The United States has struck scores of targets in Iran including the railway line between Tehran and Mashhad hours before late supreme leader Ali Khamenei was due to be buried in the eastern Iranian city.
The attack ahead of the burial in Khamenei's hometown came on a second consecutive day of tit-for-tat barrages launched by the two sides, testing a fragile ceasefire as the foes battle over the strategic Strait of Hormuz.
Here are the latest developments:
- Iran says 14 killed in two days of US strikes -
Two days of US strikes against Iran have killed 14 people and left 78 injured, Tehran's health ministry said on Thursday.
"Of the injured, 47 are still hospitalised and the rest have been discharged after receiving medical care," Hossein Kermanpour, the ministry's head of public relations posted on X.
- Iran says targeted Gulf neighbours -
Iran's military said it had targeted sites in Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain with one-way attack drones on Thursday, state media reported, in retaliation for US strikes earlier in the day.
The army said "in continuation of the attacks by the Islamic Republic of Iran's army on US bases in the region" it had targeted a Patriot missile interceptor system in Kuwait, an early warning system in Qatar and fuel tanks in Bahrain with "a large number of various types of army kamikaze drones".
AFP journalists heard blasts in Bahrain's capital early Thursday morning and Kuwait said it was responding to hostile missile and drone attack.
In Qatar, which has played a key role mediating between the US and Iran in recent weeks, residents received an alert warning of an elevated threat level, the first since the start of an April ceasefire between the US and Iran.
Earlier, Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they had struck "key infrastructure and facilities" at US bases in Arifjan and Ali Al Salem in Kuwait, and Juffair and Sheikh Isa in Bahrain.
- Iran's Tehran-Mashhad railway suspended -
The train service between Tehran and Mashhad has been suspended after US strikes, state TV reported on Thursday, hours before late supreme leader Ali Khamenei was due to be buried in the holy city.
The Islamic Republic of Iran Railways blamed "a criminal attack by the US-Israeli enemy" on the route and said it had dispatched repair teams, the state broadcaster reported, adding that road transport was being arranged for stranded passengers.
Earlier, Iran's Revolutionary Guards accused the United States of targeting "two bridges in the eastern provinces leading toward Mashhad in an effort to overshadow" Khamenei's funeral, state TV said.
The burial in Mashhad, Khamenei's hometown, will be the final act of a multi-day funeral, after Iran's leader for more than three decades lay in state in Tehran before being processed through the Iranian capital and the holy Iraqi cities of Najaf and Karbala.
Khamenei was killed in the US-Israeli strikes on February 28 that began the Middle East war.
- US says hit 90 targets in Iran -
US military officials said Wednesday that they hit approximately 90 Iranian military targets in their latest strikes, targeting air defence systems, missile and drone storage sites, and other assets.
The United States "completed an additional round of strikes against Iran, July 8, to further degrade Iran's ability to attack commercial shipping and innocent civilian mariners in the Strait of Hormuz," US Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement posted to X.
A day earlier, the US military said it had struck over 80 targets including Iranian speedboats in response to Iranian attacks on ships in the vital Strait of Hormuz.