US-Iran missile exchange widens conflict as allies and oil routes come under fire

Cairo,UPDATED: Jul 30, 2026 15:32 IST

The US and Iran exchanged fresh missile barrages on Thursday, reviving a pattern of back-and-forth strikes and dimming hopes of any quick resolution to the conflict. After a brief pause, the risk of a return to all-out war resurfaced, with the fighting threatening to draw in more countries.

Jordan said it intercepted Iranian missiles for the second straight day, while Kuwait said a strike in the north killed one person. Elsewhere in the region this week, drones caused fires on ships at an Egyptian port, and Saudi Arabia said it had come under fire from Iran-backed militias in Iraq. The five-month conflict has pushed up fuel prices and other essentials, shaken the world economy and added to concerns over American weapons stockpiles needed to defend its bases and allies.

Kuwait's military said an Iranian strike hit a Chinese firm's building on Thursday, severely damaging the structure and killing a worker. The attack came hours after Jordan's air defences shot down five missiles launched from Iran. Jordan's state-run Petra news agency, quoting the armed forces spokesman, said there were no casualties from the interception. Both Jordan and Kuwait are US allies and host American troops.

The latest attacks came after the US military said it had completed "a heavy wave of strikes against Iran" in response to an earlier Iranian missile attack on a US base in Jordan. President Donald Trump had vowed to hit Iran "very hard" after the base was targeted. US Central Command said it struck "dozens" of targets linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guard, including military command centres, missile and drone facilities, and coastal surveillance and defence sites. Iran's official IRNA news agency said three people were killed and two were wounded in a strike on Qeshm island in the Strait of Hormuz. The latest barrage followed US strikes, carried out with Saudi Arabia, on Iran-backed militias in Iraq on Wednesday that killed at least 20 fighters and six Iranian advisers.

Before the latest escalation, mediators had expressed optimism about bringing Washington and Tehran back to the negotiating table. A regional official said on Wednesday that mediators were "still trying with both sides" to restore calm and get an interim agreement to end the war back on track. The official gave no details on whether progress was being made and spoke on condition of anonymity because of the closed-door diplomacy.

In Egypt, British maritime security firm Ambrey said drone strikes set off fires on two natural gas vessels at the port of Damietta on Wednesday. It said the strikes hit a US-owned floating storage facility and a Greek-owned tanker, and that no injuries were reported. The Egyptian prime minister's office said initial investigations showed the fires had been caused by a drone. Asked during an Oval Office event if Iran was responsible, Trump said: "It's a little more of the same." The Damietta Port Authority said on Thursday that the facility was fully operational.

The conflict has also continued to disrupt energy supplies and trade routes. Since Iran began threatening and firing on ships in the Strait of Hormuz early in the war, energy shipments through the waterway have slowed to a near halt, hurting the global economy. Much of the diplomacy has focused on reopening the strait, through which 20 per cent of oil and natural gas shipments moved in peacetime. The strait is now effectively closed again, and recent fighting elsewhere has added to the pressure on supplies.

Saudi Arabia has accused Iraqi militias of firing drones at its oil facilities in recent days. An umbrella group of Iraqi militias initially denied the allegations, while another Iran-backed group, the Houthis in Yemen, said they had attacked Saudi energy facilities as part of a separate but related conflict. The Houthis have declared a blockade of Saudi shipping and threatened the Bab el-Mandeb strait, which became more important during the war as Saudi Arabia used it to bypass the Strait of Hormuz. On Monday, the Houthis said they had launched drones at oil facilities used to move oil across Saudi Arabia to the Red Sea port of Yanbu, saying the attack was in response to a Saudi drone that had breached Yemen's airspace. Planet Labs satellite imagery from Monday, analysed by The Associated Press, showed damage to Saudi Aramco's Abqaiq oil-processing facility, which can process about 7 million barrels of crude oil a day.

Saudi Defence Minister Khalid bin Salman met Trump and Vice President JD Vance separately on Wednesday, according to two people familiar with the matter who were not authorised to comment publicly on the private meetings. They said Saudi Arabia's decision to join the US attacks against the Iraqi militias was meant to signal to Iran that it would not tolerate attacks by Iran or its proxies on the Saudi oil industry and other critical infrastructure. At the same time, they said, the minister stressed to Trump and Vance that Saudi Arabia wanted de-escalation and a return to negotiations, as the conflict widened across the region with no public sign of diplomatic progress.

With PTI Inputs

- Ends