Tehran, Iran. Iranian armed forces launched attacks on U.S. military infrastructure in neighbouring Gulf states on Thursday after U.S. strikes on Iran’s southern coastal and eastern provinces, increasing pressure on a three-week-old ceasefire agreement.
Iran was also preparing to bury Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at the country’s holiest shrine in Mashhad after a week of mass funeral processions and rallies.
Renewed military exchanges
The U.S. military said on Wednesday that its latest strikes on Iran were intended to keep the Strait of Hormuz open after Iranian forces struck three tankers in the area. The strikes came hours after U.S. President Donald Trump said he believed the interim ceasefire with Iran to be over.
Iranian officials said the U.S. attacks killed 14 people and injured 78 across five provinces on July 8 and 9, according to state media. Fars reported that one U.S. strike hit a rail bridge used for trade with Russia and China.
Strikes in southern Iran
Several explosions were heard on Thursday morning in Iran’s Bushehr province and in Bandar Abbas, a port city on the Strait of Hormuz on Iran’s southern coast, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported.
Bushehr is home to a Russian-built nuclear power plant, and a local official later told state media that a U.S. projectile hit the perimeter area of the facility. The perimeter had already been hit several times during the current conflict before an April 8 ceasefire.
U.S. strikes also hit a military site and a fishing dock in Bushehr province, its deputy governor said, adding that no casualties were reported.
Khamenei burial preparations
Iran was preparing on Thursday to bury Khamenei in Mashhad, in northeastern Iran. He was killed in a U.S. airstrike on the first day of the war on February 28.
Iran’s air force was flying MiG-29 jets to secure the skies over the funeral procession in Mashhad, Fars news agency said.
Market reaction
Oil prices, which had risen on concerns about the impact of renewed attacks on global supplies, fell back on Thursday as investors assessed whether the latest escalation would be temporary or signal a complete collapse in the ceasefire.