Metro

US launches new wave of strikes against Iran

US launches new wave of strikes against Iran

 

The strikes were carried out after US President Donald Trump directed the US Central Command forces to begin the fresh round of strikes around 5 p.m. ET to “hold Iranian forces accountable,” CENTCOM announced in a statement on X. 

 

The US completed the wave of strikes against Iran after “hitting dozens of targets at multiple locations with precision munitions,” the military command said in an update on Sunday night. 

 

Among the targets bombarded by strikes were Iranian military air-defense systems, coastal radar sites, missile and drone capabilities, and small boats, the statement added.

 

CENTCOM forces utilized US fighter aircraft, naval vessels, one-way attack aerial drones, and one-way attack sea drones for the first time in a show of military might.

 

Iranian state media reported strikes in several northern and southern provinces and said that at least one person had been killed and several others were wounded, CNN reported.

 

“U.S. forces are postured and prepared to ensure that freedom of navigation remains available to commercial shipping despite Iran’s continued unwarranted aggression, harassment, threats, and arbitrary declarations,” CENTCOM wrote.

 

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps responded to the wave of attacks with targeted strikes on US infrastructure at military bases in Kuwait, causing damage to fuel storage tanks and Patriot air defense systems, Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency reported early Monday local time, according to CNN.

 

The IRGC’s air force also struck US military facilities at the US Air Base in Sheikh Isa, Bahrain, including helicopter maintenance and repair facilities, a hangar housing a P-8 Poseidon aircraft, and the military’s drone command and control center, the Fars news agency said.

 

The strikes follow an intense bombing campaign led by US forces on 140 targets in the Islamic Republic late Saturday, after Iran attacked a commercial vessel and declared the key oil choke point closed.

 

The US on Saturday pounded targets including missile and drone sites, naval assets, ammunition storage facilities, communication networks, and surveillance locations, CENTCOM said in a previous statement.

 

After the round of strikes, Trump insisted the Strait of Hormuz was open — contradicting Tehran’s warnings that the vital route remains closed.

 

“Yeah, it’s open. We bombed the hell out of them last night,” Trump told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

 

In response to the American airstrikes, Iran launched a wide-scale assault against American facilities across the Middle East — escalating a pattern of attacks between the nations and leaving negotiations to end the war on the brink of collapse.

 

The IRGC said it destroyed a command-and-control center and drone hangars in Jordan, targeted a radar site in Kuwait, attacked aircraft carrier support and refueling platforms in Oman, and struck a jet maintenance center and command base in Qatar.

 

Other attacks and missile interceptions were reported in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, where the US houses military bases.

 

Iran and the US have nearly reached the halfway point of the 60 days of their interim deal aimed at reaching a permanent end to the war that began in late February.

 

Iran’s chief negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, vowed that the attacks would persist if the US continued to undermine the country’s control over the economically vital waterway, which oversees 20% of the world’s oil transport.