Iran fired on U.S. allies in the Gulf early Wednesday after a night of American bombardment, and the people caught in the middle got the usual gift from rival states: dead children, wounded civilians, and another round of official statements about targets, strategy, and control. The renewed exchanges came after a monthlong lull in fighting, following U.S. strikes on Iranian targets and a broader resumption of hostilities that have now stretched more than six months.
Civilian Homes Under State Fire
Iranian officials said one U.S. strike hit a home hosting a wedding in Kuhestak, a small coastal town overlooking the Strait of Hormuz. Four people were killed there — two women and two children, aged 4 and 16 — and at least 68 were wounded, according to the state news agency IRNA and state TV. Just after the strike, Ahmad Nafisi, the province’s deputy governor, had told Iranian state television that five people were killed, but Iranian state media later reported four dead and gave no explanation for the change. The numbers shifted. The wreckage didn’t.
Iran’s Red Crescent released video it said showed a house targeted by U.S. airstrikes in southern Kuhestak on Tuesday evening, which Iranian officials said was the site of a wedding celebration. The footage showed rescue workers entering a damaged home and a hole in the roof of one house in a neighborhood of densely packed homes. Security camera footage carried by the semiofficial Fars news agency showed several heavy explosions shaking Kuhestak, with fireballs lighting up the night sky. Images from the semiofficial Tasnim news agency showed several hospitalized children being treated for injuries at a hospital in the nearby town of Minab, where a U.S. missile strike on the opening day of the war hit a primary school, killing more than 100 children.
The Language of Targets, the Reality of Bodies
U.S. Central Command said Tuesday’s strikes focused on Iranian military targets, including air defense sites, radar systems and maritime assets. U.S. Central Command spokesman Capt. Tim Hawkins said the U.S. military was “aware of the reports, which originated from Iranian state media, and we are looking into them.” He would not say if CENTCOM had launched a formal investigation. That’s the familiar choreography: one side names targets, the other counts the dead, and both speak in the grammar of command.
Separately, Iran said four members of its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and 10 members of the Guard’s volunteer Basij forces died in the U.S. attacks. Iran also said the U.S. 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. Following the strikes at Jordan, Kuwait and Bahrain said they had also come under attack, without reporting any casualties. 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 also said that Iran-backed Hezbollah fired two explosive drones at its soldiers in southern Lebanon, without causing casualties. The National said Israel’s military also said it intercepted a suspected aerial target from Lebanon.
The Iranian military released video showing what it said were missiles being fired towards Jordan, where American forces are based, in response to the latest U.S. strikes. Sirens sounded in Kuwait City in the early hours of Wednesday as Iran launched drones and missiles at some Gulf countries and Jordan. Bahrain claimed to intercept an Iranian aerial attack. The National’s live updates said Iran attacked U.S. sites in Bahrain, Jordan, Iraq and Kuwait, and that seven IRGC fighters were killed in U.S. attacks, according to state media. It also said four were killed and 50 wounded at the wedding in Iran, and that power cuts hit parts of Iran after U.S. strikes.
Markets, Mediation, and the Machinery of War
Iran’s newly appointed head of the powerful Supreme National Security Council, Mohsen Rezaei, said on X: “You will soon see that Iran’s new strategy on the battlefield, in diplomacy, and in confronting the economic blockade will shatter your foundations.” Ebrahim Azizi, chairperson of the Iranian parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, said on X: “Make no mistake: these crimes will not go unpunished.” Hamidreza Azizi, senior Iran analyst at the Crisis Group, said, “At some point, one of the sides may see a need to escalate in order to break this cycle,” and warned that could bring the two sides to “a full-scale war.”
Sascha Bruchmann, an analyst with the International Institute for Strategic Studies’ Middle East office in Bahrain, said the standoff seemed to be shifting slightly more in the U.S.’ favor, with oil around $80 a barrel and Iranian leaders talking about growing economic hardships. He said, “He basically told the world oil is flowing out and Iran is not capable of restricting the U.S.'s approach,” referring to U.S. Central Command’s Adm. Brad Cooper. Bruchmann added, “The U.S. is trying to reinstall some kind of confidence into the global oil markets … and the Iranians had to respond to that by reinserting insecurity and doubt.”
Last week, Adm. Brad Cooper said the Strait of Hormuz had been secretly cleared of mines and that the U.S. Navy had helped nearly 1,500 commercial vessels carrying some 750 million barrels of oil pass through in recent months, still far below prewar levels. Since the fighting resumed, Brent crude oil has climbed to around $95, up more than 30% from the start of the war. Iran’s currency hit another record low on Wednesday, with traders in Tehran exchanging 2.20 million rials for one U.S. dollar, a 10% hike from last week’s record. On Wednesday, Saudi shipping company Bahri said two Filipino sailors were killed in an attack late Monday as their vessel transited the strait. A ceasefire deal reached in June quickly fell apart amid exchanges of strikes that same month, and mediator Pakistan has been working to restart talks.
Late Tuesday, President Trump said he would not force Iran to the bargaining table. He wrote on social media: “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. They are just playing out the inevitable. When are the Iranian people going to rise up and fight?” The line is blunt. The logic is older: states break people, then ask them to do the rest.