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The US military has launched further strikes on multiple targets in Iran, the US Central Command (Centcom) confirmed, a day after it had struck Iran in retaliation for a drone attack on a cargo ship in the strait of Hormuz.
Centcom said its strikes on Saturday were in “direct response to continued Iranian aggression against commercial shipping”. The US strikes targeted “Iranian military surveillance infrastructure, communication systems, air defense sites, drone storage facilities, and minelayer capabilities”, Centcom said in a statement.
The flare-up in tensions comes as Washington and Tehran have been negotiating a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to end an unpopular war that has sent global oil prices skyrocketing and resulted in thousands of civilian deaths.
In the wake of the latest round of strikes US president Donald Trump posted on Truth Social:
“There may come a point when we are no longer able to be reasonable, and will be forced to militarily complete the job that we very successfully started,” he said, “If that happens, the Islamic Republic of Iran will no longer exist.”
Following the US strikes, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said early on Sunday that its navy and aerospace forces had launched a joint missile and drone operation targeting US military sites in Kuwait and Bahrain.
“Violating the ceasefire is contrary to clause 1 of the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding and will result in the complete halt of all diplomatic processes,” the Guard Corps said in a statement, according to Press TV.
Any further aggression would be met with a “crushing response”, they said.
The Guards “destroyed eight important US military facilities at the Ali al-Salem base in Kuwait and at the Fifth Fleet naval base in Port Salman in Bahrain,” they said in a statement.
“Any enemy aggression, whatever the pretext, even against insignificant targets ... will have a crushing response,” the Guards added.
After the retaliatory strikes on Friday, the US military said it would continue to enforce the shaky ceasefire with Iran even as disagreements have emerged over the terms of Iran’s nuclear program, the question of tolls in the strait of Hormuz, and other thorny questions including Iran’s ballistic missiles program.
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Centcom said the strikes were in response to Iranian attacks.
“After yesterday’s U.S. strikes in response to the Iranian attack on M/V Ever Lovely, Iran was given a chance to honor the ceasefire agreement but elected not to when its forces launched a one-way attack drone that hit M/T Kiku this morning at 4:30 a.m. ET. The Panama-flagged tanker was transiting near the Strait of Hormuz with more than two-million barrels of crude oil,” Centcom said.
“Commercial vessel transits through the Strait of Hormuz continue. U.S. forces remain vigilant, lethal, and ready,” it added.
In a Friday social media post, JD Vance, the US vice-president, vowed: “Violence will be met with violence.”
