The United States has targeted multiple Iranian bases for a second straight day, which has once again escalated the situation across the entire Middle East despite Washington and Tehran signing a peace deal just few days ago, said the US Central Command (CENTCOM) earlier Sunday.ย
The US forces also shared a video on micro-blogging website X (formerly Twitter) that showed fighter aircraft of the American Air Force and Navy striking at least 10 Iranian military targets at multiple locations in and near the Strait of Hormuz for Iran’s drone strike on a container vessel few days back.
The CENTCOM said commercial vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz, considered one of the most critical waterways across the world as nearly one-fifth of global crude transits through here, should remain “vigilant, lethal, and ready”.
“After yesterdayโs U.S. strikes in response to the Iranian attack on M/V Ever Lovely, Iran was given a chance to honor the ceasefire agreement but elected not to when its forces launched a one-way attack drone that hit M/T Kiku this morning at 4:30 a.m. ET,” the CENTCOM statement read.
Following the attack, Trump said Iran “will never learn”, warning of more strikes on the Islamic Republic. Iran will “no longer exist” if the US is once again forced “militarily complete” its job that was “very successfully” started over three months ago, the Republican president said in a post on Truth Social.
But soon after the strikes, Iran threatened the American leadership and said that aggression will be met with “crushing response”. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) also targeted US bases in the Middle East, including the US Fifth Fleet headquarters at Port Salman in Bahrain and the Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait, a move which was widely expected.
Bahrain and Kuwait have denounced Iran’s actions, though.
“The aggressor enemy, for whom violating commitments and breaking agreements are inherent traits, attacked five coastal posts of the Islamic Republic in the early hours of today under the pretext of the IRGC Navyโs action against a violating vessel,” an IRGC statement issued by its Public Relations Office (PRO) read.
The latest back-and-forth strikes have once again created an uncertainty in the Middle East, which has been on a boil since February 28 (the day US and Israel launched its operations against Iran). The two sides recently signed a framework to end hostilities, but these strikes have once again put the entire world, particularly the Gulf, in a spot of bother.ย
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