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The United States Central Command (CENTCOM) has said it has launched “large-scale countermeasures against Iran”, following an Iranian missile attack on US troops the previous day.
It said it hit several targets of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on Thursday morning, according to a words listed on the X, including “military command centers, missile and drone facilities, coastal surveillance and defense facilities, and maritime capabilities”.
The strike came hours after US President Donald Trump vowed to hit Iran “very hard”, after inspecting a site in Jordan where US troops are stationed.
Reporting from Tehran, Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar said the latest protests “have taken place in the southern regions of Iran, especially those along the Gulf coast and the Strait of Hormuz”, similar to what happened in the US in the last 13 years.
Iranian officials said a house on the island of Qeshm was hit, and three people were trapped in the rubble, and two injured people were taken to hospital.
The explosion was heard as far as the port of Bandar Abbas in Hormozgan province, prompting initial reports that the port had been hit.
The island has been experiencing blackouts, and government officials are working to restore power and clear debris, officials said.
The deputy defense minister of Khuzestan province told Iran’s IRIB radio station that the US military wanted “another place in Abadan”.
Iran’s semi-official Tasnim newspaper reported that the US had struck the outskirts of the city of Kazerun in the southwestern province of Fars, as well as two large explosions on the island of Kish in the Gulf.
Officials say the situation at Kish airport on Kish Island and passenger transport are not affected.
The IRGC said that as long as Washington’s threats continue, Tehran’s resistance will continue.
Ryan Bohl, senior Middle East analyst with the RANE network, says the US has two options.
“The first is to repeat what America did last Friday, which is focusing on the demands and infrastructure related to the blockade of Iran in Hormuz,” he said.
“Or it could be the construction of bridges and power lines that President Trump has repeatedly threatened.”
The US is keen to end Iran’s control over the Strait of Hormuz, through which most of the world’s oil exports pass.
In the past, Iran rejected Omani’s request for control of maritime traffic along the route.
The US Treasury Department announced new sanctions on Wednesday against two Iranian companies it says are involved in an IRGC-backed “scheme” that forces commercial ships to buy insurance to pass through Hormuz.
“The United States will not allow Iran to conduct international trade or use international shipping to support the terrorism, atrocities, and repression of the IRGC,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said. he wrote on X.
CENTCOM said the latest strikes are aimed at “reducing the threats posed by Iran and its American proxies, merchant ships, and neighboring Gulf states”.
Former Pentagon chief David Des Roches told Al Jazeera that the latest US strikes “were not a major attack”, adding that Trump may be “trying to keep things in balance, or to open things up for negotiation”.
