Iran-US Tensions Escalate as Iran Launches Retaliatory Strikes

The conflict between the US and Iran escalated on September 2 as Tehran launched a wave of attacks on US sites across the Middle East. The attacks came after an extensive American bombardment and the deaths of four people at an Iranian wedding party, which Iran's military and state media said was caused by a US strike that killed 18 people.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards announced attacks on US bases in Jordan, the UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region. The renewed attacks deepen the impasse in the war, where Iran maintains a stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz oil export route with the US pressing a counter-blockade of Iranian ports.

The US has adopted a new retaliatory strategy toward Iran in the Strait of Hormuz, dubbed the 'tanker for tanker' policy. This policy targets an Iranian oil tanker for every commercial vessel attacked by Tehran in the region. The policy was put into practice when US forces targeted the engine rooms of two Iranian oil tankers off Iran's coast, disabling the vessels without sinking them.