RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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See the full story · 15 sourcesTEHRAN, Iran — President Donald Trump threatened Monday to forcefully strike Iran after Washington and Tehran exchanged fire for the first time in a month. “We’re going to hit them hard,” Trump told Fox News, according to the broadcaster’s chief foreign correspondent, Trey Yingst. Trump vowed there would be “a response” after Iran retaliated to U.S. strikes with an attack on American bases in Jordan. Trump later told reporters at the White House that the military response would be narrow. “It’s very limited,” he said, noting that many of Iran’s leaders have been killed and that its navy and air force have been destroyed. “That doesn’t mean we won’t smack them,” he added. On Sunday, U.S. forces targeted two rocket launchers on a key island in the Strait of Hormuz. The U.S. strikes were the first known attack by American forces since late July, and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, said several of its “fighters and compatriots” had been killed and injured. It was the first major military escalation in weeks in the war between the U.S. and Iran, which began when American and Israeli forces launched a sweeping assault on Iran in late February, killing its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. U.S. Central Command, or CENTCOM, said on X late Sunday that it had taken “limited” action against IRGC minelaying in the Strait of Hormuz. A U.S. official told NBC News, “Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces were observed preparing to launch rockets with sea mines into Strait of Hormuz.” Last week, Trump said that all mines Iran laid in the strait had been removed or detonated and that Iran had been warned that any vessel seeking to lay new ones would be destroyed. The IRGC vowed “punishment” in response to the U.S. strikes, later announcing it had launched attacks against U.S. military bases in Jordan. Jordan’s military said it intercepted at least eight missiles Monday morning. Iran also launched drones at an air base in the United Arab Emirates, whose Defense Ministry said its air force “engaged” at least one drone over its territorial waters. Iran’s army said it had targeted locations “where helicopters and troops of the child-killing American military” are stationed at the UAE’s Al Minhad air base. The Iranian Foreign Affairs Ministry warned that the country’s forces would “firmly respond as appropriate to any military aggression” in a statement carried by the semiofficial Fars news agency. CENTCOM rejected Tehran’s branding of its attack as an act of “aggression,” saying in its post that “Iran created the threat and the U.S. military eliminated it to protect civilian mariners, commercial shipping, and the free flow of global commerce.” Speaking with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Kyrgyzstan on Monday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said “Iran has never welcomed war,” Fars reported. But the U.S. had not “fulfilled its commitments,” he added, as efforts toward a lasting peace deal between the U.S. and Iran faltered. Larak Island, the site targeted by the U.S. strikes, is a small Iranian island off Bandar Abbas in the Strait of Hormuz, the key trade route through which 20% of the world’s oil passed before the war began. The vital waterway has been largely closed throughout the conflict, with Iran launching a blockade in a move that has sent energy prices soaring, while the U.S. has imposed its own blockade on Iranian ports in response. On Monday, the IRGC said a supertanker caught fire and was “completely stopped after striking two naval mines,” Fars reported. NBC News was not able to independently confirm the report. Trump appeared to threaten the possibility of further action against Iran, posting on Truth Social what appeared to be an AI-generated video showing a military member looking out of an aircraft as what appears to be oil infrastructure explodes. “Kharg Island being blown to smithereens!!!” the video is captioned, accompanied by Trump’s sign-off. Before the war, Kharg Island, which Trump has repeatedly threatened to seize, accounted for more than 90% of Iran’s oil exports. An Iranian energy official dismissed Trump’s apparent threat, telling Fars that the posts were “absurd and the situation on Kharg is calm and stable.” Hamid Bord, CEO of the National Iranian Oil Co., said that oil operations had not stopped and that workers were busy repairing previous damage “without interruption.”
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