Iran targeted Gulf allies of the United States on Wednesday, firing drones at Kuwait and Bahrain after a night of U.S. aerial bombardment of Iran.
Iranian officials said one of the U.S. strikes on the country overnight struck a wedding party, leaving at least five people dead and dozens wounded. Iran’s government spokesperson, Fatemeh Mohajerani, described the attack as a crime.
Fighting between the U.S. and Iran has increased this week after the U.S. hit Iranian rocket launchers on an island in the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday, saying Iran was planning to use them to shoot mines into the waterway. Iran retaliated by firing missiles at American bases in Jordan, which were all intercepted.
Here’s a look at the latest developments in the Iran war and the wider Middle East. Full coverage can be found here.
US strike hits a wedding party
The U.S. Central Command said Tuesday’s strikes focused on Iranian military targets including air defense sites, radar systems and maritime assets.
But Iranian media said one U.S. strike hit a home hosting a wedding in Kuhestak, a small town on the coast overlooking the Strait of Hormuz. At least five people were killed, including a 4-year-old and a 16-year-old, the state news agency IRNA reported, and at least 68 people were wounded.
The U.S. military said it was aware of the report but that it “never targets civilians.”
Footage from the Iranian Red Crescent showed rescue workers entering a damaged home in the wake of the strike, with debris scattered all around and a hole in the roof of one house in a neighborhood of densely packed homes.
“Make no mistake: these crimes will not go unpunished,” Ebrahim Azizi, chairperson of the Iranian parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, said on X.
Iran targets US allies in the Gulf
Bahrain said its air defense systems intercepted several Iranian air attacks early Wednesday, without providing further details. In a statement, the Bahrain Defense Force accused Iran of “persisting in its systematic hostile approach through its heinous attacks targeting civilians in the Kingdom of Bahrain.”
Iranian state media said Iran’s military had launched drone attacks on U.S. bases in Bahrain and in the United Arab Emirates in response to the overnight attacks.
Kuwait’s government communications center said a fire broke out at a residential complex in the capital after it was hit by an Iranian drone at dawn. It said the blaze had been contained and there were no casualties.
Saudi shipping company says Monday attack in Hormuz killed 2 sailors
Saudi shipping company Bahri said two Filipino sailors were killed in an attack late Monday as their vessel transited the Strait of Hormuz.
In a statement Wednesday, the company said its ship, named the SIDR, was “involved in a security incident” in the strait shortly before midnight on Monday that resulted in the loss of two of their seafarers.
No one claimed responsibility for the attack on the Saudi tanker.
Iran has established a chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s traded oil passed in peacetime, after the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28. Ship traffic through the waterway has slowed to a trickle, roiling the global economy and spiking prices for energy and other goods across the world.
Iran has been working with Oman, which sits on the other side of the Strait of Hormuz, on a framework for managing shipping traffic, though it remains unclear whether the plan would be acceptable to the U.S. Other Gulf nations have stressed the need to reopen the strait unconditionally.
Chinese and Egyptian leaders meet in Cairo
Chinese President Xi Jinping held talks with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi in Cairo, on the second day of his visit to Egypt. The visit is his first visit to the Middle East since a series of devastating conflicts erupted in the region.
Xi arrived Wednesday morning at Cairo’s Ittihadiya palace, the seat of the Egyptian presidency, where he was greeted by el-Sissi and a 21-gun artillery salute.
The Chinese president’s visit comes after he attended a two-day conference of the 10-nation Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a political and security group billed as a counterweight to the U.S. global influence.
The trip also comes on the heels of the Trump administration’s “ economic onslaught ” on Iran’s financial connections around the world. The sanctions aim to isolate the Islamic Republic from its remaining economic partners, including China. Beijing says its trade with Iran has always abided by international law.
Pakistan presses on with mediation efforts
Pakistan said Wednesday it remains engaged with the United States and Iran, with support from regional countries, in efforts to bring Washington and Tehran back to the negotiating table.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tahir Andrabi told a weekly news briefing in Islamabad that Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif met Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, as part of those efforts.
Andrabi said Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar also met his Iranian counterpart, Abbas Araghchi, on the sidelines of the summit.
Pakistan’s army chief, Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir, traveled to Iran last week as part of Islamabad’s diplomatic efforts to help end the conflict and revive efforts to reopen the strategic Strait of Hormuz, Andrabi said.
“Regional de-escalation, breaking the military stalemate and exploring a negotiated settlement to restore regional peace and stability were discussed” during Munir’s visit to Tehran, he said.
Car rams gathering in northern Iranian city, killing 4
A man drove through a crowd gathered in the northern Iranian city of Mashhad late Tuesday, killing four people, the official IRNA news agency reported on Wednesday.
The report said more than 10 people were injured, and that police had detained the driver. IRNA did not give details about the gathering or the driver.
Quoting local traffic police, the semi-official Fars news agency described the incident as a road accident and implied the driver might have been under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
In recent months, hardliners supporting the war against the U.S. and Israel have held late-night gatherings, with some social media posters complaining that the gatherings have blocked roads.
