The Unites States military on Wednesday completed another round of airstrikes against a series of Iranian regime targets, CENTCOM announced.
“The strikes are in response to Iran’s unwarranted and continued aggression,” United States Central Command said. “U.S. forces remain vigilant, lethal and ready.”
The latest attacks targeted military surveillance capabilities, communication systems and air defense sites across the Islamic Republic, according to the statement.
“U.S. Marine Corps, Air Force and Navy assets fired precision munitions on Iranian targets that posed a threat to U.S. forces and international commercial ships transiting regional waters,” it added.
In separate statements, CENTCOM denied Iranian media reports that a U.S. warship was struck in the Strait of Hormuz and said the waterway was open for commercial shipping.
U.S. President Donald Trump told Fox News that the operation involved at least 49 Tomahawk missiles, along with strikes by fighter jets. The closest target to Tehran was about 40 miles from the capital, the president said.
Trump said he spoke directly with Iranian officials who asked him to halt the strikes, but warned that if they did not sign a nuclear agreement, “we’ll bomb the shit out of them.” He added that the truce with Tehran, which he extended indefinitely on April 21 to allow for further negotiations, was “the most violated ceasefire in the history of the world.”
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced overnight that it had launched counter-attacks on 18 U.S. military targets in Kuwait and Bahrain, including the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet in Manama.
Kuwait’s air defenses engaged “hostile aerial targets,” the country’s military said. Bahraini aerial defenses also intercepted Iranian projectiles, an adviser to King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa announced.
The IRGC later claimed it had also targeted the al-Azraq Airbase in Jordan, launching 12 ballistic missiles at the U.S. military outpost.
Following meetings at U.S. Central Command headquarters in Tampa, Fla., on Wednesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters that CENTCOM would be “busy tonight,” adding that “President Trump said we will be hitting Iran hard—and we will be.”
The Islamic Republic “has a chance to make a good deal, a great deal, to codify what they said they’ve been willing to do—and they haven’t been willing to do it,” continued Hegseth.
“They’ve been ‘tap, tap, tapping’ on the deal,” he said. “Instead, they’re gonna have tap, tap, tap bombs dropping on key facilities in Iran from the United States of America.
“Those strikes that will happen tonight will be strong—they will be clear. If they have to happen tomorrow night, they will be strong and they will be clear,” he added. “Throughout, Iran has an opportunity to make a deal.”
The latest escalation began on Monday with the downing of a U.S. military helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz, which triggered a series of tit-for-tat attacks across Iran and on U.S. bases in the Middle East.
The renewed hostilities followed a direct exchange between Iran and Israel on Monday, after the Islamic Republic launched missile attacks on the Jewish state in response to Israeli operations against Hezbollah terror targets in Lebanon.
