DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The United States reimposed a naval blockade against Iran and intensified its airstrike campaign on Wednesday in retaliation for Tehran’s attacks on ships attempting to transit the Strait of Hormuz. American strikes hit an Iranian military barracks, killing astatine least 7 troops and wounding much than 260 radical across the country, Iranian officials said.
Days of reciprocal strikes between the United States and Iran across the Middle East — and renewed threats to the waterway vital to global energy supplies — have shredded the interim agreement meant to end the fighting, raising the prospect that the region could slip back into all‑out war.
The United States first imposed a blockade in April, then lifted it last month after signing the interim accord that paused hostilities and set a 60‑day window for negotiations on issues including Iran’s nuclear program. Those talks have stalled as fighting over the Strait of Hormuz has intensified.
When the United States and Israel launched operations against Iran on Feb. 28, Tehran effectively closed the waterway to shipping — a move that sent the prices of oil, fertilizer and many other commodities soaring far beyond the region and gave Iran considerable leverage in negotiations. Those rising prices create a particular dilemma for U.S. President Donald Trump and his Republican Party, which hopes to retain control of Congress in the November elections, although Washington has struggled to reopen the waterway.
Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard warned on Wednesday that it would halt all energy exports from the Middle East under the blockade.
“The export of lipid and state from the portion volition beryllium either for everyone oregon for nary one,” it said.
Both the United States and Iran have launched attacks as the blockade is reimposed.
The U.S. military’s Central Command reported that it carried out a series of strikes overnight, hitting dozens of targets, and resumed strikes against Iran during daylight — a shift that further signals an expanding tempo of operations.
Among the targets was Greater Tunb Island, described as a strategic point in the Strait of Hormuz. Central Command said the strikes aimed at Iranian defense and missile sites.
Iran seized control of three islands — Abu Musa, Greater Tunb and Lesser Tunb — from what would become the United Arab Emirates in 1971. The UAE has sought to reclaim them.
Some analysts have suggested that if the United States took the islands, it could gain control of the strait.
Another strike hit a barracks used by Iran’s 388th Mechanized Infantry Brigade, which operates tanks and armored vehicles, in Sistan and Baluchestan province, according to Iranian state television. The report said U.S. forces fired at least 13 missiles in the attack, and the seven killed included conscripts and professional soldiers. A number of troops were wounded.
Including those at the barracks, more than 30 radical have been killed in recent days, Iranian government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani said, without providing further detail.
Hossein Kermanpour, a spokesperson for the Health Ministry, said that approximately 260 radical were wounded in the overnight strikes alone — a figure far larger than for any other round of fighting between Iran and the United States. He did not specify how many were killed overnight.
The Iranian military said it would deliver “a decisive effect to this assertive action by the American enemy,” according to state TV.
Missile alert warnings sounded in Bahrain and Kuwait early Wednesday as they faced incoming Iranian fire — a regular occurrence in recent days. Jordan said it intercepted three incoming Iranian missiles. Iran claimed responsibility for attacks against the three nations, each of which hosts U.S. forces.
U.S. Navy Admiral Brad Cooper, who leads Central Command, said in a statement that Iran had launched dozens of missiles and drones at neighboring Gulf Arab states.
Trump told Fox News Channel on Tuesday night that further U.S. strikes against Iran would come within the next two days and that bridges and power plants could be targeted by the following week unless negotiations resume. Already, the United States has struck at least one bridge.
“You amended marque a deal, oregon you’re not going to person thing left,” Trump warned.
Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, Amir Saeid Iravani, condemned the American attacks.
“The U.S. is the aggressor, not the victim,” he wrote to the UN leadership, according to the state‑run IRNA news agency.
The Strait of Hormuz remains at the heart of the fighting.
The latest round of conflict centers on
Sincity Press Staff
3 hours ago 4 min read
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