US strikes Iran for the sixth consecutive night amid increased escalation

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced on Thursday that its forces had begun conducting airstrikes on Iran for the sixth consecutive night, as escalation increased in renewed confrontations.

“At 2 p.m. ET today, U.S. forces began conducting a new wave of strikes against Iran for the sixth consecutive night to further degrade Iranian military capabilities,” CENTCOM posted on X.

The latest exchange follows renewed military escalation between the two countries after the US reinstated a naval blockade on vessels transiting Iranian ports in the Strait of Hormuz, following Iran's strikes on Gulf states last week.

Iran's state media IRNA reported late Thursday that explosions were heard across all of Iran's southern provinces of Hormuzgan, Khuzestan, Yazd and Sistan and Baluchestan.

"Following the attack carried out minutes ago by invading American forces on the residential neighborhood of Tappeh-ye Allah Akbar in the city of Bandar Abbas …. eight compatriots have been injured so far, and one person has been martyred," the state media noted.

Iranshahr airport in the southeast was also targeted in the latest wave of American strikes, according to Iranian media. 

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced on Thursday that it targeted multiple United States military assets across the region, including: the early warning radar of a C-RAM system and a satellite communications center at Kuwait's Ali Al Salem Air Base; an American military pier in Shuaiba, Kuwait; a fighter jet maintenance ramp and new US command and control center in Azraq, Jordan; and the Isa Air Base in Bahrain.

The latest tit-for-tat attacks further deepen tensions over the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway through which roughly one-fifth of global oil and gas shipments pass. Recent fighting has also raised further uncertainty over the future of the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding, signed by the two countries in mid-June to halt military operations and resume negotiations.