US launches another round of attacks on Iran

Targets across southern Iran hit, including on strategic Qeshm Island.The United States Central Command (CENTCOM) says it has launched a “heavy wave of strikes against Iran”, following Iranian missile attacks on US forces a day earlier.It claimed to have hit dozens of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) targets early on Thursday, according to a statement posted on X, including “military command centres, missile and drone facilities, coastal surveillance and defence sites, and maritime capabilities”.The strikes came hours after US President Donald Trump promised to hit Iran, “very hard”, after it targeted a base in Jordan where US troops are stationed.Reporting from Tehran, Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar said these latest strikes are “concentrated in Iran’s southern provinces, particularly those along the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz”, similar to the US attacks during a recent 13-day campaign.Iranian officials say a residential building on Qeshm Island was hit, with three people trapped under the rubble, and two injured people taken to hospital.The explosions were heard as far as the port city of Bandar Abbas in Hormozgan province, leading to initial reports that the port was hit.The island has experienced power outages, and authorities are working to restore electricity and remove debris, the officials said.A deputy security minister in Khuzestan province told Iran’s state broadcaster IRIB that US forces targeted “some locations in Abadan”.Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reported US strikes on the outskirts of the city of Kazerun in the southwestern Fars province, as well as two loud explosions on the island of Kish in the Gulf.