The United States launched a new wave of military attacks against targets in Iran on Wednesday, for the second consecutive day, further escalating the confrontation between the two countries. The U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) announced that the operations were carried out in response to Tehran’s “ongoing and unjustified aggression.” “We are preparing a response,” Iran warned, claiming that it had struck U.S. ships with missiles and drones in the Strait of Hormuz. At the same time, it announced that the Strait of Hormuz would remain closed to all vessels.

However, the U.S. Central Command denies that the Iranians have closed the Strait of Hormuz. “Commercial vessels continue to transit into and out of the Strait of Hormuz tonight,” CENTCOM said in a statement.

Donald Trump spoke to Fox News about the new U.S. attacks on Iran, stressing that Israel did not participate in them at all. The U.S. president also stated that “options for further strikes on Iranian territory remain open.”

“The Iranians asked me to stop the bombings; we will stop soon,” he added. “We’ll turn them to dust if they don’t agree with us tomorrow,” he continued.

At the same time, a Washington official told Fox that U.S. forces continue to strike targets in Iran.

A senior Iranian official told the state broadcaster IRIB that Trump’s claim regarding communication with the Iranian leadership to end tonight’s airstrikes was false. The official described the claim as “a pretext to avoid a war against Iran.”

According to the Iranian news agency ISNA, Trump instructed his aides to deliver the following message to Tehran through Qatari intermediaries:

“These attacks were a response to the incident involving the Iranian drone that nearly killed the crew of the Apache helicopter, and not the beginning of a new full-scale war.”

CENTCOM’s announcement on the beginning and end of the new operations

According to CENTCOM’s official update, the new attacks began at 5:15 p.m. U.S. Eastern Time (12:15 a.m. Greece time), following an order from President Donald Trump.

“U.S. Central Command forces initiated additional defensive strikes against multiple targets in Iran at the direction of the Commander in Chief. The strikes are a response to Iran’s ongoing and unjustified aggression,” the statement said.

The U.S. military command did not provide further details about the targets that were hit or the results of the operations.

Shortly after 4:00 a.m. Thursday, the U.S. military announced that it had completed the latest round of attacks against Iran.

“CENTCOM forces conducted strikes on Iranian military surveillance capabilities, communications systems, and air defense facilities throughout Iran. The U.S. Marine Corps, Air Force, and Navy launched precision munitions against Iranian targets that posed a threat to U.S. forces and international commercial vessels transiting regional waters,” the U.S. Central Command said in a statement.

U.S. targets

Iranian state television reported explosions in Sirik, on Kish Island, in Minab, and in the port city of Bandar Abbas. These areas are located along Iran’s southern coast on the Persian Gulf, where military and naval outposts are present. Residents of Tehran said they heard air-defense sirens from the western part of the government complex. Tasnim, which is affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards, reported that the United States attacked a petrochemical plant in the South Pars gas field, located in the Asaluyeh region. Iran’s Mehr news agency reported new explosions in Bandar Abbas, adding that the blasts were linked to an attack on the eastern part of the city.

A senior U.S. official said that the targets under attack were located in southern Iran and included air-defense systems, radar installations, and drone command-and-control units.

Tehran’s response

The Revolutionary Guards say they intercepted a U.S. F-16 in Iranian airspace over the Persian Gulf, while according to Israeli media, a U.S. warship sustained damage from the impact of Iranian cruise missiles. Iranian state media reported that the Al-Harir air base in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq, used by the United States, came under Iranian missile attack. This is the first report of retaliation by Tehran in response to tonight’s U.S. attacks.

“We will target any ship attempting to pass through the Strait of Hormuz,” the Iranian military headquarters threatened, according to Reuters. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz applies to oil tankers and commercial vessels, the Iranian military clarified.

Meanwhile, the Tasnim news agency reported that the Revolutionary Guards’ navy attacked two ships attempting to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, shortly after the announcement of its closure.

Sirens sounded in Bahrain early Thursday local time, minutes after Iran’s Revolutionary Guards claimed they had launched new attacks targeting U.S. military bases in the Gulf region.

“The siren has sounded… Citizens and residents are urged to remain calm and proceed to the nearest safe location,” Bahrain’s Interior Ministry said in a post on X.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed it launched retaliatory attacks against 18 “important targets,” including an air base in Bahrain and two in Kuwait, according to Iran’s state news agency IRNA.

Pressure on Tehran increases for an agreement

According to Axios, the United States carried out the attacks with the aim of increasing pressure on Tehran to sign an agreement. At the same time, Pentagon officials described the attacks on Iran as an act of “coercive diplomacy,” intended to pressure Tehran into making concessions in negotiations.

Israeli security officials told public broadcaster Kan that Israel is not currently participating in the U.S. attacks on Iran.

According to The New York Times, the prospects for further progress in negotiations have been “significantly reduced,” after the Qatari mediation delegation, which had arrived earlier in Tehran in coordination with Washington, left without achieving any tangible results.

Trump: “We will hit them very hard”

A few hours before the announcement of the new raids, Donald Trump had foreshadowed further military action against Tehran.

Speaking from the Oval Office, the U.S. president said that negotiations with Iran had not made the progress Washington had hoped for.

“We will attack them, we will attack them very hard,” he said.

At the same time, he argued that the downing of a U.S. Apache military helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz on Monday constituted sufficient justification for resuming attacks.

“Based on the helicopter, I think we have the right to do it,” he told reporters.

New threats from Hegseth

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth struck a similar tone, warning that Washington is prepared to intensify operations even further if Tehran does not move toward an agreement.

Speaking outside CENTCOM headquarters in Tampa, Florida, he said U.S. forces may strike “critical facilities” in Iran.

“Central Command will have a lot of work tonight because President Trump said we will hit Iran hard, and we will,” he said.

Hegseth argued that Iran’s leadership still has the opportunity to avoid further escalation through an agreement with the United States, warning, however, that otherwise additional strikes would follow.

Iran’s reaction

For its part, Iran’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Amir Saeid Iravani, rejected the U.S. threats and called on Washington to abandon military pressure.

Speaking before the United Nations Security Council, he emphasized that “no lasting agreement can be achieved through threats, intimidation, or the use of force.”

He also called on Donald Trump to stop repeatedly threatening the use of military force against his country, arguing that the crisis can only be resolved through dialogue and diplomacy.