A US airstrike on Iran's Qeshm Island killed a mother, father, and their two-year-old child on Thursday, as rescue teams searched for survivors in the Chah-Tango neighbourhood. Two other children, aged seven and nine, were taken to a medical centre for treatment. Footage from the island showed widespread damage.
The attack was part of a large-scale US assault overnight in retaliation for an Iranian missile strike on the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in northern Jordan. US President Donald Trump had vowed harsh retaliation for the earlier attack on the base, which is jointly operated with Jordanian forces.
In a further escalation on Thursday, Iran launched missiles at US interests in Jordan. A Jordanian army spokesperson said five missiles were intercepted and shot down. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps warned that countries aiding the US would become targets of retaliatory attacks.
The US military, alongside Israel, launched a war on Iran on 28 February. In its opening attack, a cruise missile strike on a school in Minab killed at least 155 people, most of them schoolchildren.