted him as saying.
In a statement on X, the Iranian health ministry said 59 people had been killed and 666 wounded since the resumption of clashes with U.S. forces in late June.
Iranian media cited the head of Iran's top joint military command as saying Iran would kill a member of the U.S. forces for every Iranian killed.
The war has killed 18 U.S. service members. The Pentagon said on Monday that 100 service members had been injured since July 7 and 96% have returned to duty. Officials have told Reuters that more than 500 U.S. troops have been injured so far.
PAKISTAN EXPLORING PATH FOR TALKS, SOURCES SAY
The attack on the Saudi tankers on Thursday in the Red Sea's Bab el-Mandeb Strait boosted oil prices 7% to top $100 per barrel for the first time since May.
However, by around 1600 GMT on Friday, Brent futures were down more than $4 to a little over $96.
Sources said Pakistan was exploring a path towards a resumption of stalled talks between the U.S. and Iran over ending the war, following a push initiated by China.
Exploratory discussions took place during a visit by Iran's Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni to Islamabad this week — his second within the last 10 days, three Pakistani sources said.
TANKERS REROUTING, SHIPPING INSURANCE RISES
The Houthi attacks forced several other tankers to turn around and head north through the Suez Canal, potentially using a much longer route to reach Asia by sailing around Africa.
Shipping insurance costs through the southern Red Sea doubled for some companies on Thursday, sources said.
Still, half of the 18 ships exiting Bab el-Mandeb on Thursday were carrying crude oil, including two Chinese supertankers. The number of tankers crossing through the Strait of Hormuz fell to just one on Thursday, the lowest since May 7.
U.S. WARNS CITIZENS IN MIDEAST TO EXERCISE CAUTION
The Iranian army said it had attacked U.S. military equipment depots at Al-Adiri, officially named Camp Buehring, in northern Kuwait, and the positions of U.S. troops at Camp Arifjan and at Camp Doha, near Kuwait City.
In the early evening, Kuwait said its air defences were intercepting "hostile" targets launched from Iran.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they had significantly damaged a surveillance tower used by the U.S. Fifth Fleet in Bahrain.
They also said they had attacked a U.S. barracks and fighter jets in Jordan, and a U.S. barracks and spy balloon as well as Patriot air defences in Erbil in Iraq's Kurdish region, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency.
Jordan's army said it had downed seven Iranian missiles and six drones, state TV reported, and that the attack had caused no material damage or casualties.
The U.S. embassy in Baghdad said U.S. citizens in the Middle East should exercise caution and remain on heightened alert.
Source: Reuters
--Agencies
