The United States launched its second wave of strikes on Iran inside a day early Thursday, Australian time, its fifth consecutive day of attacks, as Donald Trump threatened to add Iran's power plants and bridges to the target list unless Tehran returns to negotiations.
The first Wednesday wave ran 90 minutes in daylight against coastal defence systems and cruise missile storage and launch sites on Greater Tunb Island, according to US Central Command. Iranian state media reported Hengam Island was also hit; CENTCOM has not confirmed that. The second wave, announced about 5am AEST, targets Iranian military capabilities "used to threaten vessels freely transiting through the Strait of Hormuz", the command said.
Trump was explicit about what comes next. "Next week it gets really bad for them because next week comes the power plants. Next week comes the bridges. We're going to knock out all their power plants. We're going to knock out all their bridges unless they get to the table and negotiate," he told Fox News. To reporters in Pennsylvania, he said Iran had "better behave".
Tehran gave no sign of moving. The Revolutionary Guard claimed retaliatory strikes on the US Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain and a logistics hub in Kuwait, claims Washington has not confirmed, and its navy commander Ali Ozmaei promised "the severest blows on the aggressor enemy". CENTCOM says Iran has attacked seven commercial ships in the past week, leaving nearly a dozen civilian mariners dead, missing or injured.
The human cost inside Iran is contested and unverified. Government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani said more than 30 civilians have been killed in the US strikes. The health ministry's Hossein Kermanpour put injuries above 260, with 222 people discharged. The army separately said seven soldiers died at Bambour Garrison near Iranshahr. None of the figures has been independently confirmed.
There was one movement in the other direction. Iran released Dena Karari, a US-Iranian dual national and nonprofit founder held since December 2024. Her attorney Jared Genser said she was "now safely out of Iran and on her way back to the United States". US Vice-President JD Vance, asked about a ground invasion, said: "We're not in that business anymore. We're just not."
Oil kept climbing. Brent crude reached US$86.19 a barrel by Thursday morning, Australian time, a third straight session of gains, up from about US$70 before the escalation. Trump's forecast was blunt: "When that settles down, I think you're going to have $55 oil, maybe less." In Australia, the halved fuel excise cut of 16 cents a litre runs to August 2, government fuel stocks stand at 41 days of petrol and 37 of diesel, and Canberra had made no new statement on the conflict by Thursday morning.
The strait remains closed by Iranian declaration and open by American insistence. The blockade of Iranian ports is in its second day, no talks are scheduled, and the deadline Trump set for the power plants is next week.
