Hostilities in the Middle East intensified on Saturday after a seventh straight night of US attacks on Iran, with Tehran threatening a “full-scale offensive” in response and the strategic Strait of Hormuz remaining virtually closed.
Here are the latest developments:
Two US troops killed
Two US service members were killed, and one went missing in action in Jordan following a barrage of missile and drone strikes from Iran, according to US Central Command.
CENTCOM said the soldiers were killed Friday when US and partner forces “defended against Iranian ballistic missile and drone attacks”.
Iran plans ‘unforgettable lessons’
Iranian supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei vowed to teach the US “unforgettable lessons”, saying Washington’s attacks in spite of a framework deal to end the war showed US President Donald Trump’s signature to be worthless.
“Now that the American enemy seeks to incite war and bear its most serious consequences, it should know that the dear Iranian nation and the axis of resistance have unforgettable lessons to offer it,” Khamenei said in a statement carried by state TV.
New US strikes
The United States announced Saturday it launched new airstrikes — the eighth consecutive night of military assaults — to punish Iran for the Islamic republic’s deadly attacks against US forces.
CENTCOM said on X that the strikes began at 2200 GMT and “are designed to further degrade Iran’s ability to threaten commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and swiftly punish Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces who launched attacks against American service members in Jordan last night.”
Iranian news agencies reported US attacks on Sirik, a southern Iranian port located on the Strait of Hormuz.
Hezbollah mass funeral
Hezbollah held a mass funeral for dozens of people, most of them fighters killed in the most recent fighting with Israel, in southern Lebanon’s Majdal Selm.
In the heavily damaged village, Hezbollah buried 44 people, 39 of them fighters and four civilians said to have been killed in Israeli operations, and one man who died of natural causes.
Bahrain ‘thwarted’ Iranian attacks
Bahrain’s army said its “air defense systems thwarted” a wave of Iranian attacks on Saturday, as an AFP journalist in Manama reported hearing blasts after sirens sounded.
“Air defense systems thwarted” the attacks, the army said in a statement, adding that they “intercepted and destroyed a number of treacherous Iranian aerial assaults”.
Lebanon leader heads to the US
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun on Saturday left Beirut for Washington, where he is expected to meet Donald Trump, the Lebanese presidency said, after talks between Lebanon and Israel wrapped up in Italy.
It will be the first trip to Washington by a Lebanese head of state since Michel Sleiman was received by Barack Obama in 2009.
Aoun will hold discussions “with several American officials on the situation in Lebanon and ways to strengthen the ceasefire”, particularly in Lebanon’s south, as well as on “the withdrawal of Israel from the Lebanese regions it occupies”, the presidency said.
Israel and Lebanon began US-sponsored negotiations in April aimed at reaching a peace deal and permanently ending the Israel-Hezbollah war.
Iran hits Kuwait power, water plant
Kuwait’s foreign ministry accused Iran of targeting civilian sites and vital infrastructure in the country, which “endangers the lives and safety of civilians”, after reporting attacks on an oil facility and a power and water plant.
Kuwait’s state oil firm also reported injuries and damage after an Iranian attack targeting an oil facility, according to the state news agency.
“Another electricity and water distillation plant was targeted by a hostile attack that led to a fire erupting in one of the plant’s components,” which resulted in the deactivation of some power generation units, the Ministry of Electricity and Water said in a statement.
Seventh night of US strikes on Iran
US Central Command (CENTCOM) said on X that it “hit surveillance sites, military logistics infrastructure, underground weapons storage and maritime capabilities” as American forces concluded strikes on Iran for the seventh consecutive night.
Tankers ‘hit mines’
Two oil tankers passing through the Strait of Hormuz struck mines, according to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards — an assertion denied by the US military.
The Guards said the tankers that hit mines were directed by “deceptive American intelligence agencies” and had caught fire.
CENTCOM issued a brief denial.
The Guards said separately that they had “stopped” four ships attempting to transit the strategic passage.
Gulf countries hit
Iran’s army said it struck US military targets in Kuwait and Jordan in response to American attacks. The targets in Kuwait were tied to the Al-Adiri camp and the Ali Al-Salem base. The targets in Jordan were fuel tanks at the Al-Azraq base.
Kuwait, Jordan respond
Kuwait’s army wrote on X on Saturday that explosions might be heard as a result of “air defense systems intercepting hostile targets”.
Jordan’s army said it had shot down 10 Iranian missiles with no casualties or damage.
Bahrain base targeted
The Iranian army said it targeted an air base in Bahrain used by the United States, according to state television.
Air raid sirens were sounded in Bahrain, which hosts a major US naval base, according to the country’s interior ministry.
Bahrain and Qatar earlier said they had intercepted missiles.
Casualties reported
Iranian state-controlled IRNA news agency said on Saturday that US strikes had killed three people and wounded eight in Hormozgan, a province in the country’s south.
Blasts in central Iran
Five explosions were heard in the central Iranian city of Yazd shortly after US strikes were announced, according to the IRNA state news agency.
Mehr, another state-controlled agency, reported explosions “in several provinces in the south” of the country.
‘Full-scale offensive’
Tehran threatened to resume “full-scale offensive operations” if US strikes continue over the coming days, Major General Mohsen Rezaei said, according to state-controlled news agency IRIB.
“Iran will no longer limit itself to retaliatory, like-for-like responses… and no political border will be safe,” he said.
Iran accused US forces of targeting civilian infrastructure, including an airport, a railway station and two bridges, and said it had struck US assets across the region. President Donald Trump has threatened to hit Iranian infrastructure, but there was no confirmation from the US side.
David Khalfa, a Middle East specialist at the Jean-Jaures Foundation, a Paris-based think tank, noted that a “widening range of strategic infrastructure” is being drawn into the conflict. “The paradox is that, while the conflict continues to escalate, neither side has a strategic interest in allowing this dynamic to continue. Yet both perceive any compromise as a form of capitulation,” Khalfa said.
By Agence France-Presse
