For six consecutive days, the United States and Iran have exchanged precision strikes across the Persian Gulf, each side calibrating its violence with the cold logic of deterrence while the Strait of Hormuz — the narrow passage through which a quarter of the world's energy flows — remains closed to shipping. What began as a fragile truce has collapsed into a rhythm of nightly bombardment and morning retaliation, with civilian lives and global markets absorbing the cost of a standoff neither side appears ready to end. The Trump administration speaks the language of diplomacy and the grammar of
Iran, US escalate tit-for-tat strikes as Gulf tensions spiral into daily attacks
At least seven people killed in US strikes on bridges in Bandar Khamir; a child injured by shrapnel in Doha.