Iran targets American assets in Middle East after vowing 'severe' consequences for fresh wave of US strikes

Iran targets American assets in Middle East after vowing 'severe' consequences for fresh wave of US strikes.

Key points

• The Middle East war began in late February with US-Israeli attacks on Iran that assassinated its supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
• Earlier, Revolutionary Guards spokesman Hossein Mohebi cautioned that Washington "will regret its new attacks", saying that "severe punishment awaits the aggressors".
• The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency registered one of the incidents earlier, adding that no casualties or environmental effects had been documented.
• Despite the diplomatic deadlock, Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian vowed on Tuesday to match any US move to return to a accord aimed at ending the war.
• Iran pushed ahead with strikes targeting American interests around the Middle East on Wednesday after vowing "severe" consequences to a fresh wave of US attacks.

Iran targets American assets in Middle East after vowing 'severe' consequences for fresh wave of US strikes. AFP Published September 2, 2026 Updated September 2, 2026 09: 14am. Join our Whatsapp Channel. Add Dawn as a trusted source.

Meanwhile, the latest flare-up is part of a cycle of retaliation that followed US strikes on Iran, with fighting over the Hormuz strait expanding to Washington's Gulf allies, military bases and commercial shipping.

Tehran remarked it rolled out ballistic missile attacks on two US bases in Jordan, according to Iranian media.

Although US President Donald Trump had cautioned earlier of "much harder and higher" attacks if Iran retaliated to US strikes, washington did not immediately comment on the reports.

Meanwhile, the Jordanian army remarked it intercepted 10 ballistic missiles fired from Iran, and did not confirm any injuries or hits. Three other missiles landed in remote areas, it remarked.

Missile and drone attacks were additionally noted in Kuwait, where the army noted they were responding to Iranian hostilities, and AFP reporters in Bahrain heard alert sirens for airborne attacks ring out early on Wednesday.

Iran's army remarked it rolled out drone attacks targeting US forces at an air base in Bahrain, a key Washington ally in the Gulf.

In Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, Iran's Revolutionary Guards remarked on Wednesday that they struck US bases with missiles and drones, destroying a maintenance centre, warehouses and equipment, state-run IRNA noted.

After which Tehran's forces targeted US troops in Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, and projectiles struck two oil tankers in unclaimed attacks, the latest round of conflict began when Washington hit Iranian targets on Sunday, the first known strikes in a number of weeks.

More US strikes came on Tuesday, with Iranian state television reporting explosions in the country's south along the Hormuz strait and on an island in the Gulf, and that US forces hit an airport in the southern province of Kerman.

For context, the Iranian Red Crescent remarked shrapnel from a US missile attack hit a home where a wedding celebration was taking place in the city of Kuhestak, killing four residents, including a child, and wounding more than 50.

Afterwards, Iranian state media noted that seven individuals died and eight were injured in an attack in the southwestern province of Khuzestan.

According to IRNA additionally, "four projectiles hit areas within the counties of Chabahar and Konarak", without specifying whether there was any damage.

Trump remarked the "large and powerful" strikes were "in retaliation for the Iranians' failed attempt at adding sea mines to the Strait" and "the Iranians shooting eight missiles, all successfully knocked down, at our Military Base in Jordan".

He afterwards stated on Truth Social that he was "not trying to force Iran to the bargaining table" and asked: "When are the Iranian people going to rise up and fight?"

And Ebrahim Zolfaghari, the spokesperson for Iran's Khatam-al Anbiya central military command, cautioned on Wednesday that "any country that cooperates with the aggressive American army will face more severe, more widespread and destructive responses".

Notably, the US military remarked Tuesday's strikes followed "attempted attacks by (the Revolutionary Guards) against commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and against American service members deployed to the region", the US Central Command (Centcom) wrote on X.

Asked if the US military had received any credible reports of civilian casualties in the attacks, Centcom spokesman Captain Tim Hawkins remarked "the US military never targets civilians, unlike the IRGC".

After six months of war, the foes remain at an impasse, with Iran keeping the Strait of Hormuz closed and the United States persisting with a counter-blockade of Iranian ports.

Washington remarked its forces attacked Iranian rocket launchers on the island of Larak on Sunday to prevent Tehran from planting mines in the strait's key shipping lanes.

Meanwhile, the Middle East war began in late February with US-Israeli attacks on Iran that assassinated its supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

For context, a fragile ceasefire between the US and Iran collapsed after attacks on commercial ships in the Hormuz strait, through which one-fifth of world oil supplies flowed before the war.

Greek maritime risk management firm Marisks remarked on Tuesday that two crude tankers were hit by "unknown projectiles" late the previous day.

Notably, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency registered one of the incidents earlier, adding that no casualties or environmental effects had been documented.

He additionally cautioned that a return by the United States to "a policy of pressure and threats could derail the path of diplomacy".

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