Donald Trump has threatened that Iran “will no longer exist” after the United States launched fresh strikes on Iranian military sites, hours after a Panama-flagged tanker was hit by an Iranian drone in the Strait of Hormuz. “United States aircraft just struck Iranian missile and drone storage locations, and coastal radar sites, for violating the Cease Fire Agreement, AGAIN!” the US president wrote on his Truth Social account on Saturday night. “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. If that happens, the Islamic Republic of Iran will no longer exist!”
The strikes – ordered by Trump and confirmed by US Central Command (CENTCOM) – targeted ten locations inside Iran. “US military aircraft targeted Iranian military surveillance infrastructure, communication systems, air defense sites, drone storage facilities, and minelayer capabilities,” CENTCOM said in a statement. The attacks came in “direct response to continued Iranian aggression against commercial shipping”, it added. “Iran was given a chance to honor the ceasefire agreement but elected not to.”
“Trump threatens Iran 'will no longer exist' after US strikes following Iranian drone attack on a Panama-flagged tanker in the Strait of Hormuz.”
Within hours, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced it had launched joint missile and drone strikes on US military sites in Kuwait and Bahrain. Kuwait’s army said its air defences were responding to “hostile” attacks, while sirens sounded in Bahrain. A US official confirmed the attacks but said there were no reported American casualties or major damage. The IRGC threatened that the US strikes “will result in the complete halt of all diplomatic processes”, according to state-run Press TV, adding that American bases in the region “will experience hell in the coming days”.
The escalation follows a similar attack on a cargo ship on Thursday that triggered the latest cycle of retaliation. The US launched strikes inside Iran after that incident, prompting Tehran to attack a US base in Bahrain. On Saturday, the IRGC also targeted the Ali al-Salam base in Kuwait and Salman Port in Bahrain. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations said a tanker was hit on Saturday but did not identify the attacker. Iranian state television reported that the Revolutionary Guards had fired “warning shots” at ships using channels not approved by the regime.
The Strait of Hormuz – a 13-mile waterway through which about a fifth of global oil supplies passed before the war – remains at the centre of the confrontation. The US has encouraged tankers to sail close to Oman, but Tehran is ordering vessels to pass closer to its coast, where they can be made to pay fees. Iran is seeking to formalise control of the channel, which drone and missile fire effectively shut to tankers during the three-and-a-half-month conflict that ended less than two weeks ago with a 14-point interim agreement. As explosions were reported in the southern Iranian town of Sirik, the IRGC declared: “America’s blind shots at Sirik will not resolve our dominance over the Strait of Hormuz. But our shots at violators will remind the rest of the vessels of the clear passage route.”