Region on shaky ground as US, Iran trade attacks

The situation in the Middle East remained on shaky ground after Washington and Tehran traded strikes for the second consecutive night, leaving a trail of casualties and keeping the region on edge with security alerts in Qatar and warning sirens in Kuwait and Bahrain.

The Iranian Ministry of Health said US forces have attacked five provinces in the country over the past two days, killing 14 people and wounding 78. Hossein Kermanpour, the spokesman for the ministry, said about 47 of the wounded remain hospitalized.

The IRGC said in a statement that following the breach of commitment by the US and its latest aggression against Iran, four US bases in Kuwait and Bahrain were hit in the first phase of its response, Iran's Tasnim News Agency reported on Thursday.

The IRGC statement blamed the US for violating all its commitments in the memorandum of understanding Tehran signed with Washington last month.

"In the first phase of the punitive response against (the US), the IRGC's naval and aerospace forces, through joint missile and drone operations, destroyed the infrastructure and important facilities of the two colonial bases of the American occupiers in Arifjan and Ali al-Salem in Kuwait and in Juffair and Sheikh Isa in Bahrain, one hour after the enemy's attacks on various parts of (Iran)," the IRGC was quoted as saying by Tasnim.

The IRGC warned the US army that if the aggression is repeated, the Iranian response would be expanded to other US bases in the region.

Iran's Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf said in a post on X that the US still has not learned that "bullying and breaking promises are no longer cost-free".

"Let me put it plainly: if you strike, you'll get hit. Don't flail around pointlessly, or you'll sink even deeper: the Strait of Hormuz will only open with 'Iranian arrangements', not American threats," said Qalibaf.

Bahrain's Ministry of Interior activated its alarm siren and urged its citizens and residents to remain calm and head to the nearest safe location. Kuwaiti air defenses have reported repelling missile and drone attacks while the Kuwait Army General Staff urged the public to keep away from suspicious wreckage.

Military escalation

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Qatari Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani held a phone call on Thursday where they reviewed the military escalation between the US and Iran over the past two days.

Al Thani condemned and rejected the attacks targeting commercial ships in the strait "despite the atmosphere of de-escalation and the efforts being made to reduce tensions in the region", emphasizing that such actions undermine trust, threaten international navigation security, and harm the efforts aimed at establishing regional security and stability, according to a statement published by Qatar's Foreign Ministry.

Data from Kpler, a global data and analytics company that tracks maritime trade in real-time, said the Strait of Hormuz recovery faces fresh pressure.

"Traffic through the monitored Strait of Hormuz zone strengthened on July 7, with 41 verified crossings compared with 36 the previous day," it said on Wednesday.

An Al Jazeera report noted that movement in the crucial waterway is now largely confined to a northern route approved by Iran, while a corridor further south backed by Oman and the US saw little activity.

US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that Iran "wants to make a deal so badly" and had reached out to him to pursue negotiations after repeated US strikes in the region.

The US Central Command said its forces completed an additional round of strikes against Iran on Wednesday "to further degrade Iran's ability to attack commercial shipping and innocent civilian mariners in the Strait of Hormuz".

"US forces struck approximately 90 Iranian military targets, including air defense systems, coastal surveillance assets, missile and drone storage sites, naval capabilities, and military logistics infrastructure along Iran's coastline. The latest strikes follow successful execution of offensive strikes in Iran the night before," it said.

Contact the writers at jan@chinadailyapac.com