Fire and smoke rise from the direction of Iranshahr airport.
| Photo Credit: Reuters
Two days of U.S. strikes against Iran have killed 14 people and left 78 injured, Tehran's Health Ministry said on Thursday (July 9, 2026)."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.The United States launched new airstrikes against Iran early on July 9, 2026, and Tehran responded by targeting Gulf countries in an exchange of fire that threatened an interim deal intended to help end the war in the West Asia.Back-and-forth attacks, including a day earlier, have repeatedly threatened the ceasefire, but Thursday’s (July 9, 2026) appeared bigger all around, with sirens sounding at least three times in Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet headquarters, and missiles targeting Kuwait and Qatar.The strikes came hours after U.S. President Donald Trump said recent Iranian attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz signalled the end of a fragile ceasefire and threatened to escalate the conflict if they didn’t stop. That raised concerns that the region could tip back into a war that would engulf several countries and could halt energy shipments through the strait that are crucial for the global economy.U.S. strikes hit more targetsThe U.S. military’s Central Command said it hit some 90 targets across Iran, releasing black-and-white footage of what appeared to be strikes on an airport runway and missile launchers.The U.S. said the strikes were intended to “further degrade” Iran’s ability “to threaten freedom of navigation” in the strait, through which a fifth of the world’s traded oil and natural gas passed before the war began with U.S. and Israeli attacks on February 28.Attacks on ships — and the threat of them — virtually halted traffic in the waterway during the conflict, causing the price of oil to skyrocket and raising prices on many basic goods, including food, far beyond the region.Iranian state media reported explosions in several locations, including Bushehr, home to Iran’s nuclear power plant complex, and southern port cities.In Iran’s southwestern Khuzestan Province, at least three people were killed on Thursday (July 9), state media reported. In Iranshahr, authorities said a strike killed a firefighter at an airport. Those fatalities followed the deaths of at least nine members of Iran’s armed forces in Wednesday’s strikes, according to state media. It wasn’t clear when the other death happened and who was killed.For the first time since April, U.S. strikes also appeared to target Iranian bridges. State media reported a strike on a railway bridge in Iran’s northeastern Golestan Province, and the Revolutionary Guard said two bridges were attacked on the route to Mashhad, where officials plan to bury the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Thursday (July 9, 2026). Published - July 09, 2026 03:47 pm IST
