US strikes Iran in latest tit-for-tat attacks
US forces struck Iran on Tuesday and President Donald Trump vowed a "much harder" response to any counterattacks, as exchanges of fire between the two sides threatened to reignite their smoldering conflict.
Washington hit Iranian targets on Sunday in its first known strikes in several weeks, after which Tehran's forces targeted US troops in Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, and projectiles struck two oil tankers in unclaimed attacks.
More US strikes came on Tuesday, with Iranian state television reporting that explosions were heard in the country's south along the strategic Strait of Hormuz waterway and on an island in the Gulf, and that US forces hit an airport in the southern province of Kerman.
The official IRNA news agency said that "four projectiles hit areas within the counties of Chabahar and Konarak," without specifying whether there was any damage.
Iranian state television reported that several people attending a wedding were wounded by a US attack in the country's south. It added that the US attack hit a "residential area" in Bandar Kuhestak in Sirik county.
US Central Command (CENTCOM) said on X that the strikes followed "recent attempted attacks by (the Guards) against commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and against American service members deployed to the region."
Trump said the "large and powerful" strikes were "in retaliation for the Iranians' failed attempt at adding sea mines to the Strait" and "the Iranians shooting eight missiles, all successfully knocked down, at our 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," he said in a post on his Truth Social platform.
Revolutionary Guards spokesman Hossein Mohebi warned on X that Washington "will regret its new attacks," saying that "severe punishment awaits the aggressors."
Iran's Tasnim news agency later said a "decisive operation by Iran's armed forces in response to the US enemy has begun," and that "US bases and interests in the region are being targeted by Iranian missiles and drones."
- Tankers attacked -
After six months of war, the foes remain at an impasse, with Iran keeping the Strait of Hormuz closed and the United States persisting with a counter-blockade of Iranian ports.
Washington said its forces attacked Iranian rocket launchers on the island of Larak on Sunday to prevent Tehran planting mines in the strait's key shipping lanes.
The Middle East war began in late February with the US and Israeli attacks on Iran that killed its former supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Attacks on commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz, through which one-fifth of world oil supplies flowed before the war, previously led to the collapse of a ceasefire between the United States and Iran.
Greek maritime risk management firm Marisks said Tuesday that two crude tankers were hit by "unknown projectiles" late the previous day.
One of the incidents had been publicized earlier by the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency, which added that no casualties or environmental effects had been reported.
Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian meanwhile vowed Tuesday to match any US move to return to a deal aimed at ending the war.
He also warned that a return by the United States to "a policy of pressure and threats could derail the path of diplomacy."
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