The United States carried out another round of military strikes on Iran on Thursday, targeting transport infrastructure including bridges, as Tehran retaliated by attacking US allies across the Gulf.
The renewed hostilities around the strategically important Strait of Hormuz come one month after a preliminary agreement intended to halt the conflict that erupted in late February following large-scale US-Israeli strikes on Iran.
US Central Command (CENTCOM) said Thursday evening that American forces had launched a fresh series of operations to "further degrade Iranian military capabilities", marking the sixth consecutive night of US attacks.
According to Iranian state media, the strikes hit two bridges, a railway station and an airport in the country's south, close to the Strait of Hormuz, a vital route for global oil and gas shipments.
State television, citing a Telegram update, reported that three people were killed in the bridge attacks in Hormozgan province.
Earlier in the day, Iranian state TV also reported two explosions in the western city of Bushehr, home to Iran's only civilian nuclear power plant, describing them as part of a "continuation of the American enemy aggression".
Before the latest strikes, Tehran had warned it would target infrastructure throughout the region if US President Donald Trump acted on his threat to strike Iranian power plants and bridges, although the White House maintained that the president remained "open to diplomacy".
Iran's Revolutionary Guards announced on Thursday that they had fired ballistic missiles at a US airbase in Jordan in retaliation for what they described as an American strike near a children's cancer hospital outside Ahvaz in southwestern Iran.
Iranian state media said the hospital had been evacuated after US airstrikes in the surrounding area, which foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei condemned as "barbaric".
Describing the bombardment, 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."
Elsewhere in the Gulf, US allies responded to the attacks. Kuwait said early Friday that its air defence systems were once again intercepting missile and drone strikes, while Bahrain activated air raid sirens.
A senior Iranian military spokesman reiterated calls for the United States to leave the region, declaring, "we will never back down over the Strait of Hormuz", according to state television.
Although the Strait of Hormuz briefly reopened following the US-Iran agreement reached in June, Tehran announced last week that it would again remain closed "until the US ends its aggression".
The United States has also reinstated its blockade of Iranian ports.
On Thursday, the US military said its forces had boarded a vessel in the Gulf of Oman to "ensure full compliance", adding that three ships had been redirected since the blockade was reimposed.
Pakistan urged restraint as tensions escalated. Foreign office spokesman Tahir Andrabi said Islamabad would "continue to encourage all sides to end violence and resume technical-level talks" under the memorandum of understanding it helped broker last month.
Iran's chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, however, warned that a deal "only has meaning when its clauses are valid and being implemented".
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump would hold Iran "accountable" for failing to honour its commitments, while stressing that "he is always open to diplomacy at the very same time".
"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," she said.
Trump had earlier warned that Iran's power plants and bridges could be targeted unless Tehran resumed negotiations, telling Fox News: "Next week it gets really bad for them."
On Thursday, a spokesman for Iran's military headquarters responded by saying that if Washington carried out those threats, "all infrastructure in the region" would be "crushed".
Renewed US attacks since last week have killed at least 30 people in Iran, government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani said.
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