US strikes Iran after Trump's threats over Red Sea shipping

DUBAI: US missiles struck targets across Iran, reaching as far as its Caspian coast, on Friday after President Donald Trump vowed 'major military punishment' for Tehran and Ansar Allah in Yemen for extending the Middle East war to a second major shipping chokepoint, the mouth of the Red Sea. Two weeks after the collapse of an interim truce meant to end the war, the Iranian armed forces responded by firing at US bases in neighbouring Arab countries and warning people there that they may strike non-military buildings used by US personnel.
The Ansar Allah, who control northern and western Yemen, have announced a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia, which has diverted millions of barrels of oil ⁠each day by pipeline to the Red Sea to skirt Iran's near-total blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.
The entrance to the Gulf has so far been ⁠the focus of a war that has killed thousands in almost five months, stoked global inflation and fanned fears of an economic downturn.
The Ansar Allah struck two Saudi tankers on Thursday in the Red Sea's Bab el Mandeb strait, boosting oil prices 7 per cent to top $100 per barrel for the first time since May. Although Brent futures closed almost 3 per cent to under $98 on Friday, the contract remained on course for an advance of over 10 per cent this week. The attacks forced several other tankers to turn around and head north through ​the Suez Canal, potentially using a much ⁠longer and more expensive route to reach Asia by sailing around Africa. Shipping insurance costs through the southern Red Sea doubled for some companies on ​Thursday, sources said. Still, half of the 18 ships exiting ‌Bab el Mandeb on Thursday were carrying crude oil, including two Chinese supertankers. The number of tankers crossing through the Strait of Hormuz fell to just one on Thursday, the lowest since May 7. Trump wrote on social media that he would hold Iran accountable for any further attacks by ​Yemeni fighters, 'and major military punishment will be inflicted upon Iran and, of course, the Ansar Allah themselves'.
He told Axios he was considering re-launching major combat against Iran. 'They haven't received enough pain yet,' the US news outlet quoted him as saying.
Iranian state media said missiles had struck Qeshm Island on the Strait of Hormuz.
The ‌Iranian army said it had attacked US military equipment depots at Al Adiri, officially named Camp Buehring, in northern Kuwait, and the positions of US troops at Camp Arifjan and at Camp ​Doha, near Kuwait City. Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they had significantly damaged a surveillance tower used by the US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain. They also said they had attacked a US ​barracks and fighter jets ‌in Jordan, ⁠and a US barracks and spy balloon as well as Patriot air defences in Erbil in Iraq's Kurdish region, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency. Jordan's army said it had downed seven Iranian missiles and six drones, state TV reported, and that the attack had caused no material damage or casualties. — AFP