ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - If Iran retaliates for the US strikes on Tuesday, "they will be hit again much harder," US President Donald Trump warned, attributing the military action to what he said were attempts by Tehran to deploy sea mines in the Strait of Hormuz. This comes as senior Iranian military officials have vowed “severe punishment” for the American strikes.
"The United States is, as we speak, striking Iranian targets near the Strait of Hormuz," Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform, describing the bombardment as "large and powerful" and framing it as "retaliation for the Iranians' failed attempt at adding sea mines to the Strait of Hormuz" and "the Iranians shooting eight missiles" at an American "military base in Jordan.”
"If the failed nation of Iran retaliates for this 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," Trump warned.
The warning came shortly after US Central Command (CENTCOM) said Tuesday that "US forces began striking Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) targets in Iran."
Meanwhile, Iran's state-run Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) reported that "more than five explosions were heard near the village of Masen on Qeshm Island" in the southern Hormozgan province, with "four additional blasts reported" from the direction of Hormuz.
Similarly, the national Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) detailed that "the explosions were heard in Bandar Abbas, Sirik, Jask, and Qeshm" in Hormozgan, while the semi-official Mehr News Agency cited provincial officials in southeastern Sistan and Baluchestan province as confirming that "four projectiles" struck the coastal cities of Chabahar and Konarak.
Later Tuesday evening, IRGC Spokesperson Brigadier General Hossein Mohebbi said in a statement on X that "a severe punishment awaits the aggressors," adding that the US "will come to regret its new strikes."
In a similar vein, the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, which oversees Iran's wartime operations, said "a heavy price" and "crushing and devastating blows" would be inflicted on "the American enemy."
"We have repeatedly declared that under no circumstances will we compromise the rights of the heroic Iranian nation, and we will impose heavy costs on the American enemy," the headquarters added.
Soon after, at least two IRGC-affiliated news outlets, Tasnim News Agency and Fars News, claimed that American assets in the region were being struck by Iranian missile and drone attacks.
Of note, the renewed escalation comes after Trump told Fox News on Monday that "there will be a response" to Iran's strikes against US bases in Jordan and the United Arab Emirates.
The IRGC said Monday that its aerospace force launched a "punitive counteroffensive," conducting a "synchronized missile-and-drone assault" on what they described as US assets at the King Hussein and al-Azraq air bases in Jordan using ballistic missiles, claiming the strikes inflicted "heavy losses."
The Iranian army said the same day that it "targeted locations housing US military helicopters and personnel at Al Minhad base in the United Arab Emirates with dozens of explosive drones."
Tehran framed the attacks as a response to what it said was a deadly US strike on Iran's Larak Island on Sunday.
RELATED: Trump signals further action against Iran after strikes on US bases
Last updated at 10:20 pm
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