Tehran – The United States military has carried out a fresh wave of strikes against multiple targets across Iran, with President Donald Trump warning that attacks would continue if a deal was not reached by Thursday night.
US Central Command (CENTCOM) confirmed that its forces launched strikes on Iranian military surveillance capabilities, communication systems and air defence sites across Iran. Marine Corps, Air Force and Navy assets fired precision munitions on Iranian targets that CENTCOM said “posed a threat to US forces and international commercial ships transiting regional waters.”
CENTCOM said the attacks began at 5:15 p.m. ET on Wednesday and framed them as a response to what it called “Iran’s unwarranted and continued aggression.” The strikes followed an earlier round launched on Tuesday after Iran downed a US helicopter using a drone. 
Explosions were heard across much of Iran in the early hours of Thursday morning local time, with blasts reported in cities near the capital Tehran including Abyek, Qarchak, Minab, Nazarabad and Karaj. Further south, near the Strait of Hormuz, blasts were heard in Sirik, Bandar Abbas, Qeshm and Kharg Island, a critical oil hub in the Persian Gulf. Explosions were also reported in Shiraz in Fars province.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said the earlier US strikes hit its service facilities, coastal outposts and the area surrounding Bandar Abbas airport near the strait.
Trump, who was in the Situation Room with Vice President JD Vance and US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, told Fox News correspondent Trey Yingst that top Iranian officials had called him to ask him to halt the latest attack. Trump said 49 Tomahawk missiles had been fired and described the situation as “the most violated ceasefire in the history of the world.”
He said the bombing would stop shortly but would resume on Thursday night if a memorandum of understanding was not reached.
The IRGC responded by claiming it had launched retaliatory attacks on 18 targets including an airbase in Bahrain and two in Kuwait. Sirens sounded in Bahrain shortly after, with the country’s Interior Ministry urging citizens and residents to “remain calm and head to the nearest safe place.” Kuwait’s army also confirmed its air defences were engaged with “hostile objects.”
The IRGC also claimed the Strait of Hormuz had been closed, a claim the US military rejected.
