A new wave of US airstrikes targeting Iran early Thursday, July 9, 2026, triggered retaliatory Iranian fire across the Gulf, setting off sirens in Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and Jordan. This intensifying exchange of fire threatens the fragile interim agreement aimed at ending the conflict, which originally began with US and Israeli attacks on February 28.
Sirens sounded at least three times in Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet headquarters, while missiles targeted Kuwait and Qatar. Later on Thursday afternoon, sirens also blared in Jordan, where the U.S. maintains troops and aircraft. Kuwait’s military reported that falling debris wounded one person as it successfully shot down three ballistic missiles, a cruise missile, and 10 drones. Bahrain confirmed intercepting incoming fire, though without providing further details, and no immediate damage was reported in Qatar. Jordanian government spokesman Mohammad al-Momani stated that all incoming fire from Iran had been intercepted.
The U.S. military’s Central Command announced it struck approximately 90 targets across Iran, releasing black-and-white footage depicting what appeared to be hits on an airport runway and missile launchers. These strikes, according to the U.S., were intended to “further degrade” Iran’s capacity to “threaten freedom of navigation” in the Strait of Hormuz. Before the war, a fifth of the world’s traded oil and natural gas passed through this crucial strait, but attacks on ships and the constant threat of them have virtually halted traffic, causing oil prices to skyrocket and increasing prices for basic goods globally.
Iranian state media reported explosions in several locations, including Bushehr, the site of Iran’s nuclear power plant complex, and various southern port cities. An Iranian official accused the U.S. of launching an airstrike later Thursday targeting the area around Iran’s sole nuclear power plant, with other explosions reported elsewhere in the country during the afternoon. Ehsan Jahanian, a local official in Bushehr, specifically quoted by the state-run IRNA news agency, claimed the strike near the plant occurred around noon, hours after Central Command stated its strikes had concluded. The plant, managed by Russian technicians, has been hit in the surrounding area multiple times during the war but has sustained no direct damage.
The American airstrikes over two days have resulted in at least 14 fatalities and 78 injuries, Iran’s Health Ministry reported on Thursday, with most casualties identified as members of the armed forces. In Iran’s southwestern Khuzestan province, at least three people were killed on Thursday, while a strike in Iranshahr reportedly killed a firefighter at an airport. These fatalities follow the deaths of at least nine Iranian armed forces members in Wednesday’s strikes. For the first time since April, U.S. strikes also appeared to target Iranian bridges, with state media reporting a hit on a railway bridge in Golestan province and the Revolutionary Guard stating two bridges were attacked on the route to Mashhad, where officials plan to bury the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The intense exchange of fire followed Iran’s attack on three tankers in the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday. U.S. President Donald Trump, after leaving a NATO summit in Turkey, posted videos on social media he claimed showed explosions in Iran, issuing a stern warning: “This is in retribution for yesterday’s bombing of ships by Iran. If it happens again, it will get much worse!” He added, “Anything that happens is going to happen very fast,” and renewed past threats to target Iran’s civilian infrastructure, including electric and desalination plants, and to seize Kharg Island, through which approximately 90% of Iranian oil exports pass.
Trump had previously fueled concerns about a renewed war on Wednesday, declaring the interim agreement to pause fighting “over,” though he stated negotiations could continue, albeit with skepticism about their outcome. “They can talk, but I think they’re wasting their time,” he remarked. In response, Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, a key negotiator, posted defiantly on X on Thursday morning: “America still hasn’t learned that bullying and breaking promises are no longer cost-free. Let me put it plainly: If you strike, you’ll get hit.” Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi, also a top negotiator, countered Trump’s remarks on X, calling them “not a sign of power but an admission of the failure” of U.S. policy toward Iran. Talks are ongoing, focusing on critical issues such as fully reopening the strait and rolling back Tehran’s disputed nuclear program.
Amidst the escalating conflict, thousands of mourners gathered at the Imam Hussein shrine in Karbala, Iraq, early Thursday, July 9, 2026, crying and jostling to get close to the flower petal-covered coffin of Iran’s late Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. A day earlier, on Wednesday, July 8, 2026, mourners had waited for the funeral procession outside the shrine, with some holding portraits depicting Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, the late leader’s son, alongside his father.
