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Iran launched a missile attack on a Jordanian city on Israel's doorstep on Wednesday, and alerts were issued in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia as a nearly two-week upsurge in fighting continued.
Jordan's military said it intercepted four Iranian missiles over Aqaba, while two others fell in "uninhabited areas." Plumes of smoke could be seen overhead in videos filmed by people in the nearby Israeli city of Eilat. Jordan said it also intercepted four Iranian drones.
Last week, three U.S. service members were killed in an Iranian attack directed at the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan.
The U.S. for the 11th consecutive night launched strikes on Iran as diplomatic efforts between the sides have shown little public sign of progress. Targets included aircraft hangars and drone storage sites.
Iran's state-run IRNA news agency reported explosions across several provinces. Iran's Health Ministry says U.S. strikes over the past 11 days have killed 53 people, including six women and three children, and wounded nearly 600 people.
Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard insisted its retaliatory attacks would continue.
Another missile alert sounded in Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia warned residents of the Persian Gulf city of Dammam to seek shelter. Saudi authorities later said the danger had passed, without elaborating.
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U.S. military deaths prompt fears of a wider war with Iran
The Pentagon has confirmed that three U.S. military personnel were killed in the Middle East this weekend, raising concerns the war with Iran could spiral into a wider conflict as both sides dig in.
Hormuz, Red Sea routes under threat
Officials on both sides have dug in on their dispute over the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway for global energy that remains largely closed because of Iranian attacks.
The closure of the strait, through which one-fifth of the world's traded oil and gas passed during peacetime, has jolted the world economy with effects far beyond the Middle East. A new threat by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen to target Saudi shipping in the Red Sea puts another trade chokepoint at risk.
A statue of Iranian military members stands as vessels in the Strait of Hormuz are visible near the beach of Bandar Abbas, Iran on May 22. (Majid Asgaripour/WANA/Reuters)
U.S. President Donald Trump on social media Wednesday warned Iran that the U.S. will destroy one bridge or power plant each time Iran shoots at a ship in the Strait of Hormuz. In the past week, a handful of tankers have suffered damage in the Hormuz from Iranian drones and other unknown projectiles.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio denounced Iran's actions in the strait.
If a country "can decide that they are going to control an international waterway, charge a toll and if you don't pay them, blow up your ships, we have created a very dangerous precedent which will repeat itself in other parts of the world," he told reporters at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in Manila.
In response to Iran's attacks, the U.S. re-imposed a blockade on Iranian ports.
Iran's Interior Ministry spokesman Ali Zeinivand said "diplomacy isn't called off" and that messages were still being exchanged, without elaborating, according to IRNA.
But Trump gave a dim view on possible talks at the White House on Tuesday, saying the U.S. had "no interest in meeting."
War has cost $37.5B: Hegseth
U.S. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth told lawmakers at a fiery Senate committee hearing on Tuesday that the war has so far cost Washington $37.5 billion US, though it's not clear how the Pentagon arrived at the figure. In the first estimate made public, in late April, a Defence department official pegged the cost at $25 billion US in testimony before Congress.
The Pentagon is asking for an additional $70 billion US from Congress, but Democrats and Republicans have complained since the U.S. and Israel began bombing Iran on Feb. 28 that the Trump administration has not kept them informed about the conflict or the strategy going forward.
WATCH \| Fact-checking a widely shared video:
Fact check: Does this video show Iranian missiles hitting a U.S. base?
After Iranian missiles hit Jordan on Friday, this video circulated claiming to show missiles hitting a U.S. base in the country. But is the video real or AI generated?
Lawmakers are also concerned about a reduction in stockpiles of missiles and interceptors, among other materiel, since the war started.
The number of U.S. troops killed in the war on Iran rose to 18 over the weekend, while roughly 430 U.S. troops have been injured. The Pentagon said on Monday that 100 service members were injured since July 7, but that 96 per cent have returned to duty.
"The president is threatening escalation and war crimes, and suggesting this could be another forever war," Washington Sen. Patty Murray, the top Democrat on Senate's apropriations committee, said Tuesday. Trump has repeatedly issued severe threats against Iran, including against civilian infrastructure, which critics say would be a war crime.
Trump signalled this week that U.S. forces could soon target an under-construction Iranian nuclear site buried deep under a mountain.
The site, known as Pickaxe Mountain, lies on the south side of Iran's Natanz nuclear enrichment site, which was bombed by the U.S. during the 12-day war it and Israel waged against Iran in 2025. Trump at the time said the U.S. had obliterated Iran's nuclear sites, but Pickaxe Mountain has remained untouched as Iran continues to dig at the site.
Iran has always insisted its nuclear program is peaceful. Trump in his first presidential term pulled the U.S. out of a multilateral deal that put checks on Tehran's nuclear efforts, and the U.S. has not negotiated a pact to replace it. Iran resumed the enrichment of uranium to near weapons-grade levels after Trump's withdrawal.