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Tehran launches more strikes after explosions reported in southern Iran

BBC · back to the audit
Tehran launches more strikes after explosions reported in southern Iran.

The US and Iran have traded strikes for a second night, as observers report a "dramatic" drop in the number of ships travelling through the Strait of Hormuz. The US says it hit 90 military targets, some near the Strait. Iran says 14 people have been killed in the past two days.

State media also reported that targets near the Bushehr nuclear power plant were hit, citing the deputy governor of the province. The US has not commented on the latest strikes.

Iran said it targeted US assets in Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar in response. Later on Thursday, Tehran launched more strikes on sites in Kuwait, Jordan and Iraq, state-linked media reported.

Iran's foreign ministry denounced the latest US strikes as a "grave war crime", describing the US administration as "evil and psychopathic". Bridges and a railway route connecting Tehran to the city of Mashhad, where the late supreme leader's funeral is being held, were also damaged, the foreign ministry said.

Iran's health ministry says 14 people have been killed during this latest round of fighting. Hossein Kermanpour, head of public relations at the ministry, said US attacks targeting five provinces in Iran over 8 and 9 July have also injured 78 people, of whom 47 remain in hospital.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has confirmed that it launched retaliatory strikes on US military bases in Kuwait and Bahrain overnight, and called them the "first phase of the punitive response against the American treaty-breakers".

Iran's parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who is also the country's chief negotiator with the US, said on X that America "still hasn't learned that bullying and breaking promises are no longer cost-free". "Let me put it plainly: if you strike, you'll get hit," he wrote.

US Central Command (Centcom) said the most recent round of strikes was carried out to "further degrade Iran's ability to attack commercial shipping and innocent civilian mariners" in the vital waterway. "The latest strikes follow successful execution of offensive strikes in Iran the night before," Centcom added.

Trump said the ceasefire agreement signed last month with Iran was now "over". He told reporters: "I don't want to deal with them anymore, they're scum."