Iran has attacked US military bases in Kuwait, despite President Donald Trump threatening further strikes in a fresh flare-up six months into the war.
Mr Trump said the United States was prepared to attack Iran “any time we want” after extensive bombardment of sites across the country left at least 19 people dead.
Tehran retaliated by hitting US military targets across the Middle East, including in Kuwait, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region.
The clashes deepen the ongoing impasse in the war, as Iran maintains a stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz oil export route and the US presses its counter-blockade of Iranian ports.
Security chief Mohsen Rezaei warned the US that Iran had adopted a “new strategy” in the war that “will shatter your foundations”.
Kuwait’s army said that it was intercepting a missile and drone attack from Iran, with Iranian state TV confirming that Tehran was targeting US bases in the Gulf state “in response to America’s crimes against the Iranian people”.
The latest round of fighting began when Washington hit Iranian targets on Sunday, the first known strikes in several weeks, saying it was trying to stop Iran from placing sea mines in the Strait of Hormuz.
Tehran said that Sunday’s strikes resulted in “casualties” and responded by targeting US troops in Jordan and the United Arab Emirates.
Projectiles also struck two oil tankers in unclaimed attacks, one of which killed two Filipino sailors, according to a Saudi shipping company.
Aside from military action, the US has vowed to choke Iran’s economy, threatening to slap sanctions on its trade partners.
Secretary of Energy Chris Wright pledged that a plan by Washington for expanded sanctions, targeting Tehran’s economic partners, would deliver “absolutely maximum pressure”.
President Trump suggested renaming the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic shipping lane that Iran has effectively shut for six months, as “Trump Strait”.
He later implied that he was not serious.
“Now that we have it under U.S.A. control, should we change the name Hormuz Strait to TRUMP STRAIT???” he wrote on Truth Social.
Iran’s pummelling of US military targets across the region came after an American missile attack that hit a wedding in the country’s south, prompting fury from Tehran.
The Iranian Red Crescent said shrapnel from the assault, in the coastal town of Kuhestak, killed four people, including a child, and wounded more than 50.
The US military did not address the attack directly.
US Central Command (CENTCOM) spokesman Tim Hawkins said: “The US military never targets civilians, unlike the IRGC,” referring to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
US ‘acts like Satan’ – Iran
Iran’s top negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf attacked the US, describing it as “Satan”.
“If a power acts like Satan, picks targets like Satan, and kills like Satan, it’s Satan,” he posted on social media.
Iranians expressed regret at the return to hostilities.
A video shared by an Iranian government account showed debris and damage at what it said was the wedding venue in Kuhestak following the strike, with people heard screaming in the background.
“It is a very saddening incident,” Ali Mallahi, father of the bride and owner of the building that was hit, said in a video carried by state television.
“Thank God the casualties were not higher.”
The war began on 28 February with US-Israeli attacks on Iran that killed its supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
A fragile ceasefire collapsed after attacks on commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz, through which one-fifth of world oil supplies previously flowed.
Meanwhile, Israel’s defence minister Israel Katz said that his country was prepared to respond “with great force” if attacked by Iran over the Jewish high holiday season, which begins in the middle of this month.
“For now, they are striking throughout the region except us,” Mr Katz told a conference hosted by Israeli media outlets.