US and Iran exchange strikes across Middle East for second day in a row

18 hours agoShareSaveAdd as preferred on Google Harry Sekulichand Toby Mann Bahrain Interior Ministry/X Bahrain shared images of damage it said had been caused a second consecutive day, further straining a shaky ceasefire agreed between the two countries in April. US Central Command (Centcom) said it had completed a wave of "self-defense strikes" targeting military, surveillance and radar sites in southern Iran, hours after President Donald Trump vowed US forces would hit Iran "hard". Tehran responded to the attack with a round of strikes targeting US military assets across the region in Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan. Iran's foreign ministry said early on Thursday that the overnight attacks violated the two-month-old ceasefire, rendering it "practically meaningless". It said in a statement that responsibility for the "extremely serious consequences of this criminal act" lay with the leaders of the US. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it had fired ballistic missiles at a US command centre in Jordan, state media reported. It said it had destroyed "a large number" of US fighter jets and "facilities" after firing 12 ballistic missiles at the Muwaffaq Salti Airbase. Jordanian state media reported 20 missiles had been intercepted and shot down 's air defence systems and air force, citing an unnamed military official. The missiles had been fired towards Azraq in central Jordan, it reported, "without any human casualties or material damage" caused. Meanwhile, Bahrain's interior ministry said its air raid sirens were activated and that falling shrapnel from intercepted Iranian drones had damaged homes and vehicles in the capital, Manama, and Hamad Town. An 11-year-old girl was treated for a "minor injury", the ministry said, calling Iran's strikes "sinful". Watch: US Central Command releases video it says shows missiles being fired at Iran Kuwait's Army posted on X that its anti-air defence systems intercepted "hostile aerial targets". Kuwait said it had temporarily closed its airspace due to the Iranian attacks, before reopening it early on Thursday. In Iran, state media reported explosions around Tehran, the port city of Bandar Abbas and other southern areas near the Strait of Hormuz. The IRGC said it had hit two oil tankers passing through the crucial shipping channel shortly after state media reported it was "completely closed to all type of vessel" - although there was no immediate confirmation of a strike. Centcom, however, said "commercial ships are continuing to transit in and out of the Strait of Hormuz". Oil prices rose shortly after the closure of the shipping channel and the apparent attack on the ships was announced.