The US military says it launched another round of strikes against Iran to “further degrade” its capabilities to attack ships in the Strait of Hormuz.
The 10th consecutive night of strikes took place after US President Donald Trump vowed to punish Iran for the deaths of US soldiers.
In response, Iran said it struck two oil tankers in the waterway, as well as US military assets in Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan, state news agency IRNA reported.
President Masoud Pezeshkian said Iran was now fighting a “full-scale war” with the US. Trump earlier said Iran had been hit “very hard” the previous night “in honour” of three US soldiers killed recently – two in Jordan and one in Iraq.
US Central Command (Centcom) said its latest strikes had hit Iranian “military command centres, maritime capabilities, missile and drone launch sites, and air defence systems”.
Explosions were reported near the north-western city of Tabriz, where state media said one person was killed and several wounded, as well at the Gulf ports of Bandar Mahshahr and Bandar Imam Khomeini and the south-eastern ports of Chabahar and Konarak.
Centcom also insisted that commercial vessels were continuing to pass through the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran meanwhile said its forces struck two oil tankers as they attempted to transit through what it called the strait’s “unsafe and hazardous southern route” and rescue teams were picking up their crews, according to state media.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency (UKMTO) said a tanker in the Strait of Hormuz had reported being struck by an unknown projectile, forcing its crew to abandon the vessel and board a lifeboat.
It was not clear whether the tanker reported by UKMTO was among those cited by Iran.
Six fuel tankers and cargo ships crossed the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, according to preliminary data from maritime intelligence firm Kpler. Two of these vessels had previously been sanctioned by the US for links with Iran.
This is down from eight vessels crossing on 19 July, the data shows. All but one of the crossings made on 20 July were via the northern route near Iran.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) also claimed to have targeted a data centre belonging to the US company Amazon in Bahrain, according to state media on Tuesday.
The IRGC “attacked and destroyed the central data infrastructure of the American company Amazon in Bahrain with several cruise missiles,” state news agency IRNA reported.
Jordan said on Tuesday that it had intercepted five drones after saying it had shot down three missiles late on Monday. Bahrain said drones launched by Iran had targeted its air navigation systems – but traffic remained unaffected. Kuwait’s armed forces also said they had intercepted Iranian drones.
Later on Tuesday Kuwait said Iran had hit several power and water desalination plants the previous day.
At the same time, Tehran said diplomatic messages were still being exchanged by both sides through intermediaries, despite a collapse of a ceasefire.
On Monday night the Department of Defense confirmed the identities of two of the US soldiers – Pte Isabella Gonzales, 19, from Texas, and Lt Tyler James Feehan, 25, from Hawaii – who were killed in an Iranian strike on the Muwaffaq Salti base in Jordan over the weekend.
Centcom said earlier a third service member also went missing in action after the attack, and unidentified remains were later found in the area.
