Ayatullah Ali Khamenei’s body is being carried by a truck slowly through the crowded streets towards Imam Reza Shrine. Black-clad mourners wave Iranian flags, portraits of the late leader, and red banners with revolutionary slogans.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Iranian military forces launched attacks against US military infrastructure in the Gulf states on Thursday, July 9, following US attacks on Iran’s southern and eastern coastal provinces, adding more. the tension of the three-week ceasefire agreement.
The attacks occurred on the day Iran buried its slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at the shrine in Mashhad, at the peak of a week of funeral processions and public meetings. Khamenei was killed in a US airstrike the first day of the war on February 28.
Khamenei’s body was carried by a truck slowly through the crowded streets towards Imam Reza Shrine. Black-clad mourners waved Iranian flags, portraits of the late leader, and red banners with revolutionary slogans.
The Iranian Revolutionary Guards Navy has said that the attacks and intervention of the United States in diverting ships to the Strait of Hormuz are hampering the gradual reopening of the waterway.
The watchdog said the number of ships passing through the strait under Iranian control had returned to about 50% of pre-war levels in the past two weeks, adding that permission was being granted to vessels using routes designated by Tehran.
Any further US intervention would prompt a “crushing response,” the Guardian said.
The US military said on Wednesday, July 8, its latest strikes were aimed at clearing the Strait of Hormuz after it said Iranian forces shot down three oil tankers in the area. The attack came hours after US President Donald Trump said he believed the temporary ceasefire with Iran was “over.”
While Iran has not claimed responsibility for the ship attacks, analysts say Tehran is using the actions to gain leverage in negotiations.
Oil prices, which had risen amid concerns about the impact of fresh attacks on global shipping and supply, retreated on Thursday as investors weighed whether the outbreak was tactical and short-lived or could lead to a complete collapse of the ceasefire.
Iran says its nuclear reactor site has been compromised
Iranian officials said US strikes had killed 14 people and wounded 78 in five provinces on July 8 and 9, state media reported. Fars said one US strike hit a railway bridge used for trade with Russia and China.
Several explosions were heard Thursday morning in Iran’s Bushehr province and in Bandar Abbas, a port city on Iran’s southern coast, Mehr news agency reported.
Bushehr is home to a Russian-built nuclear reactor, and a local official later told state media that a US missile struck the facility’s perimeter. The round was already hit several times during the current conflict before the April 8 ceasefire.
The US strikes also hit a military base and a fishing port in Bushehr province, its deputy governor said.
Targeting the US military in Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain
The Iranian army has said in a statement released by state media that it has launched attacks on American Patriot systems using drones in Kuwait, an early warning area in Qatar (satellite antenna), and the American military’s fuel storage in Bahrain.
Kuwait said that its armed forces engaged a cruise missile, three ballistic missiles and 10 drones in its airspace, and that one person was injured by falling fragments.
Sirens also sounded in Jordan on Thursday after missiles fired from Iran were detected in Jordanian airspace, the state news agency reported. Eight missiles were intercepted, with no injuries or damage reported, it said.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard later said that Iran had fired 10 ballistic missiles at Jordan’s Azraq military base, which is used by US troops, as well as a US military control center in the Middle East, without elaborating.
Qatar, which hosts the largest US military base in the region and has often been a mediator between Washington and its rivals, including Tehran, condemned the attacks on commercial ships but also called for a return to diplomacy.
The Strait of Hormuz handled about a third of the world’s oil supply before the war. Tehran has since taken effective control of the strait, allowing it to force a stalemate in its confrontation with the world’s most powerful military.
“The United States has not yet learned that bullying and breaking its promises no longer come without a cost. Let me be clear: If you strike, you will be fired,” Iran’s chief negotiator, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, wrote on X.
“The Strait of Hormuz will be reopened under Iran’s plans, not on US threats.”
‘Payments’
The US Central Command (CENTCOM) said on Wednesday that its forces had struck about 90 Iranian military sites, including air defense systems, coastal surveillance assets, and missile and drone storage facilities.
“This is revenge for yesterday’s ship bombing by Iran. If it happens again, it will be worse!” Trump wrote on his Community Truth platform.
However, the US leader, who was attending a NATO summit in Turkey, also said he did not think the latest military offensive would escalate into a full-scale conflict with Iran.
“Whatever happens will end very quickly…and it will make it safer, including oil,” he told reporters in Ankara.
Asked before a NATO summit on Wednesday if the Iran deal was done, Trump said: “It’s a very interesting question. To me, I think it’s done. I don’t want to deal with it.” – Rappler.com
