US Strikes Iran for a Second Night as Trump Declares the Ceasefire 'Over'

The fragile peace between the United States and Iran has collapsed. American forces struck roughly 90 targets across Iran in a second consecutive night of bombardment, after President Donald Trump declared the ceasefire finished — and Tehran answered by striking US bases in three Gulf states.

US Central Command said the strikes hit missile and drone storage sites and air-defence systems, ranging across the eastern cities of Iranshahr, Bandar Abbas, Konarak and Chabahar, the port city of Bushehr, and Aq Qala in the northeast. Iranian media reported a series of blasts in and around Bushehr, home to the country's nuclear power plant. The US said the campaign was retaliation for Iranian attacks on commercial shipping earlier in the week.

Asked about the status of the ceasefire, Trump was blunt: 'For me, I think it's over,' he said, describing Iran's leadership as 'sick.' The remark buried an agreement that had been holding, however imperfectly, since the war's earlier phase.

Iran's response widened the conflict's geography. Tehran said it had targeted American bases in Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar — striking at the Gulf monarchies that host US forces and drawing them, however unwillingly, into the crossfire. At least 14 people have been reported killed and 78 wounded across five Iranian provinces in the two days of attacks.

Mediators are urging both sides to honour the memorandum of understanding meant to end the war, but the tit-for-tat has acquired a momentum of its own. With strikes reported near the Strait of Hormuz — the artery through which much of the world's oil passes — the consequences of this escalation reach far beyond the two combatants, into energy markets and shipping lanes that Africa and the world depend on.