Iran buried Ali Khamenei at the Imam Reza Shrine in Mashhad on Thursday while trading fire with the United States, which struck about 90 more targets across the country in a second consecutive night of attacks that has cut tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz to a fraction of its normal level.
US Central Command said Thursday's completed round hit air defence systems, coastal surveillance assets, missile and drone storage sites, naval capabilities and military logistics infrastructure along Iran's coastline, taking the two-night total to about 170 targets. The strikes were intended to "further degrade Iran's capability to attack commercial vessels and civilian mariners in the Strait of Hormuz," the command said. Iran's health ministry said 14 people had been killed and 78 injured over the two days, figures given by ministry spokesman Hossein Kermanpour on Thursday that no independent monitor has confirmed.
Iran's answer widened the map. The Revolutionary Guard said it struck bases in Kuwait and Bahrain and fired 10 ballistic missiles at targets including an air base at Al-Azraq in Jordan, drawing that country in for the first time since the fighting resumed. Kuwait's defence ministry said it intercepted three ballistic missiles, a cruise missile and 10 drones, with one person injured; Jordan said its air defences brought down eight missiles and falling debris caused no casualties; Bahrain said it downed incoming fire. The Pentagon had reported no US casualties as of Thursday night.
The burial closed six days of funeral processions through Iraq and Iran, 131 days after the February airstrike that killed the supreme leader. Reuters reported the coffin was carried by truck from Imam Reza Street and flown the final stretch by helicopter because the crowd was too dense to pass. Mashhad's governor told state television he expected 15 million mourners, a claim no one can check; Reuters described a sea of people and left it uncounted. The man Iran named as successor was not among them: Mojtaba Khamenei did not appear at any point in the six days of ceremonies and has not been seen in public since his father's death. Three of his brothers prayed beside the coffin.
The strait is the conflict's other casualty. Thirteen tankers crossed Hormuz on Wednesday against an average of 33 a day the week before, according to Kpler analyst Matt Smith, and traffic was near a standstill early Thursday. The US Navy-led Joint Maritime Information Center has raised its transit threat advisory to severe, its highest level, and war-risk insurers are quoting premiums of 2 to 6 per cent of a vessel's value per transit. Oil moved with the ships: Brent settled 5.2 per cent higher at US$78.02 on Wednesday, briefly topping US$80, then fell back 2.2 per cent to US$76.30 on Thursday as traders judged that energy infrastructure was so far being spared.
Donald Trump, speaking in Turkey on Thursday, floated reimposing a naval blockade: "We may put it back, it'll only be a blockade for Iran." On the negotiations the June memorandum was meant to anchor, he said: "We may just do it without a deal, because, you know what, it's easier." He also said the US had attacked Kharg Island, Iran's main oil export terminal, a claim that does not appear in Central Command's published target list. Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi held to his position that "negotiations on final deal will not commence if threats continue," while Qatar's prime minister urged both sides to "commit to diplomacy" and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for "maximum restraint."
The memorandum's negotiating window notionally runs to mid-August, and as of Friday morning neither side had formally withdrawn from it. No third night of strikes had been confirmed. The tankers that normally carry a fifth of the world's oil through the strait were, for the most part, still waiting.
