• US says strikes aimed at degrading Iranian military capabilities
• Iran slams ‘barbaric’ attack on cancer hospital; Araghchi accuses US of war crimes
• Tehran tells Houthis to close Red Sea gateway if US hits power network
• Warns it may strike Gulf infrastructure if Trump carries out his threat
• Iran releases US citizen in possible diplomatic opening
• White House says Trump remains open to diplomacy
• US president vows to hold Iran accountable for attacks on ships
• Russia warns escalation may hurt global economy
DUBAI: US forces launched strikes against Iran for a fifth night in a row on Thursday, the US military said, as Iran also intensified attacks in a week-long escalation that has all but torn up last month’s truce.
The US strikes — which began at 1800 GMT (11pm in Pakistan) — were carried out to “further degrade Iranian military capabilities”, US Central Command said in a post on X.
The strikes happened after it seemed that Iran’s release of a US citizen pointed towards a path to avert the resumption of all-out war.
The United States had launched two big waves of air strikes in a single day on Wednesday, mostly on targets near Iran’s southern coast.
Tehran responded with missiles and drones targeted at US military bases in neighbouring states, including a barrage at a recently expanded air base in Jordan.
After Tehran resumed its blockade of the Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz, Washington again blockaded Iranian ports from Wednesday.
The US military said it fired on a tanker near Iran’s Kharg Island, with Hellfire missiles hitting its smokestack.
On Thursday evening, US projectiles struck Qeshm Island and near Bandar Abbas home to Iran’s largest port and key navy and Revolutionary Guards facilities both on the Strait of Hormuz, Iranian state media said.
For one of its next moves, Iran has signalled it could prod its Houthi allies in Yemen to close another key strait: the Bab al-Mandeb at the mouth of the Red Sea.
Sources told Reuters Iran had already told the Houthis to shut it if Washington carries out threats to attack Iran’s infrastructure.
The week of increasingly intense fire has tested the limits of escalation that both sides set during four months of fighting before last month’s truce. But as the attacks unfurled, US President Donald Trump hailed the release of a US citizen in Iran as a “gesture of goodwill”. There was no comment from Iran on the case.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Thursday that Trump would hold Iran “accountable” for going back on its word, “But he is always open to diplomacy at the very same time.”
She added, “They have expressed they still want to make a deal to the president. We’re talking to them, but again, the president is not going to allow them to fire on ships in the strait without paying a consequence for that.”
However, Iran’s top negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf warned that a deal “only has meaning when its clauses are valid and being implemented”.
Shipping halted again
The re-escalation has once again largely halted traffic through Hormuz, the world’s most important shipping route for oil and gas, pushing up global energy prices.
Russia said it was in touch with Iranian officials over the ongoing escalation with the US, Al Jazeera reported, quoting Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
“All of this is fraught with continuing negative consequences for the global economy, which cannot but cause concern,” Peskov said, describing the economic situation as “rather dire”.
Separately, India ordered shipowners, ship managers and recruitment companies not to deploy the country’s seafarers on vessels undertaking trips through the Strait of Hormuz amid renewed fighting in the region.
Iran triggered the renewed fighting last week by striking ships moving through a corridor in the strait, provoking a dangerous fire on board a Qatari tanker filled with liquefied natural gas.
Iranian sources said that Iran’s aim was to establish its authority over the strait, although otherwise Tehran is not keen on a wider escalation that would torpedo June’s preliminary deal, which it still regards as giving it most of what it sought.
Within Iran, the renewed bombing has left residents anxious, following huge week-long memorial events for slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that the authorities depicted as a demonstration of victory and national solidarity.
“Living with this fear that war could start again is very exhausting. You cannot live like this ... Personally, I want diplomacy to prevail,” Mahlegha, 46, a government employee, told Reuters by phone message from Tehran.
Iran wants all ships using the Strait of Hormuz to travel through a channel close to its shores and has made no secret that it intends to charge passage fees at the end of a 60-day negotiation period set in last month’s memorandum.
Washington had encouraged ships to use an alternative route to the south, along the Omani coast.
US forces say their airstrikes have hit Iranian military targets along the coast to cripple its ability to control the strait. Iranian military spokesperson Brigadier General Mohammad Akraminia said on Thursday this would never work because Iran can strike the strait from anywhere on its territory.
Three US officials told Reuters that US strikes could also serve as “shaping operations”, giving Trump more options by targeting Iranian military capabilities that the US would want to have destroyed before taking bigger steps. “This is helping set the stage, if needed,” one of the officials said.
Trump has not ruled out the possibility of using ground forces, including to seize Kharg Island, site of Iran’s main oil export terminal. He has repeated threats to hit Iranian power plants and bridges next week unless Tehran resumes negotiations.
Iran earlier said on Thursday that the Strait of Hormuz was an inviolable “red line”, warning that if Trump carried out his threat to attack Iran’s infrastructure, it would strike all infrastructure across the Gulf region.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi also accused the United States of committing war crimes, saying strikes on “vital infrastructure” and threats to attack bridges and power plants showed “the criminal intent of the US ruling body to commit heinous crimes”, Al Jazeera reported.
In a statement on Telegram, Araghchi said the US attacks were “undoubtedly a flagrant violation of the United Nations Charter and the fundamental principles of international law”.
For now, Iran’s retaliatory strikes have been focused on US bases in neighbouring countries. Iran said on Thursday it had fired on a Jordanian air base that Washington has upgraded in recent years into a regional headquarters.
It said the Jordanian base had been used to launch an attack on a children’s cancer hospital in the city of Ahvaz on Wednesday night. Staff there said the hospital was evacuated after a missile hit 200 metres from the main building.
Foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei slammed the attack as “barbaric”.
“Some patients had to return this morning because we can’t interrupt their treatment,” said Amin Goodarzi, director of public relations at the Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, which oversees the Shahid Baghaei hospital. “The majority have yet to return, he added.
Hani, a 34-year-old teacher from Ahvaz, said the strikes were “very intense”, adding: “My hands are shaking. There were at least 11, 12 explosions. My ears are exploding.”
Published in Dawn, July 17th, 2026