The US military carried out another wave of strikes on Iran on Wednesday, hours after President Donald Trump said that an interim agreement to end the war was “over”.
Iranian state media reported explosions in the port city of Bandar Abbas on the strait of Hormuz; in Sirik, another southern coastal city; and the south-western Bushehr province.
US Central Command confirmed the strikes, posting on X: “At the direction of the Commander in Chief, U.S. Central Command forces have started conducting additional strikes against Iran to further degrade their ability to threaten freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz.
“The United States is holding Iran accountable for recent unjustified aggression against commercial shipping and civilian crews freely navigating a vital international waterway.”
The action comes a day after the US hit a variety of military sites and port facilities after Iran’s targeting of several merchant vessels off the coast of Oman.
Earlier at the Nato summit in Ankara, Trump said that the US would “probably hit [Iran] hard again tonight”, and later added the latest strikes would not result in “long-term” military action.
“Anything that happens is going to happen very fast,” Trump said, though he also suggested the US military might “just finish the job”.
Speaking on the sidelines of the summit, the US president said the strikes are continued retaliation for Iranian attacks on commercial ships in the strait of Hormuz.
“They are behaving very badly,” he said, accusing the country of launching drones and a missile at ships.
Iran has asserted that the interim ceasefire deal gives it the right to manage traffic through the strait.
Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, a key negotiator in talks seeking a permanent end to the war, wrote on X: “The era of bullying and extortion is over. It leads nowhere. We don’t fold.”
