DUBAI: Several massive explosions were heard in multiple southern territories of Iran, including Bushehr—where one of the nation’s key nuclear power plants is located—as well as the coastal towns of Konarak and Choghadak, Iran’s Mehr news agency reported on Thursday. Iran’s official state news agency, IRNA, citing a local government representative in Bushehr, reported that a strategic military facility situated on the outskirts of the southern Iranian city was directly struck by a US-Israeli projectile.
State media channels further reported that an Iranian naval installation located in Konarak also came under heavy attack. A local official added that the thunderous sounds of explosions echoing across Bushehr were caused by the rapid activation of Iranian air defense systems responding to incoming enemy fire. Conversely, sources closely familiar with the operational developments told Al Arabiya English that the United States military was not actively striking targets inside mainland Iran during this particular wave.
The dramatic military exchanges erupted shortly after the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps launched coordinated attacks against critical United States military infrastructure located in neighboring Gulf states earlier on Thursday. Those Iranian strikes were initiated in retaliation for prior US air raids that battered Iran’s southern coastal and eastern provinces. This severe sequence of cross-border clashes has placed immense strain on a highly fragile, three-week-old regional ceasefire agreement.
The volatile developments unfolded on the exact day that Iran held final burial ceremonies for its slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at a major holy shrine in Mashhad, culminating a week of mass public funeral processions and state rallies. Khamenei was killed in a targeted US airstrike on the very first day of the active war on February 28, 2026, as part of a massive US-Israeli opening bombardment against the nation. That strike ignited a months-long regional war that has since claimed thousands of lives and severely throttled global energy supply routes.
The fragile ceasefire was effectively upended earlier this week following a series of aggressive maritime strikes against Qatari and Saudi commercial shipping vessels, prompting US President Donald Trump to officially declare the bilateral truce “over.” Iranian officials reported that the prior US air incursions on July 8 and 9 had killed 14 citizens and injured 78 others across five provinces. The semi-official Fars news agency added that one targeted US strike directly disabled a critical rail bridge heavily utilized for overland international trade with Russia and China.
According to the Mehr news agency, multiple explosions continued to rattle Bushehr province and the vital southern port city of Bandar Abbas early Thursday morning. Local officials later confirmed to state broadcasters that a projectile hit the secured perimeter area of the Russian-built Bushehr nuclear facility, a boundary zone that had already sustained multiple missile strikes prior to the implementation of the temporary April 8 ceasefire.
Concurrently, the Iranian army announced that it had successfully launched targeted retaliatory strikes against US Patriot missile batteries operating in Kuwait, an early-warning defense radar installation in Qatar, and a major US Army fuel depot located in Bahrain. Commenting on the incoming salvo, the Kuwaiti military confirmed that its air defenses successfully engaged and neutralized one cruise missile, three ballistic missiles, and 10 hostile drones within its sovereign airspace, adding that one individual sustained minor injuries from falling mid-air shrapnel.
Sirens also wailed across Jordan after air defense radars detected tactical missiles launched from Iranian territory heading westward. Jordanian state media confirmed that eight of the incoming projectiles were successfully intercepted, with no civilian injuries or structural damage reported on the ground. Amid the widening crisis, the foreign ministers of Turkiye and Oman held urgent, separate telephone consultations with their Iranian counterpart, strongly emphasizing the critical need to avoid any further military escalation in the region.
ലഘു വിവരണം
ഇറാനിലെ ബുഷെർ ആണവനിലയത്തിന് സമീപമുള്ള സൈനിക കേന്ദ്രത്തിലും കൊണാരകിലെ നാവികസേനാ താവളത്തിലും യുഎസ്-ഇസ്രായേൽ സംയുക്ത മിസൈൽ ആക്രമണം ഉണ്ടായതായി ഇറാന്റെ ഔദ്യോഗിക മാധ്യമങ്ങൾ റിപ്പോർട്ട് ചെയ്തു. കൊല്ലപ്പെട്ട പരമോന്നത നേതാവ് ആയത്തുള്ള അലി ഖമേനിയുടെ സംസ്കാര ചടങ്ങുകൾ നടക്കുന്ന ദിവസമാണ് മൂന്നാഴ്ചത്തെ വെടിനിർത്തൽ കരാർ ലംഘിച്ചുകൊണ്ട് ഈ സ്ഫോടനങ്ങൾ ഉണ്ടായത്. ഗൾഫ് മേഖലയിലെ യുഎസ് താവളങ്ങൾക്ക് നേരെ ഇറാൻ നടത്തിയ ആക്രമണങ്ങൾക്ക് പിന്നാലെയാണ് ഇരുപക്ഷവും തമ്മിലുള്ള വ്യോമയുദ്ധം വീണ്ടും ശക്തമായത്.
(With inputs from Arab News)
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