The US military bombed the coastal city of Bushehr on Tuesday, where Iran’s only nuclear power plant is located, according to local authorities, amid escalating tensions between Washington and Tehran.

Iran’s official news agency IRNA quoted Bushehr Deputy Governor Ehsan Jahaniyan as saying that “four sites in the city of Bushehr were hit by shells fired by the enemy at noon (8:30 GMT).”

The US military also bombed an oil area in Khuzestan province in southwestern Iran, near the border with Iraq, on Tuesday afternoon, according to local authorities.

The strikes hit the city of Abadan, which houses the Middle East’s oldest oil refinery, as well as the coastal city of Mahshahr, which is also a petrochemical industrial area, according to Waliullah Hayati, deputy governor of Khuzestan, as reported by the official IRNA news agency.

Meanwhile, Iranian state television reported that five explosions occurred near the Strait of Hormuz, around the coastal city of Bandar Abbas, an area that has been targeted by US strikes in recent days.

The state broadcaster said: “Minutes ago, five explosions were heard west of Bandar Abbas.”

Ships in the Strait of Hormuz (AFP).

Earlier, the United States carried out strikes on Iran for the third consecutive night, hours before the deadline it had set to reimpose a naval blockade on Iranian ports, although President Donald Trump did not rule out the possibility of reaching an agreement with Tehran.

This broader escalation since the ceasefire in the Middle East war in April could undermine diplomatic efforts aimed at consolidating the memorandum of understanding signed on June 17.

Over a period of five hours, US forces bombed military targets in cities in southern Iran overlooking the Gulf, including Bandar Abbas and Bushehr, according to the US Central Command (CENTCOM) on Tuesday morning.

The US military said that among the targets hit in Iran were “coastal defense systems, drone and missile facilities, and naval assets.”

Iran’s official news agency IRNA reported hearing four explosions near the city of Bandar Abbas, located on the Strait of Hormuz. On Tuesday afternoon, Iranian television reported hearing five more explosions in Bandar Abbas.

Local authorities in Bushehr also announced that the city had once again been targeted by US airstrikes. Trump had threatened on Monday to strike Iran “hard tonight and tomorrow.”

Iran’s Fars news agency reported that a building belonging to an environmental organization in Hormozgan province in the south was bombed, killing members of the family of a forest ranger who was not present at the site. State television also reported hearing five explosions in the vicinity of Bandar Abbas near the Strait of Hormuz.

According to a toll compiled by Agence France Presse based on Iranian media reports and official sources, 28 people have been killed since hostilities resumed on Wednesday.

The war in the Middle East began with a US Israeli attack on Iran in February. The parties reached a ceasefire agreement in April, and hostilities came to an almost complete halt despite some occasional clashes.