(Reuters) - U.S. 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 its Houthi allies 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 U.S. bases in neighbouring Arab countries and warning people there that they may strike non-military buildings used by U.S. personnel. The Iranian army said Trump's threats only strengthened its resolve.
The Houthis, who control northern and western Yemen, said this week they were imposing 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 in the Strait of Hormuz. The strait is the focus of a war that has killed thousands in almost five months, stoked global inflation and fanned fears of an economic downturn.
RED SEA ATTACKS AFFECT MARKETS
The Houthi fighters struck two Saudi tankers on Thursday in the Red Sea's Bab el-Mandeb strait, pushing oil prices 7% higher to pierce the $100 per barrel level for the first time since May. Although Brent futures LCOc1 eased almost 3% to under $98 on Friday, the contract remained on course for an advance of over 10% 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 Asian customers 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 he would hold Iran accountable for any further attacks by the fighters, "and major military punishment will be inflicted upon Iran and, of course, the Houthis, themselves".
He told Axios he was considering re-launching major combat operations in Iran and was close to a decision.
"They haven't received enough pain yet," the U.S. news outlet quoted Trump as saying.
Trump also said on social media that any damage to cargo ships would be paid for with Iranian money, referring to frozen Iranian assets held by the United States, but without specifying how.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi responded with a warning on X, saying no one's assets were safe once governments normalised such confiscation. "Ensuing chaos will not be pretty or peaceful."
Iranian state media said missiles had struck Qeshm Island on the Strait of Hormuz.
In an example of how shipping disruptions from the war affect other nations, Coca-Cola KO.N has raised prices in India of Diet Coke — which is sold predominantly in aluminium cans — by more than 10% as the conflict chokes its supply chain, sources said.
IRAN WARNS PUBLIC IN GULF STATES OF MORE STRIKES
The Iranian army said it had attacked U.S. military equipment depots at Al-Adiri, latterly named Camp Buehring, in northern Kuwait, and the positions of U.S. 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 U.S. Fifth Fleet in Bahrain.
U.S. airstrikes hit Piranshahr, in West Azerbaijan Province near Iran's border with Iraq, at 9 a.m. (0530 GMT) on Friday, damaging several vehicles, according to the province’s emergency services, quoted by Iranian media.
U.S. missiles struck a Revolutionary Guards Navy headquarters in the Ziba Kenar area of the Caspian Sea province of Gilan, according to a security official in Gilan quoted by Iranian media. Gilan provincial authorities said U.S. projectiles had also struck the port city of Bandar Anzali, according to the ILNA news agency.
Four people were killed and five injured in a U.S. missile attack on the Iranian city of Ahvaz, state broadcaster IRIB said.
In a statement carried by Iran's Fars news agency, the Revolutionary Guards warned the public in the Gulf countries of potential strikes against U.S. military personnel who may be using "buildings in cities as locations to direct their crimes".
It told people to "immediately move away from areas within a 500-metre radius of covert and hidden locations used by U.S. military personnel".
Since the U.S. and Israel began the war in February, Iran has demonstrated that it can hit U.S. targets in the region, even though Trump said early on that the U.S. had wiped out Iran's military capabilities.
Four people familiar with U.S. intelligence said Iranian strikes on CIA targets in the Gulf earlier in the war had prompted U.S. intelligence to investigate whether Russia was assisting Iran with targeting information or drone technology. The Kremlin on Thursday declined to comment on the report.
High oil prices are fuelling inflation globally, putting Trump's Republican allies under pressure ahead of midterm congressional elections in November.
The Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives backed legislation on Thursday directing Trump to halt U.S. military action against Iran, its latest rebuke of the president. Congress alone has the power to declare war under the U.S. Constitution.
Repeated similar resolutions passed in recent months have not led to cessation of the war. The Senate voted hours later to block a separate, similar measure.
Posted by: Alma Angeles/NET25 News
