Trump: Iran Is a “Failed Nation” — U.S. Hits More IRGC Targets as Tehran Fires on Jordan

U.S. Central Command said American forces began striking Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps targets in Iran at noon Eastern time Tuesday, after what it described as attempted IRGC attacks on commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and against U.S. troops in the region. The exchange ended a month-long lull in publicly acknowledged strikes and followed Sunday’s attack on two IRGC rocket launchers on Larak Island that CENTCOM said were preparing to fire sea-mine rockets into the strait. President Trump wrote on Truth Social that the Tuesday strikes were “large and powerful” and were retaliation for Iran’s “failed attempt at adding sea mines to the Strait, which currently has no mines,” and for eight missiles fired at a U.S. military base in Jordan that he said were “all successfully knocked down.” He later told Fox News that U.S. forces hit radar systems Tehran had tried to rebuild: “They tried to rebuild their radar because they can’t see anything. We waited until it was almost built and then we hit it.” CENTCOM did not list every aimpoint. Iranian state-affiliated media reported blasts near Bandar Abbas, Konarak, Chabahar, Qeshm, and Sirik. The Associated Press, citing local officials, reported that one strike hit a home hosting a wedding, killing two people and wounding dozens. The IRGC, Iran’s Armed Forces General Staff, and Khatam al-Anbiya headquarters condemned the attacks and vowed a “crushing” response.

Sunday’s Larak strike was the first publicly acknowledged U.S. strike on Iranian forces in weeks. CENTCOM spokesman Tim Hawkins said Guard units were observed preparing to launch rockets carrying sea mines into the waterway after the Navy had finished clearing mines from international transit lanes. CENTCOM called the action “limited, precise” against minelaying forces posing an imminent threat and said Iran “created the threat and the U.S. military eliminated it.” The IRGC reported “martyrdom and injury” among its fighters and answered with ballistic missiles at King Hussein and Al-Azraq air bases in Jordan and a claimed drone attack on Al Minhad Air Base in the United Arab Emirates. Jordan’s armed forces said air defenses intercepted eight missiles that entered Jordanian airspace before they reached populated areas. The UAE Defense Ministry called reports that Al Minhad was hit “unfounded”; Abu Dhabi separately said it intercepted a drone over its territorial waters. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Centre reported Monday evening that a Saudi tanker and a South Korean tanker were struck by unidentified objects minutes apart in the strait. The IRGC Navy separately claimed a supertanker caught fire after hitting mines on what it called an “illegal” southern route. Trump told Fox the U.S. would “hit them hard” and that there would be a response, while saying the renewed fire did not signal a return to full-scale war. In the Oval Office he called the conflict “a relatively little war for us. This is not a big war.” He described Iran as “officially a failed nation without an airforce, a navy or a currency” and, in a later post, as a “failed Nation” whose leaders would face “a much harder and higher level” if they retaliated—“but it will not be the biggest attack of them all, that is waiting in the wings and, when it is over, there will be very little left of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

Trump also posted AI-generated videos on Truth Social with the caption “Kharg Island being blown to smithereens!!!” Kharg handles the bulk of Iran’s oil exports. A U.S. official told Reuters those overnight strikes did not hit Kharg. National Iranian Oil Company chief Hamid Bovard said operations on the island had not stopped and called the posts “laughable.” Vice President JD Vance told reporters the president “likes to switch it up on social media a little bit” and was “sending a message.” Washington has largely held off hitting major Iranian oil and gas infrastructure; Tehran has said such a move would bring attacks on Gulf neighbors. Treasury’s Operation Economic Outcast, including weekly secondary bank sanctions Bessent previewed at the G20 in Asheville, remains the parallel economic track. The war is in its seventh month. Oil rose as markets re-priced Hormuz risk after the first kinetic exchange in weeks.