Zürcher Nachrichten - US strikes Iran as Tehran warns of Mideast reprisals

A battle over the strategic Strait of Hormuz has rekindled the war in the Middle East and the foes have traded fire for six days running.

The US military reported hitting "dozens of Iranian military targets" in response to attacks on commercial shipping, its latest strikes after a preliminary deal with Tehran fell apart.

Early on Friday Iran announced attacks on an airport and railway station in Iran, and strikes on two bridges that killed seven people.

"I officially declare that if the Americans strike the infrastructure of the Islamic Republic, then all infrastructure across the region will become legitimate targets for Iran," Iranian state TV quoted a senior armed forces spokesperson as saying late Thursday.

The renewed fighting comes a month after the signing of a preliminary deal that aimed to end the conflict, which broke out in late February with massive US-Israeli strikes on Iran.

But the foes have been trading attacks as Iran claims control over the waterway key to the global oil supply, despite it being open to free passage before the war.

Tehran had already warned it would target infrastructure across the region if US President Donald Trump followed through on a threat to attack power plants and bridges in Iran -- though the White House said he remained "open to diplomacy".

The Islamic republic responded to the apparent US attacks on its infrastructure with strikes on US allies in the Gulf.

Qatar and Kuwait said Friday they were responding to missile attacks, with AFP journalists in the Qatari capital Doha hearing several blasts.

In Bahrain, Tehran targeted US helicopters and planes at an air base "in response to the enemy's hostile action in targeting urban infrastructure and innocent people", Iranian state media reported.

The Gulf nation urged citizens to take shelter and said that a siren had been sounded.

The attacks came a day after Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they struck a US airbase in Jordan with ballistic missiles in response to what they described as an American attack near a children's cancer hospital, near Ahvaz in the southwest.

- 'Never back down' -

Iranian state media said the hospital was evacuated following US airstrikes on the area that foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei slammed as "barbaric".

Hani, a 34-year-old teacher from Ahvaz, said the strikes were "very intense".

"My hands are shaking. There were at least 11, 12 explosions. My ears are exploding," he said.

A senior Iranian military spokesman called for the US to withdraw from the region, saying "we will never back down over the Strait of Hormuz", state TV reported.

The Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping route for the world's oil, was briefly reopened after the US-Iran deal in June, but Tehran said last week it would be closed again "until the US ends its aggression".

The United States has also reimposed its blockade of Iran's ports.

On Thursday, the American military said forces had boarded a ship in the Gulf of Oman to "ensure full compliance", adding that three vessels had been redirected since the blockade resumed.

- Threats to infrastructure -

Pakistan's foreign office spokesman Tahir Andrabi said Islamabad would "continue to encourage all sides to end violence and resume technical-level talks" under the memorandum of understanding it helped mediate last month.

But Iran's top negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf has warned that a deal "only has meaning when its clauses are valid and being implemented".

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Thursday that Trump would hold Iran "accountable" for going back on its word, but said "he is always open to diplomacy at the very same time".

"They have expressed they still want to make a deal to the president. We're talking to them, but again, the president is not going to allow them to fire on ships in the strait without paying a consequence for that," she said.

Trump previously threatened to hit Iranian power plants and bridges unless Tehran returned to the negotiating table, telling Fox News: "Next week it gets really bad for them."

On Thursday, the spokesman for Iran's military headquarters said that if the US followed through on its threats, "all infrastructure in the region" would be "crushed".

Since last week, renewed US attacks have killed at least 30 people in Iran, government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani said.

O.Hofer--NZN