The Pentagon announced that it hit dozens of Iranian military sites Wednesday night, marking the second consecutive day of strikes, shortly after President Trump declared the three‑week cease‑fire between the two nations effectively over.
Iranian state media reported hearing explosions in at least three port cities along the country’s southeastern coast.
U.S. Central Command reported that American forces struck roughly 90 Iranian military targets, including air‑defense systems, drone and missile storage sites, and coastal logistics infrastructure. Over the past two days, the United States has struck about 170 targets—roughly 15 times the number hit in the last retaliatory strikes in late June.
Earlier on Wednesday, Central Command stated the operation aimed to weaken Iran’s capacity to threaten vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial shipping lane for global energy supplies and a focal point of the ongoing conflict.
The strikes were framed as retaliation for recent unjustified aggression against commercial shipping and civilian crews, according to Central Command.
President Trump said earlier Wednesday that while the United States would likely strike Iran “hard,” he did not anticipate a return to full‑scale war. “I don’t think it’s going to start again,” he told reporters at a NATO summit in Turkey. “I think it’s going to go very quickly.”
Later that day, however, he posted on social media that if Iran attacked ships again, “it will get much worse!”
Speaking aboard Air Force One en route back to the United States from the summit, the president asserted that Iran still sought a deal despite the renewed hostilities.
“They called a little while ago. They want to make a deal so badly,” he said. “I just don’t know if they’re worthy of making a deal. I don’t know that they’re going to honor the deal.”
Iranian officials have not commented on any new negotiations.
Even before these strikes, the temporary truce in the four‑month U.S.–Iran conflict was already teetering on collapse, as each side accused the other of repeated violations of the agreement’s terms.
On Tuesday, the United States launched airstrikes against more than 80 Iranian targets in retaliation for what the Pentagon described as Iranian attacks on three commercial vessels—a Saudi oil tanker and a Qatari ship carrying liquefied natural gas.
The strikes targeted Iranian air‑defense systems, command and control networks, coastal radar installations, anti‑ship missile capabilities, and over 60 small boats of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, according to Central Command.
The Tuesday strikes followed hours after the Trump administration revoked a waiver that had permitted the global sale of Iranian oil.
Tehran has not acknowledged responsibility for the shipping attacks. In response to the U.S. strikes and the re‑imposition of oil‑sale sanctions, Iranian officials announced in several statements that the United States had breached the June 18 agreement aimed at ending the conflict.
Negotiations between Iran and the United States have been paused pending the conclusion of the multiday funeral ceremonies for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader who was killed on the first day of the war.
While the United States and Iran have agreed to restore access to the strait, with President Trump declaring the waterway open to unrestricted navigation, the preliminary accord lacks specific implementation details and places the burden on Iran to permit the long‑blocked traffic to pass. Iran insists commercial ships should navigate near its coastline within a channel under its control, though many vessels are relying on U.S. assistance to take routes near the Omani coast.
“What we’re seeing now is Iran, and more specifically the I.R.G.C., attempting to assert control over the strait and declare that control as a sovereign right,” said Kevin Donegan, a retired Navy vice admiral and former top U.S. Navy commander in the Middle East.
“That’s the main card they have to play, and as a result we can expect they will continue to try to disrupt any ship traffic that uses routes different from the ones they have published,” Admiral Donegan added.
Erica L. Green contributed reporting.