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Airstrikes bat­tered Iran and Iran­ian mis­siles and drones tar­get­ed Is­rael and sites across the Mideast on Tues­day, even as Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump said the Unit­ed States was in talks with the Is­lam­ic Re­pub­lic to end the war.

With thou­sands more U.S. Marines on their way to the Gulf, both sides fir­ing bar­rages and Iran deny­ing any ne­go­ti­a­tions are tak­ing place, the war’s tem­po re­mained high a day af­ter Trump de­layed his self-im­posed dead­line for Iran to re­open the Strait of Hor­muz. Tehran’s choke­hold on that cru­cial wa­ter­way has snarled in­ter­na­tion­al ship­ping, sent fu­el prices sky­rock­et­ing, and threat­ened the world econ­o­my.

Pak­istan of­fered to host diplo­mat­ic talks, but Iran re­mained de­fi­ant, vow­ing to fight “un­til com­plete vic­to­ry.”