RIYADH — Saudi Arabia was preparing to unveil an international coalition to guard Red Sea shipping as early as Thursday, hours after a drone attack ignited fires at Egypt's Mediterranean gas port of Damietta and U.S. Central Command completed what it called a "heavy wave" of overnight strikes across southern Iran that Iranian officials said killed a family of three, including a two-year-old, on the island of Qeshm.

Together they widened the five-month U.S.-Iran war beyond its Persian Gulf core, drawing Egypt in for the first time, formalizing a Sunni Arab bloc against the Iran-backed Houthis and ending a Trump-ordered pause in the bombing campaign.

The strikes

Centcom said the overnight operation hit "military command centers, missile and drone facilities, coastal surveillance and defense sites, and maritime capabilities," in retaliation for Tuesday's Iranian ballistic-missile attack on U.S. forces in Jordan. The BBC said strikes hit Qeshm and Abadan, both central to Iran's oil industry. Fars news agency, citing the Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences, reported that a U.S. attack on a residential home in Qeshm's Chah Tangu neighborhood had killed three members of a family: the father, the mother and their 2-year-old child. Al Jazeera, citing Iran's IRIB state broadcaster, said explosions were also heard in Bushehr province, home to Iran's only nuclear power plant.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps vowed reprisal "today." By Thursday morning, Jordan said it had intercepted five Iranian missiles targeting the kingdom, and Kuwait's Defence Ministry said an Iranian strike had killed a worker at a building belonging to a Chinese company in the country's north.

Egypt drawn in

Egypt's cabinet confirmed that a Wednesday fire at the Damietta port on the Mediterranean was caused by a drone. NBC News reported that the strike hit a U.S.-owned floating storage facility and a Greek-owned tanker. No party has claimed responsibility. Asked in the Oval Office whether Iran was behind the attack, President Trump said "it's a little more of the same," without elaborating, and added: "In the meantime, we're going to be hitting them very hard because it's our turn to hit them." Egypt, a U.S. ally and mediator in the war, had not been directly attacked since the conflict began Feb. 28.

The Saudi coalition

Riyadh, according to a Reuters report cited by Al Jazeera, invited about 50 countries — among them the United States, Pakistan, Egypt, Turkey, Djibouti, Somalia, Sudan, Germany, France and Italy — to join a Red Sea protection force headquartered in the Saudi capital. Egypt, Djibouti and Sudan have agreed to join, according to Al-Monitor. Washington had not confirmed participation. Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman told Trump and Vice President JD Vance in a White House meeting Wednesday that the kingdom opposed further escalation of the U.S.-Israel war on Iran but was ready to "defend itself," according to Axios.

The Houthis imposed a maritime blockade on Saudi Arabia on July 20 and are considering tolls on Red Sea shipping, Yemeni information minister Moammar al-Eryani said Wednesday, warning of a dangerous escalation.

The home front

Support for the war is eroding at home. A July 23–27 Associated Press-NORC poll cited by CBS News found about two-thirds of U.S. adults call the war not worthwhile, with Trump's approval on his handling of Iran at 28 percent and Republican approval at 61 percent, down from 71 percent in June. Fox News, citing the Foundation for Defense of Democracies' Behnam Ben Taleblu, framed the strategic problem in the opposite direction, quoting him as saying the Tuesday attack signaled "a more risk-tolerant, more confident, perhaps less capable, but more dangerous Iran in the Middle East."

Brent crude was hovering around $90 a barrel early Thursday, NBC News reported, after settling as low as $72 earlier this month. Burcu Ozcelik, senior research fellow for Middle East security at the Royal United Services Institute, told Al Jazeera that "the real danger is that this settles into a prolonged period of sustained confrontation, where regular military exchanges become the norm rather than the exception." Saudi officials are expected to formally launch the Red Sea coalition Thursday.