By Daphne Psaledakis and Parisa Hafezi
WASHINGTON/DUBAI, Sept 1 (Reuters) - The U.S. launched a barrage of airstrikes on Iran on Tuesday, prompting Iranian retaliation in the most serious escalation in weeks in a conflict that has driven up global energy prices and weighed on President Donald Trump's popularity at home.
The strikes followed a weekend exchange of fire -- the first since July -- and attacks on Monday on two tankers leaving the Strait of Hormuz, the global oil supply waterway that Iran has effectively closed to shipping. Global oil prices rose more than $4 a barrel on Tuesday, settling at a five-week high.
Tehran remained defiant, warning that it would prevent oil being exported from the Gulf, despite a threat by Trump to hit Iran "hard" and a warning from U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent that Washington was about to impose new sanctions.
Five people were killed and 50 wounded at a wedding near Sirik, a coastal area on the Strait of Hormuz, the Iranian Red Crescent reported. The Mehr news agency said a 4-year-old child was among those killed, while the IRNA news agency, citing a provincial official, put the number of wounded at 68.
There was no immediate U.S. reaction to the reports.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said in a statement the U.S. attacks would "tighten the lock" on the Strait of Hormuz, which carried one of every five barrels of the world's oil before the war.
"If the enemy wants us not to export oil from the Persian Gulf, no one will be able to export oil," Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf was quoted as saying by Iranian media.
Neither threats of strikes nor new economic sanctions appear to have materially changed the position of Tehran, which has been under heavy economic sanctions for half a century.
The second round of U.S. strikes in three days followed a month of relative calm in which the U.S. and Iran mostly held their fire while exchanging hostile statements.
Trump called Tuesday's strikes retaliation for Iranian attempts to place sea mines in the Strait of Hormuz after the U.S. military announced last week it had cleared a strategic shipping lane of Iranian mines, and for Iranian missiles fired at a U.S. military base in Jordan.
Later, sirens sounded anew in Jordan, state television reported. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it launched a heavy ballistic missile attack on the U.S. Marine Corps base in Jordan and "killed a large number of U.S. forces." Iran's Fars news agency called it a retaliatory operation that fired missiles and drones.
There were no casualties so far from the Iranian attack on facilities in Jordan, two U.S. officials told Reuters. This was based on initial information and could change as Iranian attacks continued, the officials said.
Jordan's armed forces said its air defense systems dealt with 13 ballistic missiles that entered the kingdom's airspace. The military said 10 missiles were intercepted and destroyed, while three fell in remote areas far from population centers.
Iranian media also reported the country's military targeted a U.S. base in Bahrain with a large-scale drone attack, and the Kuwaiti army reported its air defenses were responding to a hostile drone attack. Since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on February 28, Iran has responded with missile and drone strikes on U.S. allies in the region.
Trump had warned Iran against doing so again following Tuesday's assault.
"If the failed Nation of Iran retaliates for this very justified attack, they will be hit again at a much harder and higher level, but it will not be the biggest attack of them all, that is waiting in the wings and, when it is over, there will be very little left of the Islamic Republic of Iran!" Trump said in a social media post.
In an interview with Fox News, Trump played down the prospects of another ceasefire. The U.S. and Iran reached a deal in June that quickly fell apart, largely over interpretations of Iranian control of the Strait of Hormuz.
"I think an agreement with them isn't worth the paper it's written on. We gave them a lot of chances," Trump told Fox News.
U.S. SAYS IT HITS REVOLUTIONARY GUARD
The U.S. military's Central Command said it had completed a wave of strikes against IRGC targets including air defense sites, radar systems, maritime assets and facilities, mine laying capabilities, and communications sites.
The strikes follow recent attempted attacks by the IRGC against commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and against American service members.
More than 50,000 U.S. service members are currently operating across the Middle East and remain vigilant, lethal, and prepared to continue executing operations directed by the Commander in Chief.
Iranian media reported multiple strikes, including a U.S. missile attack near the city of Ahvaz and at the civilian Jiroft airport in southeastern Iran, while explosions were heard in the southeastern port of Chabahar, the port city of Bandar Abbas on the Strait of Hormuz, and in Asaluyeh, a critical gas hub on the Gulf coast.
Iran's state broadcaster also reported explosions on Iran's Qeshm Island, on the northern side of the strait.
The Fars news agency cited an IRGC spokesperson as saying the U.S. "will regret its new attacks".
The six-month-old conflict had shifted into an economic standoff before the weekend strikes, in which U.S. forces attacked Iran's Larak Island on Sunday and Iran responded by launching missiles at two U.S. air bases in Jordan.
(Reporting by Parisa Hafez in Dubai, Daphne Psaledakis, Idrees Ali and Jasper Ward in Washington, Bhargav Acharya in Toronto, and Yasmine Ghania, Ahmed Tolba and Muhammad Al Gebaly in Cairo; Writing by Timothy Heritage, Kevin Liffey, Nathan Layne and Daniel Trotta; Editing by Scott Malone, Sanjeev Miglani and Don Durfee)
