'Red line': US and Iran trade blows in rekindled Middle East conflict

The United States struck Iran and Tehran hit back at US allies in the Gulf on Thursday, as the foes battled over the vital Strait of Hormuz in the renewed Middle East war.

The key oil and gas artery, which Iran insists it controls, is central to the rekindled fighting that has entered its sixth day despite the foes' preliminary deal in June aiming to end the war.

US forces hit Iranian military targets in multiple locations including coastal Bandar Abbas to "degrade Iran's ability to threaten innocent mariners" in the Strait of Hormuz, Central Command (CENTCOM) said. 

Earlier strikes had targeted coastal defense and cruise missile sites on Greater Tunb Island in the Gulf, CENTCOM added.

Iran's official IRNA news agency reported explosions in several areas of the country on Thursday, including Lorestan in the west and Senman in the north, while air defenses were triggered in parts of Tehran.

Soon after, US allies in the Gulf began reporting attacks, with Kuwait saying it intercepted Iranian drones and Bahrain sounding air raid sirens.

Iran says Strait of Hormuz an inviolable 'red line' 

Iran said on Thursday that the Strait of Hormuz was an inviolable "red line", warning that if US President Donald Trump carried out his threat to attack Iran's infrastructure, it would strike all infrastructure across the Gulf region.

After the first strikes on Wednesday night, Tehran's top negotiator Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf issued a statement saying: "We are in an essential and existential war with America".

Iranian army spokesman Brigadier General Mohammad Akraminia said on Thursday that the Strait of Hormuz was a "red line" for Iran over which it maintains firm control.

"The Americans thought that by attacking some of our bases on the southern coasts of the country, they could take control of this strategic strait," Akraminia said.

"However, the Islamic Republic of Iran has the ability to exert control over the Strait of Hormuz from every single point of its territory, and this matter is never dependent on coasts and islands."

Iran threatens neighbors against assisting US

Iran said on Thursday it had targeted US bases in Kuwait and Jordan, warning its neighbors that allowing the US to launch attacks against it would not go unanswered.

"Our neighbors should know that providing a base to the Americans and allowing them to fire on Iranian soil is unacceptable and will not go unanswered," Iran's army said in a statement.

By early Thursday in the Middle East, sirens sounded in Bahrain, and Kuwait said it was responding to "hostile drone threats".

Iran's army said it targeted the Al Azraq Air Base in Jordan with ballistic missiles, while Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they had destroyed the satellite communications centre and early warning radar at the Ali Al Salem Air Base, as well as a US military pier in the Al Shuaiba area of Kuwait.

The Bahraini Defense Ministry said the country's air defense systems had intercepted and destroyed a number of Iranian aerial attacks targeting the kingdom on Thursday.

Iran's army earlier said in reference to the strait: "We will undoubtedly resist until the end and will neutralize American interventions in the region".

Iran's military spokesperson has said that the only way to reopen the Strait of Hormuz was for the US to comply with the 14-point memorandum of understanding that the two sides signed in June, and the implementation of "Iranian regulations" regarding ship traffic in the strait.

'No reason to adhere'

"Next week it gets really bad for them," Trump said, threatening to hit power plants and bridges unless Tehran returns to the negotiating table.

But Iran's top negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf warned that "a memorandum of understanding only has meaning when its clauses are valid and being implemented".

"If Iran is not to derive any benefit from the memorandum of understanding, we have no reason to adhere," he said in a statement.

Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has remained low, with maritime tracker Kpler reporting only 21 transits on Tuesday, and oil prices ticked higher after the latest escalation.

The United States has also reimposed a blockade of Iran's ports.