The US military said on Thursday that it had “completed” its latest wave of strikes against Iran, targeting “Iranian military surveillance capabilities, communication systems, and air defense sites across Iran.”

“U.S. Marine Corps, Air Force, and Navy assets fired precision munitions on Iranian targets that posed a threat to U.S. forces and international commercial ships transiting regional waters,” Central Command, which oversees forces in the region, posted on X.

It added, “The strikes are in response to Iran’s unwarranted and continued aggression.”

US President Donald Trump said Wednesday evening that Iranian leaders telephoned him directly and asked him to stop a bombing wave that was under way.

Iranian media reported on Thursday that explosions were heard in southern Iran near the Strait of Hormuz and that Iran had attacked the US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain, after US strikes on its territory.

Iranian news agencies posted on Telegram, “In this wave of army drone strikes, communication antennas and radar facilities of the Patriot system of the 5th Fleet were targeted.”

The US military denied Iran’s claim that the Strait of Hormuz had been fully closed in response to the latest US strikes. “TRUTH: Commercial ships are continuing to transit in and out of the Strait of Hormuz tonight,” US CENTCOM posted on X.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said that they had struck bases in Kuwait and Bahrain in response to the latest US strikes.

“During two waves of operations, eighteen important targets belonging to the US Army in the bases of Ali and Ahmad Ahmad Air Force (were hit),” the Guards said in a statement quoted by state-run IRNA, adding that they also “hit and destroyed Sheikh Isa air bases”.

The Guards added it had fired ballistic missiles at a US command center in Jordan, according to state media.

This “punitive operation against the aggressor” targeted “Al-Azraq Air Base and its control center, using 12 ballistic missiles”, the Guards said, as quoted by Iranian media, claiming to have destroyed these facilities “and a large number of fighter aircraft”.

Twenty-two countries, including the US and European nations, have condemned what they called “lethal plots” and “malign actions” carried out by Iranian security services in Europe, North America and Australia.

In a joint statement released by the US State Department on Wednesday, the countries accused Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps-Intelligence Organization, Quds Force and Ministry of Intelligence and Security, of operating beyond Iranian borders, engaging in plots against Iranian dissidents, journalists and Jewish and Israeli communities and interests.

“We stand united in our determination to protect our countries and our people against these threats. The Islamic Republic of Iran must halt these actions now,” the statement read.

The signatories include the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and European countries, including France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Austria, Belgium, Finland, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania and North Macedonia. (AFP)