U.S. forces struck Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps sites in Iran on Tuesday after Tehran attempted attacks on commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz earlier in the day, according to U.S. Central Command.
CENTCOM did not specify which locations were targeted for strikes. Reports from state-affiliated media in Iran indicated that U.S. strikes hit several targets in southern Iran near the port city of Bandar Abbas, along with sites in Konarak, Chabahar, Qeshm and Sirik.
The attacks were in response to what CENTCOM termed “attempted attacks by the IRGC against commercial shipping” and threats against U.S. forces in the region.
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The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Center reported Monday evening that a Saudi tanker and a South Korean tanker were struck by unidentified objects within minutes of each other while traveling in the strait.
President Trump confirmed separately that the U.S. strikes were in retaliation for Iran’s attempted mine-laying operations and for recent attacks on a U.S. military 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!” he said on social media.
Mr. Trump warned this week that he would hit back at Iran over its strikes on U.S. military assets and commercial vessels in the strait.
The IRGC, Iran’s Armed Forces General Staff and the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, its top joint operational command, issued statements condemning the U.S. attacks and vowed to launch a “crushing” response.
“Armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran will deliver crushing and devastating blows to the vile and hostile American enemy,” Iran’s Armed Forces General Staff and the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters wrote in a joint statement. “We have repeatedly declared, and are determined, that under no circumstances will we retreat from the rights of the heroic Iranian nation, and we will impose heavy costs on the American enemy.”
Fighting in the Iran conflict has intensified this week, shattering a monthlong pause in fighting and a pivot to economic warfare on the part of the Trump administration.
The Tuesday attacks are likely the most extensive strikes since kinetic action restarted this week. The U.S. on Sunday struck Larak Island, off Iran’s southern coast, asserting that Tehran was prepared to launch rockets with sea mines attached from the island.
CENTCOM categorized the strikes as precise and not a change in overall U.S. strategy, which had been publicly focused for weeks on using the naval blockade and heavy sanctions to pressure Iran into economic collapse or to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran retaliated early Monday with attempted attacks on U.S. military assets in Jordan. The Jordanian Defense Ministry reported no casualties or damage resulting from the strikes.
The United Arab Emirates reported an attempted drone strike from Iran on Monday that was intercepted before it could reach its intended target.
Iran is likely to respond militarily to the latest strikes as well.
Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iranian parliament speaker and chief negotiator with the U.S., said Tuesday that if the U.S. expanded its pressure campaign against his country, Tehran would be forced to respond militarily.
“If they intensify the blockade, we will definitely respond militarily,” Mr. Ghalibaf said in a video message. “If the enemy is determined to prevent us from exporting oil from the Persian Gulf, no one will be able to export oil.”
The U.S. is also poised to expand its sanctions campaign against Iran this week.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent signaled more sanctions Tuesday targeting banks that do business with Iran and indicated that they could be announced as soon as this week.
On Aug. 26, Treasury announced sanctions targeting the UAE branch of Egypt’s state-owned bank Banque Misr but has stopped short of targeting Iran’s largest economic partners, China, Russia and Turkey.
Mr. Bessent said he has had private discussions with Chinese representatives concerning Beijing’s economic relationship with Iran, but did not confirm whether any Chinese banks would be targeted by sanctions this week.
“We are probably going to announce a bank sanction this week, and we will announce one the week after. We are speaking to our allies here, who have all come forward, and we have had a great show of support,” Mr. Bessent told the crowd at the G20 finance ministers meeting in Asheville, North Carolina.
The kinetic war and the economic pressure campaign have expanded as Iran pushes for a return to the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding, the now-defunct agreement signed between Tehran and Washington in June.
Speaking at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said that despite recent flare-ups over control of the Strait of Hormuz, Iran is prepared to enter an era of peace under the terms of the memorandum.
“Unlike the United States, my country has an outstanding record of honoring its international commitments and agreements and has always acted in accordance with the principles of international law,” he said. “Lasting security is achieved not through confrontation but through mutual trust, respect for national sovereignty, noninterference in domestic affairs and cooperation among governments.”
He said the U.S. adhered to the terms of the agreement only for a few weeks before the pact collapsed in July.
Mr. Pezeshkian stressed that Iran is willing to respond forcefully if the U.S. continues to violate its commitments under the agreement.
The U.S. and Iran signed the Pakistani-mediated memorandum in June after weeks of back-channel diplomacy. The agreement mandated a temporary ceasefire, the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and at least 60 days of direct negotiations between the two countries.
Pakistan has been one of the loudest voices urging a return to the memorandum over the past month, working alongside Qatar to ferry peace proposals between the U.S. and Iran.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif told his counterparts at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit on Tuesday that the memorandum “offers the most viable and enduring pathway to lasting peace.”
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