The U.S. and Iran traded a new round of attacks Tuesday, with American forces striking Iranian targets around the Strait of Hormuz and Tehran saying it had launched a retaliatory operation targeting U.S. interests across the region.
Explosions were seen over the southern Jordanian city of Aqaba as Iran said it was retaliating for the U.S. strikes, according to the Associated Press. It was not immediately clear what caused the explosions or whether Iranian missiles or drones struck targets there.
Aqaba is on the Red Sea, south of the U.S. bases targeted over the weekend and sits near Jordan’s borders with Israel and Egypt.
The strikes come after President Donald Trump had reportedly been considering a CENTCOM plan for limited attacks aimed at preventing Iran from rebuilding radar and missile capabilities that could be used to target ships in the strait.
CENTCOM said U.S. forces began striking Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps targets in Iran at noon ET after recent attempted attacks on commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and U.S. personnel in the region. The command did not immediately disclose the number or location of targets or what U.S. military assets were involved.
Trump called the strikes “large and powerful” in a Truth Social post Tuesday, saying they were retaliation for Iran’s attempt to add sea mines to the Strait of Hormuz and its missile attack on a U.S. base in Jordan.
Trump also threatened a significantly larger response if Tehran retaliates, saying Iran would be hit “at a much harder and higher level” and warning that an even bigger attack was “waiting in the wings.”
Iran’s state-run Tasnim News Agency reported shortly afterward that the country’s armed forces had launched a “decisive operation” in response to the U.S. strikes and said U.S. bases and interests in the region would be targeted by Iranian missiles and drones.
The escalation threatens to further extend a war Trump once predicted would be over in four weeks, complicating his campaign pledge to end wars as November’s midterm election approaches. Trump’s approval sits at 33%, while just 36% of Americans approve of the Iran war, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released Monday.
The operation marks a new escalation after the U.S. and Iran exchanged fire over the weekend for the first time in roughly a month.
On Sunday, the U.S. military struck rocket launchers on Iran’s Larak Island after CENTCOM said Iranian forces were preparing to fire rockets carrying sea mines into the strait.
Tehran responded by launching missiles at U.S. sites in Jordan that were intercepted. The United Arab Emirates also said it intercepted an Iranian drone over its territorial waters.
Trump threatened further retaliation Monday, telling Fox News, “We’re going to hit them hard. There will be a response.”
The U.S. Embassy in Qatar issued a security alert Tuesday warning of the potential for “unforeseen escalation” and urging Americans in the region to exercise heightened vigilance amid possible flight cancellations, airspace closures and other travel disruptions.
The attacks are the latest flashpoint in the months-long fight between Washington and Tehran over the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most important energy chokepoints. Before the war, roughly a fifth of global oil supplies passed through the waterway, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
