Iran has fired on US allies in the Gulf after a night of American bombardment that Iranian officials said included a deadly strike on a wedding party.
The latest violence came after a month-long lull in fighting. The six-month war has led to a spike in oil prices, hit the global economy and posed increasing political problems for US President Donald Trump’s Republican Party ahead of November mid-term elections.
Fighting has escalated since the American military hit Iranian rocket launchers on an island in the Strait of Hormuz over the weekend, saying Iran was planning to use them to shoot mines into the waterway. Iran retaliated by firing missiles at American bases in Jordan that were intercepted.
Today at 12 p.m. ET, U.S. forces began striking Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) targets in Iran. The strikes follow recent attempted attacks by the IRGC against commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and against American service members deployed to the region.
— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) September 1, 2026
American military resources are stretched and political pressure in Washington is mounting, while Iran’s economy falters. Iran’s currency hit another low on Wednesday, with traders in Tehran exchanging 2.20 million rials for one US dollar, a 10% hike from last week’s record.
The latest flare-up in violence came as the standoff seemed to be shifting slightly more in the US’s favour, with the price of oil around 80 dollars a barrel and Iranian leaders talking about growing economic hardships, said Sascha Bruchmann, an analyst with the International Institute for Strategic Studies’ Middle East office in Bahrain.
Last week, US Central Command’s Admiral Brad Cooper said the strait had been secretly cleared of mines and the US Navy had helped nearly 1,500 commercial vessels carrying 750 million barrels of oil pass through in recent months — still far below pre-war levels.
Since the fighting resumed, the price of Brent crude oil, the international standard, has climbed to around 95 dollars, up more than 30% from the start of the war.
After Iranian strikes on Jordan, Kuwait and Bahrain said they had also come under attack, without reporting any casualties.
“You will soon see that Iran’s new strategy on the battlefield, in diplomacy, and in confronting the economic blockade will shatter your foundations,” said the recently appointed head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Mohsen Rezaei.
In Iraq, where Iranian-backed forces are active, Kurdish authorities said they had intercepted 10 drones laden with explosives in the Irbil area. Iranian television reported that American bases in Irbil had been targeted.
Israel’s military said Iran-backed Hezbollah forces fired two explosive drones at its soldiers in southern Lebanon, without causing casualties.
US Central Command said Tuesday’s strikes focused on Iranian military targets, including air defence sites, radar systems and maritime assets.
One US strike hit a home hosting a wedding in Kuhestak, a small coastal town overlooking the Strait of Hormuz, according to Iranian media.
Four people were killed — two women and two children aged four and 16 — and at least 68 were wounded, the state news agency IRNA and state TV said on Wednesday. Ahmad Nafisi, the province’s deputy governor, had told Iranian state television that five people were killed.
Several heavy explosions shook Kuhestak, with fireballs that lit up the night sky, according to security camera footage carried by the semi-official Fars news agency.
Images from Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency showed several children being treated for injuries in hospital in the nearby town of Minab, where a US missile strike on the opening day of the war hit a primary school, killing more than 100 children.
Footage from the Iranian Red Crescent showed rescue workers entering a damaged home after the strike. It showed a hole in the roof of one house in a neighbourhood of densely packed homes.
Two weapons experts told the Associated Press that images of fragments of a missile, which Iranian media said was used in the strike, were from a US-made SLAM-ER cruise missile.
Trevor Ball, an analyst with Armament Research Services, said the SLAM-ER was “developed as a very precise weapon” that can be retargeted in flight by a human operator watching by infrared camera.
“Make no mistake: these crimes will not go unpunished,” said Ebrahim Azizi, chairman of the Iranian parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee.
US Central Command spokesman Captain Tim Hawkins said the American military was “aware of the reports, which originated from Iranian state media, and we are looking into them”.
Tehran said four members of its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and 10 members of the Guard’s volunteer Basij forces died in the US attacks.
On Wednesday, Saudi shipping company Bahri said two Filipino sailors had been killed in an attack late on Monday as their vessel transited the Strait of Hormuz.
A ceasefire deal reached in June quickly fell apart amid exchanges of strikes that month, and mediator Pakistan has been working to restart talks.
Late on Tuesday, Mr Trump said he would not force Tehran to the bargaining table.
“I couldn’t care less if they sign a worthless, to them, agreement. I like our position now much better, with almost total control of the Hormuz Strait, and their economy totally collapsing,” he wrote.
“They are just playing out the inevitable. When are the Iranian people going to rise up and fight?”
Share