Overview
- On Thursday U.S. Central Command said it carried out multiple strikes on Iranian air‑defence, radar and surveillance sites in self‑defence after an Iranian force downed a U.S. Apache helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz.
- Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps reported retaliatory drone and missile attacks on U.S. bases in Kuwait, Bahrain and Jordan and said its navy has closed the Strait of Hormuz and struck ships attempting to transit.
- President Donald Trump publicly threatened further heavy strikes and said U.S. forces used dozens of Tomahawk cruise missiles, while Iranian officials denied some U.S. claims about having sought a pause in the attacks.
- Qatar and other intermediaries continue to push negotiations between Washington and Tehran, but diplomats say the recent kinetic exchanges have sharply narrowed the window for a deal.
- The escalation carries immediate human and economic costs: Israeli strikes and cross‑border fire have caused Lebanese civilian deaths, commercial shipping and oil prices have been hit, and the risk of wider regional spillover is rising.