Iran Attacks U.S. Targets as Hormuz Conflict Escalates  

Iran launched fresh attacks against U.S. targets in the Middle East on Wednesday in retaliation for American strikes on Iranian oil tankers. 

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said its forces attacked 20 U.S. vessels trying to pass through the Strait of Hormuz. They also targeted the U.S. air base at Al-Azraq in Jordan with missiles, with Jordan’s army saying it shot down 18 missiles from Iran. Iran said it would also target oil tankers off U.S.-allied Kuwait and Bahrain in response to American strikes on its tankers, as oil prices climbed to near $100 a barrel in Asian morning trade. The latest round of fighting was triggered after U.S. forces destroyed five Iranian oil tankers. 

“Iran continues to try to hit U.S. naval ships, and for every time they do that or try to do that, they’re going to lose tankers, and I think you’ll see that again today,” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Tuesday on a visit to Colombia. 

Iran’s Guards said on Tuesday they seized “one of the most modern, unmanned” American submarine drone in the Strait of Hormuz. The U.S. military said that the drone had “malfunctioned,” insisting it was an “older model” that did not carry any sensitive data. Iranian state TV also said the Guards had attacked two U.S. destroyers with ballistic missiles. According to the latest Pentagon data, the tally from the Iran war reached 838 American casualties, with 18 killed and 820 wounded. 

The latest exchanges are pushing the Iran–U.S. conflict deeper into military confrontation over the Strait of Hormuz, with Tehran targeting U.S. naval assets and threatening oil tankers linked to Washington’s Gulf allies while the United States strikes Iranian energy infrastructure. The widening threat to commercial shipping is increasingly tying military escalation to global energy security. Further attacks on tankers and infrastructure in Kuwait and Bahrain, coupled with more U.S. strikes on Iranian oil, could hamper ongoing Iran–Oman negotiations aimed at producing a shipping arrangement for the Strait of Hormuz. (AFP+EIR)