U.S.-Iran fighting widens as shipping routes face new threats
U.S. strikes hit Iranian military sites while Iran attacked U.S. targets, with oil markets rattled by threats near the Strait of Hormuz and Bab el-Mandeb.
By Daniel Okafor · Business Editor
3 min read
The U.S. military launched more strikes inside Iran early Wednesday, and Iran answered with attacks on U.S. military targets in the Gulf and Jordan, NPR reported. The exchanges added pressure on major shipping routes as oil prices rose and mediation efforts in Pakistan struggled for attention.
NPR reported that Iranian Interior Minister Eskander Momeni was in Pakistan, one of the countries mediating the conflict, for talks that could relate to reviving a ceasefire between the United States and Iran.
Strikes and counterstrikes
U.S. Central Command said it hit Iranian military operations centers, maritime assets, aircraft hangars, drone storage sites and military logistics infrastructure. CENTCOM described the overnight operation as the 11th straight night of U.S. strikes and said the goal was to weaken Iran’s control over the Strait of Hormuz.
Iranian state media reported explosions in seven Iranian provinces. It said one attack hit an electrical installation near a nuclear power plant in Bushehr province.
Iran said Wednesday that it again attacked an air base in eastern Jordan where three U.S. service members were killed last week, NPR reported. Iran also struck Sheikh Isa air base in Bahrain, which NPR described as a logistics hub for the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet.
The Pentagon on Tuesday identified the third U.S. service member killed in the Jordan attack as Sgt. Angel S. Rampersad, 28, of Ozone Park, New York. NPR reported that her death raised the number of U.S. personnel killed in the war with Iran to 18.
Shipping routes under strain
Benchmark crude rose above $92 a barrel in early Asian trading Wednesday after Iran attacked a tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, NPR reported. The British military’s maritime operations center said a tanker was attacked Tuesday in the disputed area.
NPR reported that the Strait of Hormuz runs through Iranian and Omani territorial waters and remains open to freedom of navigation under international law. NPR also reported that Iran has effectively closed the waterway since the war began.
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi movement has declared that Bab el-Mandeb, a Red Sea passage important to Saudi exports, is off limits to Saudi Arabia, NPR reported. The group also warned international shipping companies to avoid the waterway, which links the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean and connects to the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean Sea.
The Houthi-run news agency said six ships in the Red Sea changed course Tuesday after the warning. NPR cited commercial shipping trackers as saying several tankers carrying Saudi oil withdrew from the area to avoid attack.
Nuclear sites and casualty claims
President Trump told reporters Tuesday that the United States was planning to target a hardened underground site near one of Iran’s main uranium enrichment facilities, NPR reported. Iranian state media said Tehran would treat any attack on nuclear or other sensitive facilities as a major escalation.
NPR reported that Iran has said it may be open to talks if they protect Iranian national interests, while also saying it does not trust the United States. Trump said Tuesday that Iran wanted talks because it was being badly damaged, and said the United States had no interest until Iran was ready for what he called a meaningful meeting.
Iran’s government says about 3,000 people, many of them civilians, have been killed in the war, according to NPR. Iranian media reported Wednesday that remains of 32 victims from a Feb. 28 bombing of an elementary girls’ school in southern Iran were buried after DNA identification; Iran says 168 students and teachers died in that U.S. missile strike, while the U.S. military says it is investigating.
Jordan said it intercepted six Iranian missiles Wednesday and that two fell in remote, uninhabited areas, NPR reported. The Israeli military said it detected an attack on Aqaba, near Israel’s Eilat, but did not act because the missile did not threaten Israel.
This story draws on original reporting from NPR.