US-Iran Situation Report — 2026-09-03 20:26 UTC

WASHINGTON — Iran expanded its retaliation for the latest US strikes on Thursday, announcing that its army had targeted satellite systems and hangars at a US military installation in Kuwait and at Al Minhad air base in the United Arab Emirates. The announcement, carried on the Al Jazeera liveblog (https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2026/9/3/iran-war-live-trump-says-renewed-us-iran-clashes-will-not-last-too), drew the count of countries Iran has struck in its current response to five, following earlier attacks on US assets in Bahrain, Iraq and Jordan.

The escalation came as the official death toll from the US bombing campaign climbed to 18 dead and at least 108 wounded, Iran's health minister Mohammad-Reza Zafarghandi told reporters. Two of the dead were children, including a four-year-old killed when shrapnel struck a family wedding in Kuhestak, a coastal town in Sirik county. The identities of the Kuhestak victims — Zarkhatoon Taheri, 50; Kolsum Mallahi Nazhdnia, 43; Mohammad Mallahi, 16; and Amirali Karimi, 4 — were confirmed by the BBC (https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj06q4ynpmjo). Funerals were to be held on Thursday.

US Central Command said it had struck Iranian air defence sites, radar systems and maritime assets following what it called recent attempts by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps to attack commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. A CENTCOM spokesperson told the BBC the US military "never targets civilians". The BBC confirmed this directly (https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj06q4ynpmjo). Iranian media reported explosions across the southern provinces of Hormozgan, Sistan-Baluchestan, Kerman and Khuzestan.

President Trump, speaking at the White House on Wednesday, was unequivocal. "We hit them very hard last night," he said. "We're prepared to do another one. And anytime we want." He added that he believed the campaign would not last "too long" and that the November midterm elections were not a factor in his Iran strategy. The exchange was reported by Al Jazeera (https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/9/3/trump-threatens-more-strikes-as-death-toll-in-iran-rises-to-19).

## Iran escalates diplomatic and legal pressure

Iran's foreign ministry has formally called on the United Nations to hold the United States accountable for what it described as war crimes following the Kuhestak strike, according to the Al Jazeera liveblog. The Iranian Red Crescent Society separately urged the International Criminal Court to open a probe. Iran's military, through the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, said retaliatory operations would continue "until the US regrets its crimes".

The IRGC said it destroyed a maintenance centre, warehouses and equipment belonging to the US military in Irbil, in Iraq's northern Kurdistan region. US Central Command's own statement on the strikes, available at its official website (https://www.centcom.mil/MEDIA/STATEMENTS/), confirmed the targets struck and said they were selected to degrade Iran's ability to attack shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.

## Economic toll and Hormuz disruption

The International Monetary Fund warned this week that the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz is worsening debt problems for developing nations — a statement from the institution itself rather than a report about it. The IMF's regional economic outlook (https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/REO) has documented the shipping disruption's effects on developing economies in the Gulf and surrounding regions.

Brent crude has climbed to roughly $95 a barrel, more than 30 per cent above the level when the war began. A Reuters/Ipsos poll, published in August, found 31 per cent of Americans approved of the war and 63 per cent disapproved; Trump's approval rating has slipped from 40 to 33 per cent since the conflict began.

The Strait of Hormuz, which once carried roughly a fifth of the world's traded oil, has seen dramatically reduced traffic. The IRGC said two oil tankers struck mines and were disabled while attempting what it called an unauthorised transit on Wednesday, a claim corroborated by Saudi Arabia's national shipping company Bahri. The Bahrain-based PGSA, Iran's strait management authority, added 11 more ships to its blacklist this week on top of 45 blacklisted the previous week.

## Context

The current round of hostilities resumed on Sunday, when the US struck two Iranian rocket launchers near the Strait of Hormuz. The US and Israel launched their joint attack on Iran on 28 February. A June ceasefire memorandum collapsed within weeks. Source Reporters' previous situation report (https://sourcereporters.com/world/us-iran-situation-report-2026-09-02-0027-utc-2) covered the latest escalation in more detail.