US intensifies Iran offensive, fires on ship accused of defying blockade

Dubai: The United States intensified its strikes targeting Iran early Thursday, hitting targets further north as American forces also fired into a ship it accused of trying to break its naval blockade on the Islamic Republic. Tehran retaliated with missile and drone fire targeting Bahrain and Kuwait before dawn.

Days of back-and-forth strikes by the US and Iran across the Middle East, and renewed threats to the Strait of Hormuz, have shredded the interim deal to end the Iran war, and the region could tip back into all-out war. Already, Iranian officials say US strikes have killed more than 35 people and wounded over 300 others.

When the US and Israel launched the war on Iran on February 28, Tehran effectively closed the strait to shipping traffic - a move that sent the price of oil, fertiliser and many other goods soaring far beyond the region and gave Iran major leverage in negotiations.

Those rising prices pose a particular challenge to US President Donald Trump and his Republican Party, which hopes to retain control of Congress in elections in November. But Washington has struggled to successfully reopen the waterway, leading to Trump reimposing the naval blockade of Iran on Wednesday.

Iran's parliament speaker and lead negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, said Iran was prepared for a fuller military confrontation if the US does not live up to the terms of the interim deal, and Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard threatened to halt all energy exports from the Middle East over the blockade.

"The export of oil and gas from the region will be either for everyone or for no one," the Guard said.

Trump again insisted Iran was ready to strike a peace deal, but he did not elaborate.

"They don't like what we're doing, and they do want to settle. We'll find out whether or not we settle with them, or we just finish it off," he said Wednesday at a defence summit at the US Army War College in Pennsylvania. (AP)