Middle East crisis live: US military says it’s striking targets in Iran as hostilities flare

Key events

Trump warns of 'much harder' action if Iran retaliates to strikes

Donald Trump has just posted about the strikes on his Truth Social platform.

He said they were “in retaliation” for Iran’s “failed attempt” to lay mines in the strait of Hormuz and for Iran’s (retaliatory) attacks on the US military base in Jordan (which were intercepted).

The US president added that if Iran retaliates against the US’s latest strikes, “they will be hit again at a much harder and higher level, but it will not be the biggest attack of them all, that is waiting in the wings and, when it is over, there will be very little left of Iran.”

That very ominous last part is starkly reminiscent of threats Trump has made in the past that could amount to war crimes if carried out, including threatening numerous times to destroy critical civilian infrastructure like power plants and bridges, threatening to bomb Iran “back to the Stone Ages”, and his now-infamous April threat that “a whole civilization will die tonight” if a deal wasn’t reached.

Here’s the post:

The United States is, as we speak, striking Iranian Targets near the Strait of Hormuz. The strikes are large and powerful, and in retaliation for the Iranians’ failed attempt at adding sea mines to the Strait, which currently has no mines (They have been completely removed or detonated!), 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, but it will not be the biggest attack of them all, that is waiting in the wings and, when it is over, there will be very little left of the Islamic Republic of Iran!

Iran’s state broadcaster said there had been reports of explosions on Qeshm Island, on the northern side of the strait of Hormuz.

The state-linked news agency Nour ‌News said there had been reports of explosions in the port city of Bandar Abbas and in Chabahar, a port on the southern coast.

Iran’s Fars news agency also reported several explosions in the south-eastern city of Konarak.

The six-month-old conflict had recently shifted into an economic standoff fought through sanctions, blockades and economic pressure before the flare-ups over the weekend.

On Monday, Donald Trump asserted that the US and Israeli bombardment has left Iran “a failed nation”, with much of its political leadership killed, its economy staggered by surging inflation and its military devastated.

Still, Trump said that more strikes might be necessary, telling reporters:

That doesn’t mean we won’t smack them. We’ll see what happens.

His comments came after the White House last week signalled that Trump was shelving military measures in favour of a campaign to destroy the Iranian economy by enforcing sanctions.

The Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, told Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, in a bilateral meeting on the margins of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Kyrgyzstan on Monday that continuing the war was not in Iran’s interest, adding he was still ready to implement the memorandum of understanding with the US that Pakistan had mediated in June.

The Iranian currency was under renewed pressure on Monday and the inflationary impact of its rapid depreciation is causing growing concern to MPs.

These latest strikes come after the two sides exchanged fire for the first time in a month over the weekend.

The US military said it had struck rocket launchers on Larak Island in the strait of Hormuz on Sunday, in its first strikes on Iran since July, after it detected the Iranians were planning to deploy fresh mines in the critical waterway.

Tehran responded by launching missiles at US sites in Jordan, which were intercepted, and the United Arab Emirates, which said it had stopped an Iranian drone over its territorial waters.

US president Donald Trump threatened further action on Monday, telling Fox News: “We’re going to hit them hard. There will be a response.”

These strikes, 24 hours after Trump’s comments, are that response.

A reminder that the US is trying to prise open Tehran’s grip on shipping going through the strait of Hormuz, which before the war accounted for a fifth of the world’s seaborne energy supply. Washington claimed that Iranian control over the waterway had been loosened by repeated US attacks on Iranian missile launchers and radars.

Last week Trump claimed the US navy had cleared the strait of mines for the first time since the conflict started on 28 February, a claim the Iranians rejected as lies.

Iranian state TV claimed the military exchanges escalated on Sunday after a tanker caught fire when hitting two Iranian naval mines while attempting to pass through the southern side of the strait close to Oman. Officials later said Iran had targeted three ships trying to navigate the southern route that Tehran says is unauthorised.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) warned that other ships violating ⁠its rules would face ​the ​same fate and ​said compliance with ​its regulations ‌for ​passage ​through the strait was mandatory.

Here’s our report on that from Monday:

US military attacks sites in Iran

The US military has said it is striking targets in Iran over attempted attacks on shipping as hostilities flare after a month.

US Central Command said in an update on X:

Today at 12 p.m. ET, U.S. forces began striking Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) targets in Iran. The strikes follow recent attempted attacks by the IRGC against commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and against American service members deployed to the region.