Trump Warns of Further Strikes as Iran Casualties Climb to 18

United States President Donald Trump has threatened additional attacks on Iran, warning that Washington could strike “anytime we want,” as the death toll from the latest US military operations climbed to 18, with at least 108 others wounded.

Trump’s threat on Wednesday followed the most significant exchange of fire between the US and Iran since July. The US military struck cities and areas along Iran’s southern coast, near the blockaded Strait of Hormuz, including a wedding party in the city of Kuhestak.

Iran retaliated with attacks on US bases across the Middle East, including Bahrain, Iraq, and Jordan.

Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump stated, “We hit them very hard last night” and claimed the strikes “took out all of the new equipment that they tried to build along the Strait of Hormuz.”

“It was a very heavy attack last night. And we’re prepared to do another one. And anytime we want,” he said.

Iranian officials confirmed that at least 18 people were killed in the US strikes.

The victims included two children, according to Mohammad-Reza Zafarghandi, Iran’s health minister. One of them was a four-year-old who was killed in the strike on the wedding party in Kuhestak in Sirik county.

At least four people were killed in that strike.

Esmaeil Baghaei, spokesman for Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, described the Kuhestak attack as a “war crime” and rebuked US claims that it does not target civilians.

“The reality is so horrifying that even American propaganda has never dared make the claim [the US military] is making today. Sirik is not a story. The civilians are real. The victims are real,” Baghaei wrote on X.

Iranian media reported that the funeral for the four Kuhestak victims will be held on Thursday.

‘Uncomfortable strategic position’

The six-month war has triggered a surge in oil prices, destabilized the global economy, and posed mounting political challenges for Trump’s Republican Party ahead of November midterm elections in the US.

Only 31 percent of Americans approve of the war, while approximately 63 percent disapprove, according to a poll conducted by the Reuters news agency and the Ipsos polling firm in August. Voters are particularly dissatisfied with high gas prices. Since fighting resumed this weekend, the price of Brent crude oil, the international benchmark, has climbed to approximately $95, representing an increase of more than 30 percent from the start of the war.

Trump’s approval rating has also declined from 40 percent to 33 percent since the conflict began, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling.

On Wednesday, Trump expressed confidence that the renewed military campaign would not last long. He also reiterated his position that the upcoming elections were not a factor in his Iran strategy.

“Number one, I’m not running. My party is running, and I’m going to help my party,” he told reporters in the Oval Office. “But I think my party respects the fact that we’re not allowing Iran to have a nuclear weapon.”

Iran has denied seeking a nuclear weapon.

Tariq Khan, a retired Pakistani lieutenant-general and former commander of the Pakistan Army’s Frontier Corps, observed that the US “now finds itself in an increasingly uncomfortable strategic position in the Iran war.”

“The US has not succeeded in restoring the maritime environment that existed before the war, and is now expending military resources to deal with a problem the war itself helped create,” he told Al Jazeera, referring to Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

The strait was previously a free-flowing international waterway carrying roughly one-fifth of the world’s traded oil before the war. Tehran shut the waterway in response to the US and Israeli strikes on February 18 that initiated the war. Despite repeated US claims that the strait remains open, only a handful of vessels now pass through each day, and Iran continues to target ships attempting the crossing.

On Wednesday, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) reported that two oil tankers had struck mines and were disabled while attempting unauthorized transit. Separately, Saudi shipping firm Bahri reported that two Filipino sailors were killed in an attack on their vessel earlier in the week.

Iran’s Persian Gulf Strait Authority (PGSA), established by Tehran to police the Strait of Hormuz, added 11 more ships to its blacklist for alleged “noncompliance” this week, building on the 45 blacklisted the previous week. The PGSA warned that the vessels will face fines, seizures, or confiscation unless they submit required documentation to Iran before attempting to cross the strait.

Strait of Hormuz

Concurrently, the US has intensified an economic isolation campaign against Iran, threatening to impose massive sanctions on countries that trade with Tehran, while also maintaining its own blockade in the Strait of Hormuz.

On Wednesday, Trump continued to assert that Washington maintained control of the strait, claiming US forces were helping bring “lots of boats out every day with millions of barrels of oil.”

“We are, for the most part, doing it without trouble. Every once in a while they shoot a drone, and we knock it down. We have control, very strong control,” he said.

On Tuesday, he had claimed the US Navy was helping escort approximately 30 ships out of the strait daily. Before the war, approximately 130 ships transited the waterway daily.

Khan, the former Pakistani general, noted that Iran understands it cannot defeat the US through conventional means and is seeking to make the war politically costly for Trump.

“If Trump escalates, Iran can portray America as being drawn deeper into another Middle Eastern war; if he restrains himself, Tehran can claim that American military superiority cannot compel Iran to surrender,” he said.

“Iran does not need a battlefield victory; it needs to remain standing, keep the economic disruption alive, and make the war politically costly for the US. Tehran has to make American victory increasingly unaffordable – militarily, economically, and electorally.”

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