The United States and Iran exchanged fire across the Middle East on Wednesday, as officials in both nations called into question diplomatic efforts to stop the war as it threatens to again spin out of control.
The US launched an 11th night of air strikes on the Islamic Republic, hitting targets across the nation as air defence systems opened fire over the capital, Tehran.
It was not immediately clear what specific targets the Americans went after in these night-time strikes.
Iran retaliated with missile and drone fire targeting Jordan’s port city of Aqaba, once again attacking just on the doorstep of Israel.
The US has been using Israel’s main Ben-Gurion International Airport to host its refuelling aircraft and has put fighter jets at bases in the country, but Iran has been hesitant to strike for fear of bringing the Israeli military back into the conflict.
A missile alert sounded in Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia warned residents of the Persian Gulf city of Dammam to seek shelter. Iran has repeatedly attacked Gulf countries in response to US air strikes.
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Meanwhile, shipping remains largely stalled through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all traded oil and natural gas passed in peacetime.
Iran’s attacks on shipping in that waterway sparked the recent series of attacks, and the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels of Yemen are now threatening Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea as well.
That pressure pushed benchmark Brent crude above 94 dollars a barrel in trading, again straining global energy supplies and raising the cost of petrol in the United States ahead of mid-term elections this autumn.
Missile alert sirens sounded on Wednesday in Aqaba. Jordan’s military said it intercepted four missiles in the Iranian attack, while two others fell in “uninhabited areas”.
Plumes of smoke could be seen overhead in Aqaba in videos filmed by people in the nearby Israeli city of Eilat. Jordan said it also intercepted four Iranian drones.
The US military said earlier on Wednesday that it had completed an 11th night of strikes on Iran.
Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported that explosions rocked a number of provinces. The US said its targets included aircraft hangars and drone storage sites.
Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard insisted the country’s retaliatory attacks would continue.
Before the latest strikes, Iranian interior minister Eskandar Momeni visited Pakistan, a key mediator in the conflict, seeking to revive diplomacy. But it was unclear what new arrangement might be reached to end the war, which lately has become a battle for control over the Strait of Hormuz.
Speaking from the Oval Office on Tuesday, President Donald Trump gave a dim view on possible talks, saying the US had “no interest in meeting”.
He signalled that US forces could soon target an area of Iran close to one of its main sites for enriching uranium.
At a regional summit in the Philippines, US secretary of state Marco Rubio denounced Iran’s actions in the strait.
“If we create a precedent in the Middle East where a nation state can decide that they are going to control an international waterway, charge a toll and if you don’t pay them, blow up your ships, we have created a very dangerous precedent which will repeat itself in other parts of the world, including in this region,” he said.
The US in response to Iran’s attacks restarted a blockade of Iranian ports, turning around vessels engaged in trading Iranian oil.
