The United States intensified its strikes targeting Iran early Thursday, hitting targets further north and into the Tehran area, as the Islamic Republic expanded its attacks on US allies in the region and vowed to “resist until the end.”

Days of back-and-forth strikes by the US and Iran across the Middle East — and renewed threats to the Strait of Hormuz — have shredded the interim deal to end the Iran war and could tip the region back into all-out war. Iranian officials say US strikes have killed more than 35 people and wounded over 300.

US strikes reached into areas around Iran’s capital, Tehran, for the first time in the latest round of violence, showing a widening set of targets for the Americans.

Iranian state media also reported American attacks in the northern Semnan province, home to Iran’s ballistic missile production and space program.

Other strikes were reported in the provinces of Hamedan, Hormozgan, Khuzestan, Lorestan, Markazi, and Sistan and Baluchistan.

“US forces struck Iranian command centers, air defense sites, missile and drone capabilities, and coastal surveillance facilities,” the US military said in a statement, adding it also hit targets in Bandar Abbas, home to Iran’s largest port and to key navy and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps facilities on the Strait of Hormuz.

In the Persian Gulf, the US military began to enforce Trump’s newly reinstated naval blockade of Iranian ports, and said it opened fire on the Curacao-flagged oil tanker Belma sailing toward Kharg Island, Iran’s main oil export terminal. After the ship “ignored multiple warnings,” a US aircraft disabled the merchant vessel by firing a missile into the ship’s smokestack.

Another American strike Wednesday targeted a barracks for Iran’s 388th Mechanized Infantry Brigade, which operates tanks and armored vehicles, in Sistan and Baluchestan province, Iranian state television reported. The report said........

© The Times of Israel