U.S. Pounds Iran for a Fifth Straight Day in a Widening Fight Over the Strait of Hormuz

The United States pounded Iran for a fifth consecutive day on Wednesday, launching two back-to-back waves of strikes that Pentagon officials said were designed to strip Tehran of its ability to threaten shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway that carries a fifth of the world's oil.

One 90-minute round of attacks targeted Greater Tunb Island, a strategic outpost near the mouth of the strait that Iran has used to menace passing tankers. American commanders described the operation as an effort to degrade Iranian missile and drone batteries positioned along the Hormuz and Bab al-Mandab chokepoints, where both sides have claimed control of traffic in recent days.

Iran's Health Ministry said more than 260 people have been injured in the escalating American campaign, and government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani said more than 30 civilians have been killed. Air-defense systems were activated early Thursday local time over parts of the capital, Tehran, as residents braced for further attacks. Iranian officials vowed to keep retaliating, though their forces have struggled to blunt the American assault.

President Donald Trump warned that the strikes would soon reach deeper into Iran's civilian infrastructure. He threatened to hit the country's power plants and bridges "unless they come to the table and negotiate," and told Tehran in a social-media post to "better behave." At the same time, Trump signaled he had not decided whether to widen the operation into a full-scale campaign, leaving the door open to a diplomatic off-ramp.

In what Trump called a gesture of goodwill, Iran on Wednesday released an American woman who had been detained since December 2024. The president praised the move but gave no indication it would slow the strikes, and there was no sign the two governments were close to reopening talks that collapsed earlier this month.

The fighting is already rippling through the American economy. The national average price for a gallon of regular gasoline climbed another three cents to $3.89, leaving pump prices roughly 10 cents higher over the past week as traders priced in the risk that Hormuz shipping could be choked off. Energy analysts warned that any Iranian attempt to close the strait outright could send crude sharply higher and complicate the Federal Reserve's fight against inflation, keeping a distant conflict squarely on the minds of American drivers and policymakers alike.