US Strikes
US CENTCOM strikes Iranian military targets; Tehran claims retaliatory missile and drone attacks
U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) forces on Tuesday carried out a wave of strikes against Iranian military targets, escalating tensions between Washington and Tehran.
CENTCOM said the strikes targeted Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) assets, including air defence sites, radar systems, maritime assets and facilities, mine-laying capabilities and communications sites.
“The strikes follow recent attempted attacks by the IRGC against commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and against American service members,” CENTCOM said in a statement.
More than 50,000 U.S. service members are currently operating across the Middle East, according to CENTCOM.
Reacting to the strikes, U.S. President Donald Trump said on Truth Social that the attacks were carried out in retaliation for what he described as Iran’s “failed attempt” to lay sea mines in the Strait of Hormuz and its missile attack on a U.S. military base in Jordan.
“The strikes are large and powerful, and in retaliation for the Iranians’ failed attempt at adding sea mines to the Strait, which currently has no mines (They have been completely removed or detonated!), and the Iranians shooting eight missiles, all successfully knocked down, at our Military Base in Jordan,” Trump wrote.
He warned Iran against retaliating, saying that any further attack would prompt a much stronger U.S. response.
“If the failed Nation of Iran retaliates for this very justified attack, they will be hit again at a much harder and higher level,” Trump said, adding that an even larger attack was “waiting in the wings” and could leave “very little left of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
Meanwhile, Iranian media reported that Tehran launched retaliatory strikes following the U.S. attacks.
Quoting Iran’s Tasnim and Fars news agencies, Mehr News Agency reported that Iranian armed forces had fired missiles and drones at U.S. bases in the region.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps also claimed that its Aerospace Force had launched heavy ballistic missiles at a U.S. Marines facility on Jordan’s Gulf of Aqaba coast.
According to Mehr, the IRGC said the attack targeted Camp Tibtin, a U.S. Marines base on the Aqaba coast. The IRGC described the strikes as retaliation for a U.S. attack on a wedding ceremony in southern Iran.
The competing claims could not be independently verified.
The latest exchange of strikes marks a significant escalation and is likely to further heighten tensions across the Middle East, particularly around the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz.
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