The US attacks have killed 14 people and wounded 78 over two days with blasts reported in Iranian cities along the Strait of Hormuz, including Bushehr, Chabahar, Bandar Abbas, and Sirik.
US President Donald Trump says the stri
kes were “retribution” for alleged Iranian attacks on ships transiting Hormuz.
Iran’s slain Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei will be buried in his hometown of Mashhad today after millions of people attended funeral processions in the Iraqi cities of Najaf and Karbala.
The US bombed a strategically important railway bridge in northern Iran, linking it to China and Russia, according to Iran’s Fars news agency.
The Ogtay Khan rail bridge in Golestan province was reportedly attacked by a US cruise missile on Thursday morning.
The bridge connects a strategic chokepoint on Iran’s railway corridor with China and Turkmenistan.
Cooler heads are needed from both the US and Iran to prevent the return to all-out war in the Middle East, an analyst says.
“I think we’re now in an extremely dangerous situation,” said Alex Alfirraz Scheers, a London-based defence analyst.
He said the interim deal between Iran and the US “may not be dead but it certainly is on life support”.
“What it will take to get out of this crisis situation now – with four rounds of escalation – is going to be restraint on both sides. And it doesn’t look as though either side is willing to exercise that restraint because the political issue pertaining to the status of the strait is still extremely in doubt.”
He told Al Jazeera that the United States would “find it intolerable that Iran will exercise control over the strait”, while Iran finds it “intolerable without it being the predominant actor” over the crucial waterway.
Iran fired 10 ballistic missiles at Jordan’s Azraq military base, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) says.
It said it launched the missile strike targeting the “US command-and-control centre”, a statement carried by Fars said.
The IRGC said US bases in the Middle East would be targeted if attacks continue. “If the terrorist American army repeats its aggression, other American bases in the region will not be safe from our heavy fire.”
Jordan said earlier it intercepted eight missiles fired from Iran, with no casualties or damage reported.
The Iranian envoy at the United Nations has blamed the US for violating the UN Charter and the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding.
Amir Saeid Iravani also accused the UN Security Council of “in-active rule” that encouraged the United States to carry out more air strikes and increase its scope of attacks on Iranian locations.
US target locations have increased compared to previous attacks, this time including military as well as civilian locations. Previously, the US primarily targeted military facilities, but this time airports and railway tracks as well as civilian logistical facilities in five Iranian provinces were attacked.
For example, in Ahvaz in Khuzestan province, the perimeter of the Bushehr nuclear plant was also hit, according to Iranian authorities, as well as some wharfs on the southern Iranian coastline.
Iran is still seeking to mend ties with its Gulf neighbours despite launching a series of attacks on their territory, according to Abas Aslani, a senior fellow at the Tehran-based Center for Middle East Strategic Studies.
“Iran was doing the same thing it was doing prior to the war, meaning engaging in diplomatic negotiations and tracks in order to find a negotiated settlement,” he told Al Jazeera.
“There has been misinterpretation and misconceptions in the United States and the West that when Iran shows any sign of flexibility this is interpreted as a sign of weakness,” he added.
This dynamic “could have been inviting and could be seen as a red carpet for further and additional attacks against the country”.
Despite the escalation, Aslani said Iran has sought to limit the scope and scale of its response to US actions.
“There have been some discussions between Iranian officials and their counterparts in the region, which is aimed at mending those ties. This is not something liked by Israel and the United States, [who are] trying to create division between Iran and its neighbours.”
Iran is not seeking negotiations at this stage and has instead opened a new phase of the regional conflict by attacking its Gulf neighbours, a former US ambassador says.
Joey Hood said President Trump erred strategically by attacking Iran in the first place, and Tehran then compounded the situation with a “strategic mistake of its own” by turning its retaliation on the Gulf states.
“If it had concentrated its fire on US forces and on Israel, then I think the rest of the region and the world probably would have retained some sympathy for a regime that was fighting for its survival,” Hood said.
He added by continuing to strike Gulf infrastructure and commercial shipping even after formal hostilities ended, “Iran has taken the opportunity of this new regime to launch a war that they hope will give them custodianship over the Gulf economies and, therefore, a lot of influence”.
Three members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) have been killed in US strikes on Iran, according to Mizan news agency.
Back-and-forth attacks, including on Wednesday, have repeatedly threatened the ceasefire but Thursday’s appeared bigger all around.
And President Trump’s mixed messaging – approving back-to-back military strikes while insisting they don’t mean a return to full-scale war – is fueling uncertainty about what comes next.