US Strikes Iran for a Sixth Day as Iran Fires on Gulf Bases
The US and Iran traded fire for a sixth consecutive day. US Central Command ran a fresh strike operation against Bandar Abbas, Greater Tunb island and sites across northern and central Iran, targeting command centres, air defences and missile capacity. Iran answered by aiming missiles and drones at US-linked bases across the Gulf: Kuwait said it intercepted four cruise missiles and 21 drones, Jordan reported downing eight missiles, and Iran claimed strikes on air bases in Kuwait, Bahrain and Jordan. Iran’s health ministry put the cumulative toll since fighting resumed last week at least 35 killed and more than 300 wounded.
A war measured in nights is now measured in the widening of its map: the American strikes have spread from the Strait of Hormuz up into northern and central Iran, and Iran’s reprisals are reaching ever deeper into the Gulf states that host US forces. Each Iranian missile aimed at Kuwait, Bahrain or Jordan pulls another American partner into the fight and raises the risk that a single hit on a base kills Western personnel and forces an escalation no one has chosen. The casualty figures on both sides are contested and self-reported, and should be read as claims rather than confirmed counts. Six days in, there is still no sign of either Iranian capitulation or an American exit, which is the most dangerous state for a war to occupy. Britain’s forces sit inside that map, at the Bahrain naval base and the Qatar air hub. Watch whether any Gulf base is confirmed hit, whether Western personnel are harmed, and how far north the American strikes reach.