US carries out fresh round of strikes against Iran, Trump threatens more attacks
The US military began striking Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) targets in Iran on Tuesday, the latest in a new round of fighting.
“The strikes follow recent attempted attacks by the IRGC against commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and against American service members deployed to the region,” the US Central Command said in a statement.
Multiple explosions were heard around Iran’s Qeshm Island and near the Strait of Hormuz, Iranian state television reported earlier in the day.
State TV said more than five explosions were heard near the village of Mesen on Qeshm Island. Four additional explosions were heard coming from the direction of the Strait of Hormuz, according to the report.
US President Donald Trump said the “large and powerful” strikes were “in retaliation for the Iranians’ failed attempt at adding sea mines to the Strait” and “the Iranians shooting eight missiles, all successfully knocked down, at our Military Base in Jordan.”
In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump said that “if the failed Nation of Iran retaliates for this very justified attack, they will be hit again at a much harder and higher level.”
Iranian state television reported that several people attending a wedding were wounded by a US attack in the country’s south. It added that the US attack hit a “residential area” in Bandar Kuhestak in Sirik county.
IRGC spokesman Hossein Mohebi warned on X that Washington “will regret its new attacks,” saying that “severe punishment awaits the aggressors.”
Iran’s Tasnim news agency later said a “decisive operation by Iran’s armed forces in response to the US enemy has begun,” and that “US bases and interests in the region are being targeted by Iranian missiles and drones.”
Tit-for-tat
The US said it attacked Iranian rocket launchers on the island of Larak to prevent Tehran planting mines in the key shipping lane over the weekend.
Iran responded with missile and drone attacks aimed at Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, saying they targeted US forces there.
US President Donald Trump vowed at the time to “hit them hard,” telling a Fox News reporter that “there will be a response.”
