Tehran: The United States launched new strikes on Iran on Wednesday after President Donald Trump vowed to hit “hard” following Iranian attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump, while ordering retaliation against Tehran, said he expected the latest military flare-up to end quickly and left the door open to more talks.
US Central Command said the strikes were carried out to degrade the ability of Iranian forces “to threaten freedom of navigation” in the strait, through which a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas normally flows.
“The United States is holding Iran accountable for recent unjustified aggression against commercial shipping,” CENTCOM said on X.
Iran’s Mehr news agency said explosions had been heard in the port cities of Bandar Abbas, Konarak and Chabahar.
Before ordering the latest strikes, Trump said the ceasefire with Iran was over, prompting mediators Pakistan and Qatar and the United Nations to call for de-escalation.
The Strait of Hormuz remains a flashpoint in the Middle East conflict, which began in late February with US-Israeli strikes that killed Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader who is to be buried in his hometown of Mashhad on Thursday.
Tehran insists on controlling the strait, saying it will charge fees for passage and threatening to hit vessels that deviate from its authorised route.
Its military struck at least three ships in recent days, prompting extensive US strikes against Iranian targets on Tuesday, followed by retaliatory attacks from Iran on Gulf countries.
“We’re gonna hit ’em hard tonight,” Trump said at a NATO summit in Ankara. “They violate the agreement every day.”
He added later, however, that “anything that happens is going to be over very quickly.”
Oil prices jumped eight percent after Trump’s earlier comments that the ceasefire was “over.”
