The aircraft carrier “USS Dwight D. Eisenhower” (CVN 69), followed by the fast combat support ship “USNS Arctic” (T-AOE 8) and the guided-missile destroyer “USS Nitze” (DDG 94), transit the Strait of Hormuz. (US Navy/Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class J. Alexander Delgado)
Before Tuesday’s strikes, Trump told Fox News that Washington would retaliate for Iran’s strikes on US forces in Jordan.
By Vered Weiss, World Israel News
The US military launched a new wave of strikes against Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps targets around the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday after Iranian forces attempted to attack merchant vessels and American military personnel in the region.
Explosions were reported by Iranian media across several locations in southern Iran, including Bandar Abbas, Qeshm Island, Sirik, Chabahar and Konarak.
US Central Command (CENTCOM) confirmed it was carrying out strikes against IRGC targets, while a senior US official said the operation was a response to Iranian attacks on American bases.
President Donald Trump said the strikes followed an Iranian attempt to lay naval mines in the Strait of Hormuz and the launch of eight missiles at a US military base in Jordan. The missiles were intercepted.
“The strikes are large and powerful, and they come in response to their failed attempt to lay naval mines in the strait, as well as the firing of eight missiles toward our military base in Jordan – which were successfully intercepted,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
He warned Tehran against responding to the US operation.
“If the failed state of Iran responds to this justified attack, it will get hit again with much greater and harder force, but that won’t be the biggest attack of all – that one is waiting in the barrel, and when it’s over, there will be very little left of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
Iran had fired ballistic missiles at US forces in Jordan in response to an American strike on Larak Island.
About a day before Tuesday’s strikes, Trump told Fox News that Washington would retaliate.
“We’re going to hit them hard,” he said. “There will be a response.”
Trump also attacked Tehran on Truth Social before the latest US operation, declaring, “Iran is officially a failed nation. It is dead!” He said Iran no longer had a navy, air force or functioning currency and described its leadership as being in “total chaos.”
Earlier Tuesday, the US Embassy in Jerusalem warned Americans in the Middle East to “remain vigilant due to complex tensions with the potential for unpredictable escalation,” citing possible flight cancellations, airspace closures and travel disruptions.
US embassies in Jordan, Oman, Qatar and Bahrain also issued security alerts.
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