The United States military struck targets inside Iran on September 1, and Tehran responded with missiles and drones at US sites across the region, reviving open hostilities in a war that by then had dragged on intermittently for more than six months.
One American strike hit a home hosting a wedding, local officials said, killing five people and wounding dozens; a reminder that the war's attrition phase is measured in civilian incidents as much as in strategic metrics. Iran's armed forces vowed "crushing and devastating blows" in response.
Both Sides Bending
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said before the strikes that the Islamic Republic was ready to return to the interim ceasefire. The Trump administration, after months of financial pressure failing to produce capitulation, returned to the military instrument as oil prices rose again.
American officials have privately acknowledged dwindling stockpiles of advanced interceptors, the munitions most in demand as Iran's missile and drone output has scaled through the year. The war has been unpopular with much of the American public ahead of the midterms, a political fact neither party has fully priced in.
