HEADLINES

• US President Donald Trump threatened to hit Iranian power plants and bridges next week unless Tehran resumes negotiations. READ MORE BELOW

• Iran's Revolutionary Guards said the Strait of Hormuz would remain closed until the United States ends its "acts of aggression". READ MORE BELOW

• Bahrain's military said it intercepted aerial attacks from Iran. READ MORE BELOW

• US strikes killed seven Iranian military personnel in a missile attack on a barracks close to the city of Iranshahr in the southeast, the Iranian army said.

• Iranian state-run television IRIB reported that Iran's army and the Revolutionary Guards carried out separate attacks on US targets in Jordan, Kuwait and Bahrain.

• Fresh US strikes hit Iran's southern port city of Bushehr, home to the country's only civilian nuclear plant, state news agency IRNA reported. 

• Oil prices rose on Wednesday, after closing up 2% to a one-month high on Tuesday, as the latest attacks deepened a supply disruption in the Strait of Hormuz.

• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will travel to the United States on Saturday, a senior Israeli official told Reuters on Wednesday.

Iran makes Strait of Hormuz threat

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has threatened to close "all other export corridors that benefit the US and its allies", Iranian media reported, after Iran shut the Strait of Hormuz and the US reimposed a naval blockade of Iranian ports.

"Regional energy exports are either shared by all, or denied to all," the IRGC said in a statement carried by Iran's IRNA state news agency on Wednesday.

Analysts have said Iran has been signalling it may use its Houthi allies in Yemen to shut the Bab el-Mandeb gateway to the Red Sea, opening a new front against Washington and putting two of the world's most vital energy arteries at risk.

The narrow gateway links the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden, through which Saudi oil exports and a substantial share of global shipping pass.

A senior Houthi official warned on Monday that the group was prepared to close the Bab el-Mandeb Strait — a move he said could send oil prices soaring to $200 a barrel — if Saudi Arabia continued to attack Yemen, according to a report on Iran's Press TV website.

Houthi forces fired missiles at Saudi Arabia after accusing the kingdom of bombing an airport under their control on Monday, breaking a four-year truce in the conflict between the kingdom and the Iran-aligned group.

Trump threatens to hit energy targets

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday threatened to hit Iranian power plants and bridges next week unless Tehran resumes negotiations.

"I'll save the energy targets for last, but ultimately we'll hit energy targets," Trump said in an interview with Fox News' Trey Yingst.

US negotiators had been in touch with their Iranian counterparts to tell them "you better make a deal", Trump added.

As tensions escalated, Trump on Monday floated the idea of a 20% fee on shipping through the strait, which drew sharp criticism from the U.N. shipping agency and others. On Tuesday, he scrapped the idea and said, without providing details, that he would instead seek investment deals with Gulf states.

Iran targets Bahrain

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said on Wednesday it had targeted what it described as command-and-control, logistics, fuel and military equipment facilities belonging to the US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain.

This was in response to what it said were US actions in the Indian Ocean and efforts to control the Strait of Hormuz and restrict shipping routes.

Earlier on Wednesday, Bahrain's Interior Ministry said air raid sirens had sounded and urged residents to remain calm and seek shelter. The country's military said it intercepted aerial attacks from Iran.