The U.S. military struck southern Iran, calling it a response to the downing an American helicopter. Iran said it had retaliated by launching drones and missiles at U.S. military targets in Bahrain and Jordan. Share full articleImageA rally in Tehran on Monday after Iran and Israel exchanged strikes.Credit...Arash Khamooshi/Polaris for The New York Times See more of our coverage in your search results.Encuentra más de nuestra cobertura en los resultados de búsqueda. Add The New York Times on GoogleAgrega The New York Times en Google Latest PinnedLara Jakes and Yan Zhuang Here’s the latest.The United States and Iran traded strikes across the Middle East early Wednesday after the U.S. accused Iran of downing an American helicopter, threatening a fragile two-month cease-fire and challenging President Trump’s repeated claims that the countries are close to a deal to end the war. The U.S. military said its jets struck Iranian targets, including air defenses and radar sites, near the Persian Gulf. Iran said it had retaliated by launching drone attacks against U.S. naval targets in Bahrain, and firing missiles at American military facilities in Jordan. It was unclear whether the new clashes could be contained. The U.S. military described its attacks as a “proportional response” to the downing of the helicopter gunship near the Strait of Hormuz on Monday. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps said the American strikes were conducted “under false premises.” IRIB, the Iranian state broadcaster, reported that the U.S. attacks hit drinking water facilities in the Bamani district of Sirik County, in the southern Hormozgan Province. The New York Times could not independently verify the report and U.S. Central Command did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Jordanian military said it had intercepted five missiles launched from Iran toward a region that includes Jordan’s Muwaffaq Salti base, which has been used for U.S. air operations and was also targeted in the early days of the war. Bahrain’s military said it had taken out several Iranian drones and missiles. And the Kuwait Army said its air defenses intercepted hostile targets. The Revolutionary Guards claimed to have caused damage at U.S. bases, but there was no confirmation of that on Wednesday morning. Iran’s foreign ministry also sought to create a rift between the United States and its regional allies, saying the Persian Gulf countries should prevent the U.S. military from launching strikes on Iran from their territories. It added that Iran would not hesitate to defend itself. Neither side had said how or whether the exchange might affect negotiations on a deal to end the war that began with U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran in late February. Mr. Trump has often said in recent weeks that such an agreement was close, but there have been no clear signs of progress. Mr. Trump said early Tuesday that a deal could be signed within days. Lebanon: Israel deepened its assault across southern Lebanon on Tuesday in attacks it said were aimed at Iran-backed Hezbollah militants after an exchange of strikes between Iran and Israel ended the previous day. In the southern city of Tyre, at least eight people were reported to have been killed after the Israeli attacks. Iran’s foreign ministry accused the United States on Wednesday of undermining diplomacy after the two countries exchanged attacks, further straining the fragile cease-fire. Esmaeil Baghaei, the foreign ministry spokesman, said negotiations could not advance without “a minimum level of conducive conditions,” according to Mehr, a semi-official Iranian news agency. According to the report, Baghaei also accused Israel of derailing diplomatic efforts through cease-fire violations in Lebanon, where Israel is fighting Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group. Oil wavers and stocks sink after the fresh wave of strikes across the Middle East.Stocks pulled back and oil prices wavered on Wednesday after the United States and Iran traded strikes across the Middle East. The attacks, straining a two-month cease-fire between the countries, were the latest jolt to energy markets. The war in Iran has choked the Strait of Hormuz, which normally carries as much as one fifth of the world’s oil. Futures on the S&P 500 pointed to a 0.8 percent decline when stocks resume trading in the United States on Wednesday. Stocks in Asia, where countries import vast quantities of oil and gas, mostly fell. Volatility in technology stocks continued with the Kospi index in South Korea declining 4.5 percent and the Taiex in Taiwan dropping 3.3 percent. Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed 1.9 percent lower. In Europe, the Stoxx 600, a broad-index that tracks the region’s largest companies, was down 0.5. The price of Brent crude, the global benchmark for oil, fell 0.4 percent to about $91 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate crude, the U.S. benchmark, was down 0.6 percent to around $88 a barrel. Notes: Data shows future contract prices for Brent crude oil. Gaps indicate nontrading hours. Data is delayed at least 15 minutes. Gas prices fell a penny to a national average of $4.15 a gallon, according to the AAA motor club. The increase has raised the cost for drivers by 39 percent since the war began. Gas prices don’t move in lock step with crude, usually trailing increases or drops by a few days. The average price of diesel also dipped to $5.30 a gallon, now up 41 percent since the start of the war. Here is a county-level look at where drivers are facing the highest costs. It has been a “genuinely topsy-turvy” week of trading thus far, Deutsche Bank analysts wrote, “with oil and tech whipsawing” markets on Monday and Tuesday. “Not only are we oscillating between deal or no deal with the U.S. and Iran, but markets are also swinging between 1999-style A.I. exuberance and 2000-type tech crash fears,” they noted. Iran’s state broadcaster, IRIB, reported that drinking water reservoirs in the Bamani district of Sirik County, in the southern Hormozgan Province were hit by U.S. military strikes overnight. “Two desalination plants and the city’s water tank were destroyed,” the report said. The New York Times could not independently verify the report and U.S. Central Command did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Bahrain’s military said it had intercepted and destroyed a number of drones and missiles launched by Iran on Wednesday, describing them as “treacherous” attacks. Iran’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday that it is the responsibility of Persian Gulf countries to prevent U.S. strikes on Iran from their territories. Iran will not hesitate to defend itself by targeting the bases from where it is attacked, the ministry said in a statement published by state media. Jordanian air defenses intercepted five missiles launched from Iran toward the Azraq region, according to a military statement published by Jordan’s official news agency on Wednesday. The military said the debris from the interceptions caused no material damage or casualties. The Iranian military had said earlier that it fired missiles at U.S. military facilities in Azraq. The area is home to Jordan’s Muwaffaq Salti Air Base, which has been used for U.S. military operations in the region. The base was damaged in the early days of the war, according to satellite imagery. Iran launched multiple missiles and drones at U.S. bases around the Middle East early Wednesday, and nearly all were intercepted according to initial American assessments, a U.S. official said. There have been no reports of American casualties, and no reports as yet of damage to U.S. bases in the region from the Iranian attacks, the official said. The Kuwait Army says its air defenses are intercepting hostile targets. The statement from the military did not say if these were missiles or drones, or where they were launched from. The I.R.G.C.’s assertions that it conducted 21 attacks against U.S. bases in the region early Wednesday “are simply not true,” a U.S. official said. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps said in a statement that its naval forces had launched 21 attacks on U.S. bases in the region and shot down an American MQ-9 drone aircraft over the Iranian area of Jam. The I.R.G.C. statement said that Iran had attacked the Al Azraq American military base in Jordan with ballistic missiles. Bahrain’s interior ministry said it sounded sirens early Wednesday but the U.S. Central Command, which directs military operations for the region, declined to comment. A U.S. official said it was “an active situation.”
Original Source: NYTimes
0 Comments