The US military carried out additional strikes on Iran on Tuesday, prompting Tehran to launch attacks toward Jordan, Bahrain and Kuwait despite President Donald Trump’s warning that Iran would be “hit much harder” if it retaliated.
The latest exchange followed overnight US-Iranian attacks into Monday, the first direct strikes between the two countries in more than a month. The escalation risked reigniting a damaging conflict after weeks of relative military calm.
After the new US strikes were announced, Trump warned that Iran would face more severe military action if it retaliated against what he called a “very justified attack.”
“They will be hit again at a much harder and higher level, but it will not be the biggest attack of them all, that is waiting in the wings and, when it is over, there will be very little left of the Islamic Republic of Iran!” he wrote Tuesday on Truth Social.
Iran vowed a “crushing” response and launched ballistic missiles toward Jordan and drones toward Bahrain and Kuwait, saying it was targeting US military assets.
Tehran also claimed that shrapnel from one of the US strikes hit a wedding celebration in southern Iran, killing at least four people, including a toddler.
In a statement to CNN, a US military spokesperson said US Central Command (CENTCOM) had seen reports of the claim and denied targeting civilians in Iran.
“We are aware of reports, which originated from Iranian state media. The U.S. military never targets civilians, unlike the IRGC,” Capt. Timothy Hawkins, a CENTCOM spokesperson, said Wednesday, referring to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
US strikes target IRGC facilities
CENTCOM said the US strikes were carried out in response to recent attempted Iranian attacks “against commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and American troops deployed to the region,” according to a post on X.
Since the US strikes on Sunday, two tankers have been hit by projectiles, according to maritime intelligence group Marisks and the traffic monitoring agency United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO). Iran and the US remain engaged in a protracted confrontation over the narrow waterway, which is critical to global energy supplies.
CENTCOM said Tuesday’s strikes targeted “air defense sites, radar systems, maritime assets and facilities, mine laying capabilities, and communications sites” associated with the IRGC. The strikes began at 12 p.m. ET, and CENTCOM announced they were complete more than six hours later.
The renewed fighting came despite Trump’s earlier indication that he planned to move away from a military campaign and focus instead on increasing economic pressure on Iran.
“I’m not trying to force Iran to the bargaining table,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Tuesday night, after Iran retaliated. “I like our position now much better, with almost total control of the Hormuz Strait, and their economy totally collapsing.”
Oil futures climbed above $94 a barrel after the US announced the new strikes.
Iran launches attacks toward regional allies
Jordan said it intercepted 10 Iranian missiles, while three others landed in remote areas far from populated locations. No casualties were reported, according to Jordan’s military.
Kuwait and Bahrain said they activated air defense systems to intercept Iranian drones. Tehran also claimed to have launched a combined missile and drone attack on Erbil in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region.
Iran’s attacks came as Pakistan’s officials said they were “not discouraged” by the increase in violence. Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry “remains engaged” with Tehran and Washington, spokesperson Tahir Andrabi told reporters Wednesday. He said the strikes “should not be termed as a failure of the mediatory process.”
Reports of casualties and damage in Iran
The US attacks struck multiple locations across Iran.
Seven people were killed in strikes on Khuzestan province, which borders Iraq, Iran’s state-run Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported, citing a regional official.
The Iranian port cities of Chabahar and Konarak on the Gulf of Oman, which host major commercial, maritime and military infrastructure, also came under attack. Explosions were heard east of Bandar Abbas and around Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz, according to state-linked media.
Iran’s state-run Press TV reported that the strikes also hit Jiroft Airport in southeastern Iran and a fishmeal factory on Qeshm Island.
Separately, an explosion was heard in Asaluyeh, a key gas and petrochemical hub on Iran’s Persian Gulf coast, according to the semi-official Fars News Agency.
Iranian authorities claimed that several people, including a 4-year-old child, were killed and at least 68 others wounded when shrapnel fell on a building hosting a wedding celebration in the coastal village of Kouhestak in southern Iran’s Sirik county, Press TV reported.
Footage released by Iran’s semi-official Tasnim News Agency, which purportedly showed the aftermath of a US strike, showed heavy smoke above rubble as people shouted. CNN geolocated the footage to a residential neighborhood in Kouhestak but said it could not independently verify the details of the alleged strike.
Video also showed that a large communications tower in Kouhestak was badly damaged Tuesday night. The tower was about 135 meters (442 feet) from the building where the wedding reception was held.
At least 19 of the wounded were children under 10, including seven boys and 12 girls, the Iranian Students’ News Agency quoted a regional health official as saying.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei condemned the attack as part of a “catalogue of atrocities” committed by the US and criticized the global community’s “normalization of bombing.” In a post on X on Wednesday, Baghaei also denounced CENTCOM’s denial of targeting civilians in Iran, calling the strike a “brutal war crime.”
The alleged attack received extensive coverage in Iranian state media and prompted outrage on Iranian social media, followed by the rapid publication of a Lego-style animated video, a format that has become a recurring feature of Iranian wartime propaganda.
Kouhestak is about 37 kilometers (22 miles) from Minab, where Iran says a US strike hit an elementary school in February, killing at least 168 children and 14 teachers.
Struggle over the Strait of Hormuz
The fighting resumed as the US and Iran remained locked in a dispute over the Strait of Hormuz. Tehran claims the right to control the waterway, while Washington says it is an international waterway.
The strait has been a chokepoint for global energy supplies since the war began, although more oil has flowed through it in recent weeks.
The US said it launched strikes on Sunday because Iran was attempting to use rockets to lay new sea mines in the strait. Tehran responded by firing at what it described as US military targets in the Middle East.
Trump told Fox News on Tuesday that the US had notified Arab allies in the Persian Gulf before the latest strikes. He also criticized Iran’s leadership, saying: “I think an agreement with them isn’t worth the paper it’s written on,” before adding: “They don’t stop: They’re crazy, and they’re stupid.”
Trump told Fox News that the US targeted radar systems Iran had attempted to rebuild. “They tried to rebuild their radar because they can’t see anything,” he said. “We waited until it was almost built, and then we hit it.”
The Trump administration has repeatedly dismissed concerns about Iran’s long-term control of the strait.
“In two years, the Strait of Hormuz will be like a worthless piece of water — the oil will be going on pipelines across land,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Larry Kudlow on Tuesday during an interview at a Group of 20 meeting. He was referring to plans by Arab states in the gulf to build infrastructure that would bypass the strait.
Bessent also said the Treasury Department’s efforts to isolate Iran’s economy from the rest of the world would eventually force the regime to surrender, describing his role as helping to “make sure that they want to have a deal.”
“We are going to economically asphyxiate this regime,” Bessent said. “The world is tired of this pariah state, or this rogue state, and they are willing to make it a pariah.”
He added that after initially targeting a bank in Dubai over its alleged ties to Iran, the Treasury Department was likely to sanction two more banks in the next couple of weeks.
