The United States struck 90 Iranian military targets on Thursday while Iran buried its late supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in the northeastern city of Mashhad. The two countries continued trading attacks as the conflict stretched into its latest phase, with a dramatic drop in shipping traffic reported through the Strait of Hormuz.
US Central Command said in a statement that its strikes targeted air defense systems and military logistics infrastructure along Iran's coastline, some near the Strait itself. The statement said the strikes were carried out to "further degrade Iran's ability to attack commercial shipping and innocent civilian mariners" in the vital waterway. Iran's health ministry reported 14 people killed and 78 injured across five provinces over the past two days.
Iran's state media reported that targets near the Bushehr nuclear power plant were also hit, citing the deputy governor of the province. The US did not comment on those specific strikes. Separately, explosions were heard in Iran's southern port of Konarak, where a local official told Iran's official news agency that a navy site had been attacked by an enemy. A US defense official told the BBC it had not carried out any strikes in Iran in recent hours.
Iran said it responded by targeting US assets in Kuwait, Bahrain, and Qatar. Later Thursday, Tehran launched additional strikes on sites in Kuwait, Jordan, and Iraq, according to state-linked media. Gulf nations confirmed the attacks, with explosions reported in Bahrain's capital Manama, Kuwait intercepting missiles and drones, and Qatar issuing a security alert.
Iran's foreign ministry condemned the US strikes as a "grave war crime" and described the US administration as "evil and psychopathic." The ministry also said bridges and a railway route connecting Tehran to Mashhad, where Khamenei's funeral was held, were damaged in the attacks.
Khamenei was killed on February 28 during the first hours of US and Israeli strikes against Iran. Huge crowds gathered Thursday in Mashhad after six days of funeral events. People waved Iranian flags in the streets, and some held signs with death threats directed at US President Donald Trump.
Iran's parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who is also the country's chief negotiator with the United States, posted on X that America "still hasn't learned that bullying and breaking promises are no longer cost-free." He wrote: "Let me put it plainly: if you strike, you'll get hit." He added that the Strait of Hormuz would open only under Iranian arrangements, not what he called American threats.
Observers reported a dramatic drop in the number of oil, gas, and cargo ships using the US-backed route through the Strait following the latest round of strikes. The waterway is one of the world's most critical chokepoints for energy shipments.
