By Kanishka Singh
WASHINGTON, Sept 1 (Reuters) – The U.S. military said late on Tuesday it completed its latest wave of strikes on Iran, saying it struck Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps targets as the Iran war escalated following a weekend exchange of fire.
U.S. forces struck IRGC targets “including air defense sites, radar systems, maritime assets and facilities, mine laying capabilities, and communications sites,” the U.S. Central Command said on X.
An Axios report, citing U.S. officials, said the U.S. military attacked two Iranian government tankers in Tuesday’s strikes.
Iran retaliated on Tuesday to the barrage of U.S. strikes, as the exchange marked the most serious escalation in weeks in a conflict that has driven up global energy prices.
The strikes followed a weekend exchange of fire, the first since late July, and attacks on Monday on two tankers leaving the Strait of Hormuz, the global oil supply waterway that Iran has effectively closed to shipping. Tehran struck back at U.S. assets in Jordan, Bahrain and Iraq.
Five people were killed and 50 wounded at a wedding near Sirik, a coastal area on the Strait of Hormuz, the Iranian Red Crescent reported. The Mehr news agency said a 4-year-old child was among those killed, while the IRNA news agency, citing a provincial official, put the number of wounded at 68.
The U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on February 28 and Iran responded with its own strikes on Israel and Gulf states that host U.S. bases.
U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran and Israeli attacks on Lebanon have killed thousands and displaced millions.
U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said 17 million barrels of oil transited the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, saying it marked the highest level of crude oil to pass through the waterway since the war had reduced flows.
President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he was “not trying to force Iran to the bargaining table.”
“When are the Iranian people going to rise up and fight?” Trump wrote on social media.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh and Jasper Ward in Washington; Editing by Stephen Coates)
