U.S., Iran attacks rage as officials question whether diplomacy can stop march toward war resuming

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The United States and Iran exchanged fire across the Middle East on Wednesday, as officials in both nations called into question diplomatic efforts to stop the war as it threatens to again spin out of control.

The U.S. launched an 11th night of airstrikes on the Islamic Republic, hitting targets across the nation as air defense systems opened fire over the capital, Tehran. It wasn’t immediately clear what specific targets the Americans went after in these nighttime strikes.

Iran retaliated with missile and drone fire targeting Jordan’s port city of Aqaba, once again attacking just on the doorstep of Israel. The U.S. has been using Israel’s main Ben-Gurion International Airport to host its refueler aircraft and has put fighter jets at bases in the country, but Iran has been hesitant to strike for fear of bringing the Israeli military back into the conflict.

A missile alert sounded in Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia warned residents of the Persian Gulf city of Dammam to seek shelter. Iran has repeatedly attacked Gulf countries in response to U.S. airstrikes.

Meanwhile, shipping remains largely stalled through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all oil and natural gas traded passed in peacetime. Iran’s attacks on shipping in that waterway sparked the recent series of attacks, and the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels of Yemen are now threatening Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea as well.

That pressure pushed benchmark Brent crude above $94 a barrel in trading, again straining global energy supplies and raising the cost of gasoline in the United States ahead of midterm elections this fall.

Attacks shake Iran and Jordan

Missile alert sirens sounded Wednesday in Jordan’s port city of Aqaba. Jordan’s military said it intercepted four missiles in the Iranian attack, while two others fell in “uninhabited areas.” Plumes of smoke could be seen overhead in Aqaba in videos filmed by people in the nearby Israeli city of Eilat. Jordan said it also intercepted four Iranian drones.

The U.S. military said earlier Wednesday that it had completed an 11th night of strikes on Iran. Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported that explosions rocked Bushehr, East Azerbaijan, Hamadan, Hormozgan, Ilam, Khuzestan and Sistan and Baluchistan provinces. The U.S. said its targets included aircraft hangars and drone storage sites.

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard insisted the country’s retaliatory attacks would continue.

Before the latest strikes, Iranian Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni visited Pakistan, a key mediator in the conflict, seeking to revive diplomacy. But it was unclear what new arrangement might be reached to end the war, which lately has become a battle for control over the Strait of Hormuz.

Speaking from the Oval Office on Tuesday, Trump gave a dim view on possible talks, saying the U.S. had “no interest in meeting.” He signaled that U.S. forces could soon target an area of Iran close to one of its main sites for enriching uranium.

At a regional summit in the Philippines, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio denounced Iran’s actions in the strait.

“If we create a precedent in the Middle East where a nation state can decide that they are going to control an international waterway, charge a toll and if you don’t pay them, blow up your ships, we have created a very dangerous precedent which will repeat itself in other parts of the world, including in this region,” he said.

The U.S., in response to Iran’s attacks, restarted a blockade of Iranian ports, turning around vessels engaged in trading Iranian oil.

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Associated Press writers Bassem Mroue in Beirut, and Michelle L. Price and Jim Gomez in Manila, Philippines, contributed to this report.