US launches fresh strikes on Iran, Tehran retaliates with attacks on three Gulf countries

The United States launched fresh attacks on Iran on Thursday, hours after President Donald Trump said that the ceasefire was “over”.

Eight Iranian Army personnel were killed in the US strikes, the country’s state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

Iran retaliated by striking sites in Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar, AP reported. There were no reports of damage in the Gulf countries after the strikes.

The US Central Command said that it struck “approximately 90 military targets” in Iran, including air defence systems, coastal surveillance assets, missile and drone storage sites, naval capabilities and military logistics infrastructure along Iran’s coastline.

The strikes are meant to further “degrade Iran's ability to attack commercial shipping and innocent civilian mariners in the Strait of Hormuz,” the US military said.

Explosions occurred in several locations, including Bushehr, home to Iran’s nuclear power plant complex, and the southern port cities of Chabahar, Konarak, Bandar Abbas and Sirik, AP quoted Iranian state media as saying.

Tensions between the US and Iran escalated on Wednesday after America launched strikes on Iran in response to Tehran’s alleged attacks a day earlier on three liquefied natural gas and crude oil tankers transiting the Strait of Hormuz.

Meanwhile, Trump was quoted as telling reporters that the conflict with Tehran is not a war, but a “de-nuking of Iran”, according to the BBC. “So this is all...

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