Iran launched ballistic missiles and drones at American bases across the Gulf on Wednesday, hours after a second wave of US strikes on Iranian targets (Dawn; NPR/AP; RTÉ).
What Iran hit
– Two US bases in Jordan, by ballistic missile – A US air base in Bahrain, by drone – US positions in Iraq’s Kurdistan region, claimed by the Revolutionary Guards
Jordan said it intercepted 10 ballistic missiles, with no confirmed hits or injuries.
What the United States hit
US Central Command said it had completed a barrage against Iranian air defence sites, radar systems and maritime assets. Strikes landed in southern Iran along the Strait of Hormuz, on a Gulf island, and at an airport in Kerman province.
President Donald Trump said the strikes were “in retaliation for the Iranians’ failed attempt at adding sea mines to the Strait”, and for “the Iranians shooting eight missiles, all successfully knocked down, at our Military Base in Jordan”.
The casualties, and a discrepancy
Iranian sources put the death toll inside Iran at 11:
– Four killed, including a child, and more than 50 wounded when US missile shrapnel struck a wedding celebration in Kuhestak — the figure given by the Iranian Red Crescent – Seven killed and eight injured in Khuzestan province
Those two figures sum to the total of 11 reported independently by RTÉ, which is why we have used them. AP and NPR put the wedding toll at five, citing local officials. We cannot reconcile the two accounts; the decomposed version is reported here and the variance is flagged rather than smoothed over.
What Iran said
A Revolutionary Guards spokesman said “Washington will regret its new attacks” and that “severe punishment awaits the aggressors”. Military spokesman Ebrahim Zolfaghari warned that “any country that cooperates with the aggressive American army will face more severe, more widespread and destructive responses” — a line aimed squarely at the Gulf states hosting US bases.
The exchange is the sharpest since the June Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding, in an intermittent war now more than six months old.
[Image: Reuters via Dawn]
