US, Iran step up trade strikes as supreme leader buried after days-long funeral | US-Israeli war against Iran

The United States and Iran exchanged retaliatory strikes on Thursday as US President Donald Trump threatened to escalate the conflict if Iran did not stop attacking shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran responded to the latest series of attacks by targeting U.S. allies Kuwait and Qatar and accused the United States of striking near its only nuclear power plant.

The second straight day of retaliation came hours before Iran buried former supreme leader Ali Khamenei in his hometown of Mashhad. Khamenei was killed in US and Israeli airstrikes last February, at the start of the war.

The “body of the martyred leader of the Islamic Revolution was buried in the memorial hall of the Imam Reza shrine,” state television channel IRIB reported on Friday.

Khamenei’s funeral procession reached the country’s holiest shrine with a “huge crowd filling the courtyard, some holding banners denouncing the US president and reading: ‘We will kill Trump.’

The Ayatollah’s son and successor was not seen at the ceremony. Mojtaba Khamenei was injured in the same series of strikes that killed his father and has since communicated only through written statements.

Huge crowds gather for the burial of the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at the Imam Reza shrine on July 9, 2026 in Mashhad, Iran. Photography: Majid Saeedi/Getty Images

Thursday’s new attacks are the largest since Tehran and Washington signed a memorandum of understanding on June 17 aimed at extending the ceasefire and opening space for negotiations towards a permanent truce.

Washington was still committed to finding a solution with Iran and “technical talks are continuing,” a U.S. official told Reuters, even as President Trump declared the truce “over.”

In response to the escalation, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said his country was ready to resume its military campaign against Iran if necessary, threatening to do so “with even greater force.”

In Iran, officials said the strikes targeted the perimeter of Iran’s only civilian nuclear power plant in Bushehr province, an area where the U.N. nuclear watchdog has previously warned that attacks could “pose a very real danger to nuclear security.”

“Several areas of Bushehr province were targeted today, including the nuclear power plant perimeter, a military base in the town of Choghadak and a fishing pier in the south of the province,” said Ehsan Jahanian, deputy governor of Bushehr, adding that no casualties have been reported so far.

After the strikes, the US president released videos of explosions in Iran and again threatened the country.

“This is in retaliation for yesterday’s bombing of ships by Iran. If this happens again, the situation will be much worse!” Trump wrote at Truth Social. Hours earlier, he had promised that the strikes would not lead to long-term fighting but would be “very rapid.”

US-Iran Strike Exchange: Is Trump’s Peace Deal Over? | The last

His comments and the exchange of fire raised fears of a breakdown in the ceasefire and concerns about the long-term prospects of the negotiations. Significant differences remain between the two countries on issues such as Iran’s control of the strait, as well as inspections of nuclear facilities.

The U.S. military said it hit about 90 targets in Iran, showing footage of strikes against missile launchers and an airstrip. He said the attacks were aimed at degrading Iran’s ability to “threaten freedom of navigation” in the Strait of Hormuz, a critical chokepoint for about 20% of the world’s oil and gas.

The attacks caused oil prices to rise, before recovering later in the day once calm returned.

Iran has accused the United States of war crimes after it said two bridges in eastern provinces leading to Mashhad had been targeted. The bridges provide key infrastructure for Iran’s cross-border trade with China, which has increased sharply since the start of the war.

Trump has repeatedly threatened to strike bridges, power plants and other civilian infrastructure in Iran. Targeting civilian infrastructure if it is not a military objective could constitute a war crime.

People attend the funeral procession of Ali Khamenei in Mashhad, Iran, on Thursday. Photo: Xinhua/Shutterstock

Iranian state media also reported explosions in several cities, including Bushehr, home to Iran’s nuclear complex. At least three people were killed in Iran’s southwest province of Khuzestan, while a firefighter was killed at an airport in the southeastern Iranian city of Iranshahr. Nine members of the Iranian army also died in strikes on Wednesday.

The memorandum of understanding provides for the reopening of the strait to commercial navigation for 60 days. Iran says it wants to impose fees on ships transiting the strait, contradicting the United States, which says it is an international waterway and should not impose tolls.

Iran continues to view its control over the strait as an important source of leverage in its negotiations with the United States, while Trump appears to view strikes against Iran as a way to increase pressure on Tehran.

Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, a senior Iranian negotiator and speaker of parliament, said U.S. pressure would lead to nothing.

“America still has not understood that bullying and breaking promises is no longer free,” he said in an article on X. “Let me say this clearly: If you hit, you will get hit.”

The mediators attempted to defuse tensions between the United States and Iran in an effort to salvage the negotiations. Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, a key intermediary between the two countries, spoke with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Thursday, condemning Tehran’s strikes on ships in the strait.

Negotiations to reach a final deal were expected to begin after Khamenei’s seven-day funeral concluded on Thursday.

Additional reporting by Patrick Wintour

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