Trump, meanwhile, warned Iran it would face a “much harder and higher” US attack if Tehran retaliates, even as Iranian media reported that Tehran had launched a “decisive operation” targeting US bases and interests in the region
The US on Tuesday launched fresh air strikes on Iranian targets around Strait of Hormuz, prompting Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to vow that Washington would “regret” the attacks and raising fears of a wider escalation in hostilities.
“Today at 12 p.m. ET (1600 GMT), U.S. forces began striking Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) targets in Iran,” US Central Command posted on X.
“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,” it added.
The strikes dashed hopes that an exchange of fire over the weekend would not lead to a broader renewal of fighting between the two countries.
Reacting to the fresh strikes in several areas along and east of the Strait of Hormuz, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards spokesman Hossein Mohebi said in a post on X, “Severe punishment awaits the aggressors; the United States will regret its new attacks.”
US President Donald Trump, meanwhile, warned Tehran against retaliating against the latest American strikes.
Trump said Tuesday’s US attacks near the Strait of Hormuz were in response to Iran laying mines and shooting missiles at an American 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 said on his Truth Social network.
Iran’s state broadcaster said there had been reports of explosions on Iran’s Qeshm Island, on the northern side of the strait.
The state-linked news agency Nour News said there had been reports of explosions in the port city of Bandar Abbas and in Chabahar, a port on the southern coast.
Meanwhile, in a late night development, Iranian media reported that the country’s military had launched a “decisive operation” against US targets in the region on Tuesday, as Washington carried out a fresh round of strikes.
The Tasnim news agency said a “decisive operation by Iran’s armed forces in response to the US enemy has begun. The US bases and interests in the region are being targeted by Iranian missiles and drones.”
Scale of renewed Iran hostilities remains unclear
The scale of the renewed hostilities between the US and Iran remained uncertain after a weekend exchange of attacks, with both sides warning of further military retaliation and raising concerns that the conflict could once again escalate.
The six-month-old conflict had shifted largely into an economic standoff before the latest strikes.
On Sunday, US forces attacked Iran’s Larak Island, prompting Tehran to respond with missile strikes on two US air bases in Jordan.
Although President Trump warned that Washington would respond to the Iranian attacks, he told reporters on Monday that the strikes did not mark a return to full-scale war.
According to Reuters, a senior Iranian source similarly described the confrontation as a “limited and contained confrontation”.
However, threats from both sides to retaliate against further attacks have underscored the risk that a conflict increasingly shaped by sanctions, blockades and economic pressure could quickly return to direct military action.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said early Tuesday that Tehran would respond immediately if Washington fulfilled its commitments under a June Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) aimed at ending the conflict.
The MOU formally ended fighting that has killed thousands of people in Iran and Lebanon since US and Israeli strikes began on February 28. However, it left several major issues unresolved and set out a 60-day period for broader negotiations, which ended without a further agreement.
“I am stating clearly that if the US returns to its commitments under the Memorandum of Understanding, the Islamic Republic of Iran will immediately reciprocate,” Pezeshkian said in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, where he was attending a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit involving Russia and China.
Iranian officials, however, have shown no public indication that Tehran intends to yield to US pressure.
“If the enemy wants us not to export oil from the Persian Gulf, no one will be able to export oil,” Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf was quoted as saying by Iranian media.
Qalibaf warned that Tehran would respond militarily if Washington intensified its “siege”.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei also accused Washington of taking an uncompromising approach to negotiations.
Washington was “addicted to making excessive demands and has mistaken negotiations for dictating terms”, Baghaei told a press conference in Tehran.
“As long as they act in this manner, they will certainly get no result other than what they have achieved so far,” he added, warning that Tehran would “use all our capabilities, whether on the battlefield or through our diplomatic apparatus”.
With inputs from agencies
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