Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s coverage of the continuing crisis in the Middle East.
Iran was pummelled with a volley of missiles for a second consecutive night, with the US military claiming to have struck 170 Iranian targets in the last 48 hours.
US Central Command (Centcom) said the intense bombing aimed to “further degrade Iran’s ability to attack commercial shipping and innocent civilian mariners in the strait of Hormuz”.
Smoke rises from explosions at an unknown location, following what US Central Command said were strikes on Iranian military targets. Photograph: US Central Command/ReutersIranian state media reported explosions in several cities, most of them concentrated in the south of the country, as its army responded with retaliatory strikes on US bases in Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar.
The regional crossfire sparked by a battle to control movement in the narrow and strategic shipping channel threatens to unravel an interim truce between the US and Iran.
Both sides have vowed to escalate retaliations should provocations continue, with president Donald Trump warning that worse could come, while Iran has threatened to expand its attacks against US bases in the region.
During the Nato summit in Turkey, Trump said he considers the memorandum of understanding with Iran to be “over”, adding: “I don’t want to deal with them.”
Iran’s top negotiator, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, vowed that the strait of Hormuz would remain under Iranian management. “The strait of Hormuz will be reopened only under Iranian arrangements, not through US threats,” he wrote on X.
The fresh strikes came as Iranians prepare to bury their late supreme leader Ali Khamenei in his home town of Mashhad in north-east Iran. The burial follows a multi-day funeral ceremony that attracted millions of mourners across various cities in both Iran and Iraq.
Read the full report here:
US launches strikes on Iran for a second day after Trump says agreement to end the war is ‘over’Read more
