Iran and the US have been engaged in two days of intense fighting on Wednesday and Thursday. This is the first major US-Iranian confrontation since the ceasefire on April 8. The incident has raised the risk of a full-scale war in West Asia. The US launched a series of strikes on Iran from Wednesday night to Thursday morning. Explosions were heard in the Iranian capital, as well as in the port city of Bandar Abbas and in the southern coastal areas of the Strait of Hormuz. An Indian official said three Indian sailors were killed in a US attack on an oil tanker in Iranian ports. The US military attacked the tanker for allegedly violating US sanctions in the region. The attacks were carried out in various areas of Iran before dawn on Thursday. However, details of the damage caused by the attack have not been made public. Iran responded by attacking US military bases in Bahrain, Jordan and Qatar. Iran had previously attacked those areas on Wednesday.

Kuwait's airspace was closed for several hours after Iran's attack. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Jordan said it had intercepted 20 Iranian missiles fired at a military base housing US troops. No one was injured in the incident, Jordan said. 

Bahrain's interior ministry said the Iranian missile was intercepted and an 11-year-old girl was injured by debris.  Cars and houses were damaged, the ministry said in a statement. 

The targets included a manufacturing plant outside Tehran, a military barracks and a local guard base.

The war is also expected to affect the ongoing indirect talks between Iran and the US, which are being brokered by a third party. Earlier on Monday, Trump claimed that talks would be fruitful within two to three days. But on Thursday, he warned that Iran would pay a heavy price for stopping the talks. 

Iran's Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Thursday saying that the US attack had rendered the ceasefire meaningless. However, it has not yet declared that the ceasefire has ended completely. 

Iran's hold on the Strait of Hormuz and Iran's nuclear weapons program have become important issues in the negotiation process with the US. Only on Thursday, Iran announced the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. But its message and meaning are not clear. Because, since the war began, the waterway has been closed and only a very small number of ships have passed through it. 

Despite continuous attempts at negotiations after the ceasefire in April, peace talks have not been fruitful due to failure to reach an agreement on some points.

Iran has been claiming that its nuclear program is peaceful. However, the US and Israel have been accusing Iran of preparing to make nuclear weapons from it. The US has been saying that Iran can only be trusted if it is ready to give up its highly enriched uranium stockpile.

On the other hand, Iran has demanded that its frozen assets abroad be released before peace talks, international sanctions against it be lifted, and assurances that it will not attack again.

The US demands that the Strait of Hormuz be kept free and open. Iran has been claiming that the waterway cannot be returned to its pre-war condition.

It plans to collect revenue from ships passing through here and allow them to proceed only after ensuring that the ships comply with all rules. Iran has also proposed cooperating with Oman for this.

Trump had claimed on Monday that an agreement with Iran would be reached within days. But the latest standoff has cast doubt on that.

However, an official participating in the negotiating team told the AP news agency that efforts to negotiate with the two sides are continuing despite the standoff. According to him, the Qatari diplomatic delegation had returned from the Iranian capital Tehran, where they had held talks, only on Thursday morning.