The United States and Iran exchanged strikes for a fifth consecutive day on Wednesday, with both sides showing no sign of backing down as they entered a new stage of the war.
U.S. Central Command, which oversees American forces in the Middle East, said it launched two rounds of strikes on Iranian targets on Wednesday, one in the afternoon and one in the morning that hit “coastal defense systems and cruise missile storage and launch sites” on Greater Tunb island, near the Strait of Hormuz. Both rounds, it said, sought to weaken Iran’s ability to attack commercial vessels in the critical waterway for oil and gas shipping.
Iran said earlier that it had targeted American military facilities in the region, hours after the U.S. military reimposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports and President Trump scrapped a short-lived plan to impose tolls on shipping in the strait. Since restarting the blockade, the U.S. military said it had “redirected” two vessels that were attempting to cross it.
The strikes, and Mr. Trump’s flip-flop on the toll plan, highlighted his struggle to exit a war that he had said would last four to six weeks but that is now in its fifth month with no clear endgame. The preliminary cease-fire has collapsed, diplomatic efforts have stalled, and the conflict is now focused on control of the strait, which was open before the war as a conduit for roughly 20 percent of the world’s crude oil.
Mr. Trump, speaking at the Army War College in Carlisle, Pa., repeated his assertion on Wednesday that Iran’s leaders “want to settle so badly” but said he was undecided about what path the United States would take.
“We’ll find out whether or not we settle with them or we just finish them off,” he said.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps of Iran said on Wednesday that it had launched strikes on U.S. military targets in Bahrain, Jordan and Kuwait. The Jordanian military said it had shot down three Iranian missiles, and Kuwaiti and Bahraini forces said they had intercepted attacks. There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.
All three countries have come under repeated Iranian fire during the war, particularly Bahrain and Kuwait.
Video shared on social media and verified by The New York Times showed an exploding Iranian drone slamming down near a burning warehouse in Kuwait late on Tuesday night local time. The Revolutionary Guards claimed that the warehouse was a logistics and supply hub for U.S. forces in the region.
Iranian state media reported that seven members of the army had been killed in U.S. strikes on military facilities in the country’s southeast. Iranian officials said that U.S. strikes had also hit a wheat storage silo on Wednesday, state media reported. U.S. Central Command denied that it had hit a wheat silo and said it had targeted military facilities.
An Iranian government spokeswoman, Fatemeh Mohajerani, said on social media that the U.S. attacks had killed more than 30 civilians in recent days. She did not provide further details. Central Command declined to comment on the number of civilian deaths.
Speaking on Fox News on Tuesday, Mr. Trump threatened to bomb civilian infrastructure, including power plants and bridges — acts that could constitute a war crime under international law.
Amid the threats and increasing attacks, Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, traveled on Wednesday to Qatar, which has acted as a key mediator between Washington and Tehran. Mr. Araghchi’s office said he was visiting the country for meetings and to pay his respects after the recent death of Qatar’s former monarch.
A spokesman for the Iranian foreign ministry, Esmaeil Baghaei, said on Wednesday that Iran has no plans to return to negotiations with the United States and was “focused on defense,” according to state media.
The leader of Iran’s negotiating team, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said in a statement on Wednesday addressed to the people of Iran that the country was engaged in an “existential war” with the United States.
At the same time, he said, diplomacy remained important.
“As I have repeatedly stated, negotiations at this stage do not amount to capitulation,” Mr. Ghalibaf said. “Alongside war, they form part of the strategy of resistance and the protection of the national interest.”
Reporting was contributed by Jenny Gross, Sanam Mahoozi, Sanjana Varghese, Lara Jakes, Shirin Hakim, Leily Nikounazar and Michael Levenson.
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