US steps up attacks on Iran, raising prospect of wider regional war

American officials said they were trying to safeguard maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz while Iran said it had responded by firing at US bases in Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait

By Max Bearak, Yeganeh Torbati, Eric Schmitt and Michael Levenson 

 

The US military says it sharply increased its attacks on Iran this week, as both countries extended a cycle of hostilities that has all but shattered a truce intended to pave the way to a long-term peace deal.

 

American military officials say they hit about 170 targets in Iran during strikes on Tuesday and Wednesday, 15 times the number struck during a previous round of attacks in late June. US Central Command said the strikes had hit air defense systems, drone and missile storage sites and logistics infrastructure along the Iranian coast.

 

 

The goal, military officials said, is to degrade Iran’s ability to threaten ships in the Strait of Hormuz.

 

Iran’s Health Ministry said that US attacks over the past two days had killed at least 14 people and injured 78 others across five provinces. Iran said it had responded by firing at US military bases in Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait. Jordan said it had also intercepted Iranian attacks.

 

The attacks have left the region deeply unsettled and seemingly caught in an ongoing cycle of sporadic war. They have raised the prospect of a return to the full-scale war that began in late February, when the United States and Israel launched a joint attack on Iran.

 

Israel’s defense minister, Israel Katz, said on Thursday his country was prepared to resume its military campaign against Iran if needed. “The army is ready and on alert for a resumption of fighting, in order to regain air superiority and strike again in Iran,” he said at a military ceremony.

 

A day after President Trump said he believed that the cease-fire he had signed with Iran three weeks ago was “over,” the Iranians threatened on Thursday to expand their attacks to more American military bases in the region.

 

The US attacks on Wednesday appeared to have hit a range of targets in Iran.

 

Video and images verified by The New York Times showed significant damage to a large maritime control tower in the Iranian port city of Chabahar. In the southern city of Iranshahr, buildings at an airport were hit, a local official told Iranian state media. A local official in Bushehr told state media that a pier and the perimeter of a nuclear power plant had been hit, according to a state media report.

 

Online video verified by The Times also showed several people inspecting a crater on the side of the Agh Tekeh Khan railway bridge near the city of Agh Qala in northeastern Iran, more than 700 miles from the Strait of Hormuz, the critical oil and gas shipping lane that has been the focus of recent military action. The railway links Tehran to the country’s northern border with Turkmenistan.

 

The Fars News Agency, an outlet affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, said Chinese traffic on the railway had tripled after the United States imposed a naval blockade on ships entering and leaving Iranian ports in April.

 

Iran’s attacks this week targeted war-weary Persian Gulf nations that host American military bases.

 

Kuwait said that it had intercepted three ballistic missiles, a cruise missile and 10 drones early Thursday and that falling debris had injured one person. Bahrain’s military said it had intercepted and destroyed several drones and missiles.

 

Iran also said that it had launched an attack on Qatar, a mediator in the sporadic peace talks between Iran and the United States. The Qatari authorities did not confirm the strikes but issued a public security alert.

 

The surge in fighting has driven up the price of oil. Brent crude, the international benchmark, was trading at about $76 a barrel on Thursday, down from its peak during the war of about $118 but higher than its prewar price of about $72.

 

The attacks prompted a new round of diplomacy by regional leaders eager to tamp down the violence.

 

The prime minister of Qatar, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, spoke by phone on Thursday to the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Oman, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey. He also spoke by phone with Iran’s foreign minister on Wednesday and condemned Iran’s attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz.

 

On Thursday, the ruler of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, made a rare visit to Kuwait, where he met with the country’s emir and discussed strengthening ties between their countries.