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US forces launched strikes on Iran for a third straight night early on Tuesday, as hostilities escalate despite US President Donald Trump saying a deal was “still possible”.
US Central Command wrote on X that its forces “successfully struck military targets across Iran including Bushehr, Chah Bahar, Jask, Konarak, Abu Musa, and Bandar Abbas” in an operation that lasted five hours.
Moments after the military announced the new strikes, Trump called it “another major attack.”
“We’re hitting them very hard. And it’ll continue, and we’ll see what happens,” he told reporters in the Oval Office. “We’re knocking out all of their offensive capability and we’re controlling the straits. We’re putting the blockade back.”
Iran responded by launching strikes on Bahrain as well as two UAE-linked tankers in the Strait of Hormuz.
The United Arab Emirates’ Defence Ministry said early Tuesday that the attack killed one mariner and wounded eight others.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards claimed the attack on the tankers, saying the vessels “ignored repeated warnings.”
They also said they had carried out missile and drone strikes on Bahrain, after the Gulf country urged citizens to take shelter as a siren sounded.
“Several weapons support warehouses, a satellite communications center and the residential building for US forces in Bahrain were targeted,” Iranian state television IRIB quoted the Guards as saying.
Iran says deal is ‘in crisis’
The attacks come as Iran and the US both vie for control of the strait through which a fifth of all crude oil and natural gas once passed in peacetime.
Trump suggested his administration would start charging tolls for ships going through the strait, after previously suggesting that it wouldn’t.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said the US would be known as the “Guardian of the Hormuz Strait” and impose a 20% fee on all shipping
“We’re protecting a very rich portion of the world,” he said. “We’re spending money. And so, what we’ve done is, we are going to be reimbursed for protection.”
Despite the latest escalation, Trump said a deal to end the war was still possible. “Yeah, I think a deal is possible. Sure, I do,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
“We had a deal with them two days ago and then they said ‘Oh we can’t make that deal. We have to negotiate it further.'”
Earlier Monday, Trump told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt that the agreement reached last month was “built to test” Iran, adding that “when you’re dealing with sleazebags (agreements) don’t mean much.”
“They didn’t honour the test,” he said.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said earlier Monday that the June memorandum of understanding that formed the basis for the negotiations and lifted the US blockade was “in crisis.”
Trump formally notified Congress last week that the US had resumed military conflict against Iran, the White House said, giving the Pentagon an additional 60 days to operate in the region without congressional approval.
Additional sources • AP, AFP