October 1, 2026
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran fired on U.S. allies in the Gulf early Wednesday following a night of American bombardment that Iranian officials claim included a deadly strike on a wedding party.
Fighting has escalated since the American military hit Iranian rocket launchers on an island in the Strait of Hormuz over the weekend, saying Iran was planning to use them to shoot mines into the waterway. Iran retaliated by firing missiles at American bases in Jordan that were intercepted.
The latest flare-up in violence came as the standoff seemed to be shifting slightly more in the U.S.' favor, with the price of oil around $80 a barrel and Iranian leaders talking about growing economic hardships, said Sascha Bruchmann, an analyst with the International Institute for Strategic Studies’ Middle East office in Bahrain.
Last week, U.S. Central Command's Adm. Brad Cooper said the strait had been secretly cleared of mines and that the U.S. Navy had helped nearly 1,500 commercial vessels carrying some 750 million barrels of oil pass through in recent months — still far below prewar levels.
“He basically told the world oil is flowing out, and Iran is not capable of restricting the U.S.'s approach,” Bruchmann said. “The U.S. is trying to reinstall some kind of confidence into the global oil markets … and the Iranians had to respond to that by reinserting insecurity and doubt.”
Since the fighting resumed, the price of Brent crude oil, the international standard, has climbed to around $95, up more than 30% from the start of the war.
Following the strikes at Jordan, Kuwait and Bahrain said they had also come under attack, without reporting any casualties.
In Iraq, where Iranian-backed forces are active, Kurdish authorities said they had intercepted 10 drones laden with explosives in the Irbil area. Iranian television reported that American bases in Irbil had been targeted.
Israel's military also said that the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group fired two explosive drones at its soldiers in southern Lebanon, without causing casualties.
The U.S. Central Command said Tuesday's strikes focused on Iranian military targets, including air defense sites, radar systems and maritime assets.
One U.S. strike hit a home hosting a wedding in Kuhestak, a small coastal town overlooking the Strait of Hormuz, according to Iranian media.
Four people were killed and at least 68 were wounded, the state news agency IRNA and state TV said Wednesday. Just after the strike, Ahmad Nafisi, the province’s deputy governor, had told Iranian state television that five people were killed. There was no explanation for the change.
Several heavy explosions shook Kuhestak, with fireballs that lit up the night sky, according to security camera footage carried by the semiofficial Fars news agency.
Footage from the Iranian Red Crescent showed rescue workers entering a damaged home in the wake of the strike. It showed a hole in the roof of one house in a neighborhood of densely packed homes.
Two weapons experts told The Associated Press that images of fragments of a missile, which Iranian media said was used in the strike, appeared to be from a U.S.-made SLAM-ER cruise missile.
Trevor Ball, conflict researcher at the investigative group Bellingcat, said the SLAM-ER was “developed as a very precise weapon” that can be retargeted in flight by a human operator watching by infrared camera.
N.R. Jenzen-Jones, director of Armament Research Services, said the air-launched missile is also used by the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. Neither has reported carrying out any recent strikes on Iran.
U.S. Central Command spokesman Capt. Tim Hawkins said the U.S. military was “aware of the reports, which originated from Iranian state media, and we are looking into them.” He would not say if CENTCOM had launched a formal investigation.
Separately, Iran has said four members of its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and 10 members of the Guard’s volunteer Basij forces died in the U.S. attacks.
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