ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Some 18 people were killed and over 140 others injured in US strikes on Iran in four days since Sunday, an Iranian health ministry official said Thursday, shortly after Tehran and Washington exchanged sharp warnings following the most intense round of escalation the two sides have seen in weeks.
Between 8:30 pm local time on Sunday and the same time on Wednesday, “142 people were injured and 18 were martyred” in the US strikes, Hossein Kermanpour, the ministry’s media officer said in a post on X.
"Among the injured were 61 women and 44 individuals under 18, while among those martyred were two women and one child,” he said.
The remarks come as the US and Iran have been locked in a new round of escalation since Sunday, when Central Command (CENTCOM) carried out airstrikes on Iranian "minelaying forces" on Larak Island in Iran’s southern Hormozgan province.
Tehran responded with drone and missile attacks on alleged US targets in Jordan and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
On Wednesday, CENTCOM said its forces had "successfully completed" another "wave of strikes against Iranian military targets" on Tuesday, hitting sites belonging to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) that included "air defense sites, radar systems, maritime assets and facilities, mine-laying capabilities, and communications sites."
"The strikes follow recent attempted attacks by the IRGC against commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and against American service members," CENTCOM added.
Iran then responded with further drone and missile attacks against what it claimed were US assets across Jordan, the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, and the Kurdistan Region.
Commenting on the Wednesday strikes, US President Donald Trump told reporters at the Oval Office later in the day, "We hit them very hard last night. We took out all of the new equipment that they tried to build along the Strait of Hormuz - some defense, some offensive."
"It was a very heavy attack last night, and we're prepared to do another one anytime we want," he added, saying, "We have very strong control. We see everything that they're doing."
For his part, Mohsen Rezaei, the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) - Iran's top security body - signaled that Tehran would soon adopt a “new strategy on the battlefield, in diplomacy, and in countering economic blockades.”
The strategy, Rezaei claimed, would "shatter your very foundations," he said, addressing the US.
