Iran's leadership has lashed out at the United States after both Washington and Tehran traded a second night of strikes as President Donald Trump widened the area of military operations to Chabahar, extending the campaign beyond the Strait of Hormuz.
The Revolutionary Guards said they have launched joint drone and missile attacks on US infrastructure and facilities in Bahrain and Kuwait in response to the latest American strikes, according to state broadcaster IRIB.
The Guards warned that their response would expand to other US bases in the region if Washington keeps striking.
Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran's parliament speaker and one of the country's most powerful political figures, delivered a blunt warning to Washington: "if you strike, you'll get hit." Ghalibaf, who is leading negotiations with the US, added that America still hasn't learned that bullying and broken promises no longer come cost-free.
Iran's Foreign Ministry, meanwhile, turned its attention to Europe. Spokesperson Esmail Baghaei warned on Thursday that any NATO country that let the US use its territory, bases or infrastructure for the strikes would share responsibility for what he called an unprovoked act of aggression and its consequences.
That came a day after NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte called the US strikes "absolutely necessary" a comment Baghaei dismissed by branding Rutte a "fawning courtier" of Trump's and accusing him of willful complicity in the war.
Among the latest wave of strikes, the US for the first time since the ceasefire fell apart, attack on Chabahar , Iran's strategic southeastern port city, The port sits on the Gulf of Oman, outside the Strait of Hormuz, and is Iran's only deep-water oceanic port, making it a critical gateway to the Indian Ocean and a major site of Indian investment linking South Asia with Afghanistan and Central Asia.
Parts of the city lost power in the strikes; Iranian media say two of the three affected power lines have already been restored, with the third expected back soon. Explosions were also reported in Konarak, Bandar Abbas, Sirik and Jask, with state television reporting eight blasts in Bandar Abbas, missile strikes on Sirik and Jask, and two projectiles hitting Abu Musa, an island disputed between Iran and the UAE.
A fire broke out separately at an IRGC barracks in Bushehr.
Meanwhile, the rhetoric comes against the backdrop of an intensifying military campaign. The US says it hit around 90 targets overnight into Thursday, on top of roughly 80 the night before, with most strikes concentrated on Iran's southern coast and some reaching further inland and north. Iran's Health Ministry says the two nights of strikes have killed 14 people and wounded 78.
"While the ceasefire was in place, the United States targeted five provinces of Iran with attacks on July 8 and 9, 2026; attacks that have so far resulted in 14 martyrs and 78 injured. Among the wounded, 47 individuals remain hospitalized, while the rest of the injured have been discharged after receiving medical treatment," Health Ministry spokesman Hossein Kermanpour wrote on X.
Iran also said the US struck a railway bridge in Aqqala, northeast of Tehran, an unusual instance of civilian infrastructure being hit, and the kind of target that has previously drawn accusations of war crimes when power or water systems are struck.
For his part, Trump used this week's NATO summit to go after Tehran's leadership directly, calling them "cuckoo" and "scum" and suggesting they "may be gone" now that fighting has resumed, even as he insisted that he does not think the war is "going to start again" in a broader sense. Trump's use of inappropriate words to describe Iran has infuriated the Iranian leadership.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has deplored the US president’s rhetoric against the Iranian nation, saying that Iranians will respond to Trump’s derogatory language through their actions.
In a post on his X account on Wednesday evening, Araghchi dismissed the US president’s remarks against Iran, which were made during the NATO summit in Turkey earlier in the day.
"Addressing the civilized and courageous nation of Iran with derogatory language does not diminish its greatness," Araghchi wrote.
"Iranians are known for their civility, culture, and strong moral values. We do not answer vulgarity with vulgarity, but with action: fearlessly and with great valor," the top Iranian diplomat added.
Trump's decision to strike for a second night was driven partly by frustration that the Strait of Hormuz hadn't fully reopened, and Iran's attack on ships transiting the strait while he was at the summit.
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