The U.S. military carried out additional strikes against Iran on Tuesday, as Iran attacked Jordan, Bahrain and Kuwait, ignoring President Donald Trump’s warnings that it would be “harder to hit” if Iran retaliated.
The latest retaliatory strikes came after the United States and Iran exchanged attacks overnight into Monday for the first time in more than a month, threatening to reignite a virulent conflict after weeks of relative military calm.
After the new U.S. attack was announced, President Trump warned that Iran would face harsher military action if it retaliated to what he called a “very legitimate attack.”
“They will be attacked again, even harder and at a higher level, but it will not be the biggest attack, it will be waiting in the wings, and when it is over there will be very little left in the Islamic Republic of Iran!” he wrote in Truth Social on Tuesday.
But Iran has vowed a “crushing” response, saying it was targeting U.S. military assets, launching ballistic missiles into Jordan and launching drones into Bahrain and Kuwait.
Tehran claimed that debris from the US attack hit a wedding celebration in the country’s south, killing at least four people, including a young child.
In a statement to CNN, a U.S. military spokesperson said that U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) confirmed reports about the allegations and denied targeting Iranian civilians.
“We are aware of reports from Iranian state media. Unlike the Revolutionary Guards, the U.S. military never targets civilians,” CENTCOM spokesman Col. Timothy Hawkins said Wednesday, referring to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The U.S. strike was in response to recent attempted attacks by Iran “against commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and U.S. forces deployed in the region,” Centcom said in a post on X.
CENTCOM releases video of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps attack on crop targets in Iran
CENTCOM releases video of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps attack on crop targets in Iran
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Two tankers have been hit by projectiles since Sunday’s US attack, according to maritime intelligence agency Malirisks and traffic watchdog UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO). Iran and the United States are engaged in a long-term battle over the narrow waterway, which is critical to global energy supplies.
Centcom said Tuesday’s attacks targeted “air defense facilities, radar systems, maritime assets and facilities, mine-laying capabilities, and communication facilities” associated with the Revolutionary Guards. The strike began at 12pm ET and CENTCOM announced it was complete more than six hours later.
The escalation in fighting comes despite President Trump previously telegraphing plans to shift from military operations to a strategy focused on increasing economic pressure.
In response to Iran’s retaliation, President Trump wrote on Truth Social on Tuesday night, “I will not force Iran to the negotiating table.” “I think we are in a much better position now that we have almost complete control of the Strait of Hormuz and our economy has completely collapsed.”
Crude oil futures rose above $94 per barrel after the US announced a new strike.
On the diplomatic front, Pakistani officials insisted they were “undaunted” by the surge in violence. Pakistan’s foreign ministry “continues to engage” with Tehran and Washington, spokesman Tahir Andrabi told reporters on Wednesday. He argued that the latest strike “should not be called a failure of the mediation process.”
Jordan announced that it had intercepted 10 missiles from Iran, with the remaining three falling in remote areas far from populated areas. According to the Jordanian military, no casualties were reported.
Kuwait and Bahrain also said they had activated air defense systems to intercept drones from Iran. The Iranian government also claimed to have launched a combined missile and drone attack against the Iraqi Kurdistan autonomous region of Erbil.
Meanwhile, attacks by the US hit multiple locations across Iran.
Seven people were killed in an airstrike in central Khuzestan, which borders Iraq, the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported, citing regional officials.
The neighboring Iranian port cities of Chabahar and Konark on the Gulf of Oman, which have important commercial, maritime and military infrastructure, were also attacked. Explosions were also heard east of Bandar Abbas and around Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz, state media said.
Iran’s state-run Press Television said the airstrikes also hit the small Jiroft airport in the southeastern province of Iran and a fishmeal factory on Qeshm Island in the strait.
Separately, Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency reported that explosions were also heard in southern Iran’s Asaliyah province, an important gas and petrochemical hub on the Persian Gulf.
According to Press TV, Iranian authorities said that several people, including a 4-year-old child, were killed and at least 68 others were injured when debris fell on a building where a wedding was being held in the coastal village of Kouhestak in southern Iran’s Sirik province.
In footage released by Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency purporting to show the aftermath of the US attack, thick smoke can be seen floating in the air above debris on the ground. I can hear people screaming all around me. CNN localized the image to a residential area in Kuhestak.
On Tuesday night, video showed that a large communication tower in Kouhestak was also heavily damaged. The tower was approximately 135 meters (442 feet) from the building where the wedding reception was held.
At least 19 of the injured were children under the age of 10, including seven boys and 12 girls, Iranian Student News Agency said, citing regional health officials.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghai condemned the attack as part of a “catalog of atrocities” by the United States and criticized the international community’s “normalization of bombings.” In a post on X on Wednesday, Baghai also described the attack as a “brutal war crime” and criticized CENTCOM’s denial of targeting Iranian civilians.
The attack was widely reported in Iranian state media, sparked outrage on Iranian social media, and was quickly followed by an animated Lego-style video that became a mainstay of Iranian propaganda during the war.
CNN has not been able to independently verify the details of the alleged strike.
Iran says Kouhestak is just 37 kilometers (about 22 miles) from the city of Minab, where the U.S. military bombed an elementary school in February, killing at least 168 children and 14 teachers.
The renewed fighting comes as the US and Iran remain at a standoff over the Strait of Hormuz. Tehran claims control over the Strait of Hormuz, but the United States claims it is an international waterway.
The strait has been a choke point for the world’s energy supply since the outbreak of war, but more oil has been passing through it in recent weeks.
The United States claimed it launched the attack on Sunday because Iran was trying to use rockets to plant new mines in the strait. The Iranian government responded by firing on so-called US military targets in the Middle East.
President Trump criticized Iran’s leadership on Tuesday, telling Fox News that the United States had warned its Arab allies in the Persian Gulf before the attack. “I don’t think any deal with them is worth the paper it’s written on,” the president said, later adding, “They won’t stop. They’re crazy and they’re stupid.”
President Trump told Fox that the United States was tracking a radar system that the Iranian government was trying to rebuild. “They tried to rebuild the radar because they couldn’t see anything,” he said. “I waited until it was almost finished before I actually finished it.”
The Trump administration has repeatedly denied concerns about Iran’s long-term control of the strait.
“In two years, the Strait of Hormuz will be worthless water. Oil will be moved over land in pipelines,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Larry Kudlow in an interview Tuesday at the Group of 20 Conference. He was referring to plans by Gulf states to build infrastructure to bypass the strait entirely.
Bessent also argued that the Treasury Department’s new efforts to cut off Iran’s economy from the rest of the world will ultimately force the regime to surrender, characterizing his job as “making sure Iran wants a deal.”
“We’re going to suffocate this system economically,” Bessent said. “The world is tired of this pariah state, or this rogue state, and is trying to make it a pariah.”
He added that the Treasury Department was likely to sanction two more banks in the coming weeks, although it initially targeted banks in Dubai with suspected ties to Iran.
This story has been updated with additional details.
CNN’s Alejandra Jaramillo, Matt Egan, Aida Karimi, Hira Humayun, Eyad Kurdi, Azaz Saeed and Qanita Iyer contributed reporting.
