Iran fired missiles and drones at U.S. assets in Jordan, Bahrain, Kuwait and Iraq early Wednesday, after a night of American bombardment that Iranian officials said included a deadly strike on a wedding. [1][2][6] Al Jazeera called it the heaviest exchange of fire between the two sides in more than a month. [6] Kuwait's fire service put out a blaze at a residential complex hit by a drone and reported no casualties. [3] CENTCOM has not posted a Wednesday start-and-complete pair. No completed third U.S. wave is on the public record.
Tuesday's paper treated the noon-ET restart as Monday's sequel, not a new war — a 12 p.m. start, a Fox wipe-out line if it went a third time, a wedding toll of four including a child, and CENTCOM's same-day complete post. Wednesday is the Iranian answer and the unspent extra-round threat. It is not a fresh opening. Monday's paper had already treated resumed fire as the empirical test of "Mission Accomplished," not a new war. The test is now in its third session.
NPR and the Associated Press still sold a monthlong lull broken. [1][2] That is Tuesday's frame, already published. The command's own X feed remains the operational record. The Tuesday afternoon post said U.S. forces began striking IRGC targets at 12 p.m. Eastern. A later post said the wave was complete and named air defense, radar, maritime, mine-laying and communications targets. [4][6] No equivalent Wednesday pair was found. A reader who only saw the lull-broken copy missed that Washington has not, on the public record Wednesday, posted another completed wave.
President Donald Trump told Oval reporters a different sentence from Tuesday's Fox line. Asked how long the renewed campaign might last, he said, "I don't think too long." [7] He also said the United States was "prepared to do another one any time we want," called Tuesday night "a very heavy attack," and said American forces had "taken out" equipment Iran was rebuilding along the strait — "some defensive, some offensive." [7] "We hit them last night because they took a shot at our base in Jordan," he said. "We hit them hard last night. They gave a little love-tap, but we hit them hard." [7] Those are not the Fox wipe-out sentence. They are not a CENTCOM completion post either.
The Truth Social line sits beside both. Late Tuesday Trump wrote that he was not trying to force Iran back to the table. "I couldn't care less if they sign a worthless, to them, agreement. I like our position now much better, with almost total control of the Hormuz Strait, and their economy totally collapsing. They are just playing out the inevitable. When are the Iranian people going to rise up and fight?" [1][6] Aims language split three ways in one cycle: wipe-out if it goes a third time, Oval brevity, and a preference for the present position. The paper prints the three sentences. It does not sand them into one restart brief.
The wedding ledger still will not sit still. The Iranian Red Crescent said shrapnel from a missile hit a family ceremony at a home in Kuhestak, in Sirik county. [3] BBC named the dead, citing the Hormozgan governorate: Zarkhatoon Taheri, 50; Kolsum Mallahi Nazhdnia, 43; Mohammad Mallahi, 16; and Amirali Karimi, four. [3] IRNA and state television said Wednesday that four people were killed — two women and two children, aged 4 and 16 — and at least 68 were wounded. [1][2] Deputy governor Ahmad Nafisi had told state television five were killed. There was no explanation for the change. [1][2] Al Jazeera's dedicated Wednesday headline is "at least four people"; the URL slug still says five. [5] Tuesday's paper printed four including a child and more than 50 injured. That remains the wedding record. It is not a later roundup.
Health Minister Mohammad Reza Zafarghandi, cited by IRIB, said eighteen people were killed and 108 injured in Tuesday's U.S. attacks. [8] That is a whole-wave claim. It is not the wedding. Do not collapse them. BBC reported Iranian authorities saying another fourteen people were killed elsewhere — seven around Ahvaz and Aqajari in Khuzestan, four IRGC aerospace-force members in Kermanshah, and three Basij members on Lavan Island. [3] Al Jazeera's Tuesday wrap, still live Wednesday, had cited Khuzestan deputy governor Valiollah Hayati for seven more killed and eight wounded in that province. [6] Announcement and forensic chain remain separate. Radar, wreckage, impact inspection and independent review decide what happened.
Ali Mallahi, father of the bride and owner of the building, said on state television, "Unfortunately, this is a residential building. And unfortunately, this happened during my daughter's wedding ceremony." [3] Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei called the strike a "war crime." [3][5] The Iranian Red Crescent sent a letter to the International Criminal Court calling for legal action. [5] CENTCOM spokesman Capt. Tim Hawkins told the BBC the United States was "aware of the reports, which originated from Iranian state media," and that "the US military never targets civilians, unlike the IRGC." [3] He told the Associated Press the military was looking into the reports and would not say whether a formal investigation had been opened. [1][7] Washington had still made no official comment on the wedding by the Guardian's Wednesday wrap. [7]
BBC Verify said a telecommunications tower about 112 to 130 meters from the house was destroyed, and that footage appeared to show remnants of an AGM-84 SLAM-ER cruise missile. [3] Armament Research Services analyst Trevor Ball told the Associated Press the SLAM-ER can be retargeted in flight by a human operator watching an infrared camera. [2] N.R. Jenzen-Jones of Armament Research Services first identified a SLAM-ER, then said further imagery made a JSOW guided bomb more likely, without ruling out a SLAM-ER or multiple weapons. [2] CENTCOM declined to comment on the analyst's findings. [2] An expert read of Iranian-released fragments is not a completed munition chain.
Iran answered in the geography it has used since Sunday. Jordan's armed forces said they engaged 13 ballistic missiles, destroyed 10, and that three fell in remote, uninhabited areas. [3][6] The IRGC claimed a ballistic attack on Marine barracks at Camp Titin near Aqaba and said it hit Prince Hassan air base. [6] A U.S. official told Al Jazeera there were no injuries or significant damage at Camp Titin. [6] Reuters, cited by the BBC, reported U.S. officials saying there were no casualties. [3] Bahrain's Interior Ministry issued shelter alerts; Iran's army said it launched drones at radar installations and parts of Sheikh Isa air base. [6] Kurdish authorities in Iraq said they intercepted 10 explosive-laden drones in the Erbil area; Iranian television said American bases there had been targeted. [1][2] The IRGC claimed a repair center, warehouses and fuel tanks. Al Jazeera could not verify the claims. [6] Israel's military said Hezbollah fired two explosive drones at soldiers in southern Lebanon without causing casualties. [1][2] Announcement and intercept remain two records.
Colonel Ebrahim Zolfaghari, spokesman for Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, said offensive operations against American forces would continue "until they regret their crimes." [6] Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said the armed forces had "unforgettable lessons" in store. [6] Mohsen Rezaei, the newly appointed head of the Supreme National Security Council, said Iran's "new strategy on the battlefield, in diplomacy, and in confronting the economic blockade will shatter your foundations." [1][2] GCC secretary-general Jasem Mohamed AlBudaiwi called the Iranian attacks a "flagrant violation of the sovereignty of these states." [5] The words are the same as Monday's. The map is wider.
The rial hit another record low. Traders in Tehran exchanged 2.20 million rials for one dollar, a 10 percent move from last week's record. [1][2] Brent, NPR said, has climbed to around $95 since fighting resumed, up more than 30 percent from the start of the war. [1] A companion Economy file owns the Wright-versus-Kpler hull count. This file owns the fire. Do not collapse them. A tanker-for-tanker disclosure belongs in its own World file. Named hulls from Monday night belong in Tuesday's shipping record. The paper does not average ledgers.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Iran will "continue to feel the squeeze" until it drops nuclear-weapons ambitions and ends support for armed groups. [2] Iran has always insisted its nuclear program is peaceful. [2] Hamidreza Azizi of the Crisis Group said neither side can continue indefinitely between full-scale war and a truce: "At some point, one of the sides may see a need to escalate in order to break this cycle." [1][2] That is an analyst's warning. It is not an adopted aim.
The June memorandum is still the document Tehran cites. BBC recapped the June text: an end to hostilities, a reopened strait, and two months to reach a final deal on the nuclear program, sanctions and a permanent truce. [3] The memorandum collapsed within weeks. [3] Pakistan has been working to restart talks. [1] Trump's Oval brevity is still the sentence Washington said out loud. CENTCOM's Tuesday complete post is still the last start-and-complete pair on the command's feed. They cannot all three be the governing instrument. Wednesday chose the Iranian answer and left the extra round unspent.
The funeral for those killed at the Kuhestak wedding is scheduled for Thursday, Fars reported, citing the IRGC in Hormozgan. [7] A schedule is not a forensic chain. Four named dead remain the wedding record. Eighteen and 108 remain the health minister's later wave. The command has not posted Wednesday as complete. The extra round is still a sentence, not a start time.
-- YOSEF STERN, Jerusalem