On Thursday, Iranian state broadcaster IRIB published aerial and on-the-ground footage showing emergency rescue teams sifting through collapsed concrete and debris in Qeshm Island’s Chah-Tango neighbourhood, located in southern Iran’s Hormozgan province. The destruction was left behind by a newly launched United States military strike that targeted a residential civilian home in the area.
According to local Iranian officials, the attack claimed the lives of three members from a single local family: a 30-something father, his wife, and their two-year-old toddler. Two other children from the family, ages seven and nine, escaped the rubble with non-fatal injuries and were urgently transported to a nearby regional medical center for ongoing care.
This civilian death toll is part of the broader large-scale US assault launched across Iranian territory overnight Thursday, an operation ordered by US leadership in direct retaliation for an earlier Iranian missile strike targeting a joint US-Jordanian military base in Jordan. Prior to launching the assault, former US President Donald Trump issued an aggressive public vow, stating he would “beat the fucking shit out of Iran” following the attack on Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in northern Jordan.
Critics point to a repeated pattern of civilian and child casualties stemming from US military operations in the ongoing conflict that Washington launched alongside Israel on February 28. The very first strike of the coordinated campaign was a double-tap cruise missile attack on a public school in the southern Iranian city of Minab, which killed at least 155 people, a majority of whom were school-aged children.
In direct response to Thursday’s US strikes across Iran, Tehran launched a new round of retaliatory strikes targeting US military assets in Jordan Thursday. Multiple regional media outlets reported loud explosions heard within the perimeter of Muwaffaq Salti Air Base, though independent outlet Middle East Eye has not been able to independently confirm these on-the-ground claims. A official spokesperson for the Jordanian Army released a statement confirming that five missiles launched from Iranian territory were “detected, intercepted, and shot down” before reaching their intended target. This announcement follows multiple past instances where US officials and regional allies claimed to have intercepted Iranian missiles, only for subsequent evidence to confirm the projectiles ultimately hit their intended targets.
Alongside the military response, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps issued a formal public warning Thursday that any countries choosing to provide support or assistance to the US military operation will be added to Tehran’s list of legitimate retaliatory targets. “Countries involved in aiding the aggressor will receive a harsh response if they do not correct their behaviour,” the IRGC statement read. Since the conflict began last month, Iran has repeatedly targeted US military and diplomatic interests across Jordan and Gulf Cooperation Council member states in response to joint US-Israeli operations.