US launches fresh strikes against Iran after Trump vows to hit ‘very hard’

The United States launched strikes against Iran after Donald Trump vowed to attack “very hard” in a significant escalation of the war.

US forces hit “multiple targets” hours after the US president outlined plans to punish Iran for pulling out of peace talks and for downing an American helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz.

US Central Command (Centcom) confirmed the fresh wave of strikes late on Wednesday.

Pete Hegseth, the recently-renamed US secretary of war, had said earlier the US military used the ceasefire period to significantly improve its intelligence gathering and target selection in Iran.

Explosions were heard in the southern cities of Sirik and Minab, along with Isfahan in central Iran and Qeshm Island.

“The US military’s ability to identify targets, gather intelligence and penetrate networks would be vastly improved compared with the start of Operation Epic Fury,” Mr Hegseth said, adding: “We’ve got always more capability to bring.”

Trump: I’ll ‘bomb the s--- out of them’

Shortly after the strikes, Mr Trump posted on Truth Social: “Their military is defeated, and their economy is lost. It’s over for Iran!”

He claimed to have spoken directly with Iranian officials who asked him to stop bombing.

Mr Trump said the strikes would soon stop but if Iran did not sign an agreement, he would “bomb the s--- out of them.”

Some 49 Tomahawk missiles were fired by the United States on Wednesday night, according to Fox News. 

Iran’s top military command vowed its forces would give a “crushing and decisive” response to US “aggression”.

Tehran also promised to open fire on any ships trying to pass through the Strait of Hormuz.

Renewed action threatens to drag the United States further into a war Mr Trump previously claimed could be over by the end of the week, prolonging the economic pain from Iran’s chokehold on the strait.

Inflation figures for May released on Wednesday showed prices in the US at their highest level since April 2023.

“We’re going to be attacking them [Iran], ‌ attacking them very hard, resuming ‌ bombing,” Mr Trump had told reporters at the White House.

“We hit them hard yesterday, and we’re going to hit them again hard today. Based on the helicopter, I guess we have the right to do that.”

Asked about inflation, which reached 4.2 per cent in May, Mr Trump insisted: “The numbers were great. I love the inflation.”

‘Secret mission’ in Strait of Hormuz

But in what may have been an attempt to reassure oil markets, Mr Trumplater revealed details of what he said was a “secret mission” to help tankers safely transit the Strait of Hormuz.

More than 100 million barrels of oil had passed through the key waterway since May, he said, claiming: “The UNITED STATES OF AMERICA CONTROLS the Strait of Hormuz – NOT Iran.”

Nevertheless, the economic situation raises pressure on the president to find a way out of the Iran war at the same time as the ceasefire appears to be breaking down.

The tit-for-tat exchanges between the US and Iran are threatening to collapse the fragile truce, which has already been strained by repeated clashes since it came into force two months ago.

Tehran launched attacks on US bases in Jordan, Kuwait and Bahrain on Tuesday in retaliation for American strikes around the Strait of Hormuz, responding to the downing of the Apache AH-64.

Mr Trump told Fox News he was considering further strikes because Iranian negotiators were “tapping the United States along”, and threatened to bomb power stations and bridges.

He made the same threat to target civilian infrastructure shortly before the ceasefire came into effect on April 7.

Diplomacy collapses

On Wednesday, Axios reported that Mr Trump had held a meeting in the Situation Room to weigh up new strikes, including powerful attacks that would force Iran to return to peace talks.

Masoud Pezeshkian, the Iranian president, denounced the potential move as a “sign of desperation”.

Earlier on Wednesday, Mr Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform: “Iran is all talk and no action. The Bully of the Middle East is DEAD!!! They’ve taken too long to negotiate a deal that would have been great for them, now they will have to pay the price.”

The same day, Tehran announced it had halted diplomatic efforts with Washington because of repeated ceasefire violations.

Esmaeil Baghaei, a foreign ministry spokesman, accused the US of undermining diplomacy.

“Unfortunately, the United States is damaging this diplomatic process through the contradictory messages it sends, its repeated shifts in positions and demands, and, worst of all, through repeated violations of the ceasefire,” he said.

“Any diplomatic process is damaged by the use of force and by resorting to unlawful actions on the ground.”

Iran sought to characterise the crash of the Apache helicopter as an accident, saying that foreign military forces near Iranian territory were “at constant risk”.

However, Mr Trump said that the US “must, of necessity, respond to this attack”.

Washington later described its retaliatory action against Iran as “self-defence strikes” and a “proportional response to unjustified Iranian aggression”.

Violence soars across region

US Central Command (Centcom) said its fighter jets had struck Iranian air defence systems, ground control stations and surveillance radar sites near the Strait of Hormuz using precision munitions.

Iran’s state broadcaster also claimed that water infrastructure in the south of the country had been bombed, although this has not been independently verified by The Telegraph.

Beyond the tit-for-tat strikes on US and Iranian military bases that threatened to escalate the conflict and destroy the ceasefire, clashes continued across the Middle East.

A tanker caught fire off the coast of Oman on Wednesday morning after it was attacked by the US military.

Centcom said it fired precision munitions into the ship’s engine room after it allegedly failed to comply with instructions linked to the enforcement of a blockade on Iranian oil.

Three Indian crew members were reported missing after the engine room caught fire, Vanguard Tech, the UK maritime security company, reported.

The Settebello, which was trading under the Palau flag, transmitted a distress call and said its engine room had been struck by a missile while operating off Sohar, Oman.

New Delhi summoned Washington’s chargé d’affaires to lodge a “strong protest” over the attack on the tanker, which Centcom said was transporting oil from Iran.

Fighting was also continuing in Lebanon, with Israel and Hezbollah exchanging lethal fire.

Lebanese media said two people had been killed in an Israeli drone strike in the coastal city of Sidon.

Lebanon’s National News Agency said an “enemy drone” targeted a car, “which led to the death of two people who were inside it, and a large fire broke out in it and spread to a number of cars parked in the area”.

Sidon is located about 30 miles from the border with Israel and has not previously been a major flashpoint.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish president, said that Israel’s attacks on Syria and Lebanon posed a global threat and had to be stopped.

“If the Israeli thuggery is not stopped, the consequences will be borne by the entire region and all of humanity,” Mr Erdogan told MPs in parliament.

“Israel must be stopped; this is the duty of humanity and the humanitarian front. History must not be allowed to repeat itself.”

China also called for restraint across the region, saying it was “deeply concerned” about the attacks between Iran and the US.

Lin Jian, the Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, told reporters on Monday: “Various relevant parties should maintain calm and exercise restraint, stop intensifying the conflict and escalating the situation, take concrete measures to ease and cool down tensions.”

[Source: Daily Telegraph]