US military says it targeted IRGC sites; Iranian military vows retaliation, warns US will 'regret' new strikes

Middle East tensions spike again as US-Iran cycle of attacks and reprisals resumes

The Strait of Hormuz [Reuters]
The Strait of Hormuz [Reuters]

US forces struck Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps targets inside Iran on Tuesday (local time), and Iran immediately threatened to make the United States "pay a heavy price" — reigniting military tensions across the Middle East after more than a month of relative calm.

US Central Command, which oversees military operations against Iran, announced on X that it "began striking IRGC targets inside Iran starting at noon Eastern time" on Tuesday.

CENTCOM said the strikes were a response to recent IRGC attempts to attack civilian vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz and US service members deployed in the Middle East.

Reports of explosions emerged from multiple locations across southern Iran. Iran's state broadcaster IRIB said blasts were heard in the major port city of Bandar Abbas and on Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz, with additional explosions reported roughly an hour later on Qeshm and Lavan islands.

IRIB also reported that a civilian airport in Jiroft, in southeastern Iran, was struck.

The Iranian military sharply condemned the attacks and immediately vowed retaliation.

IRGC spokesperson Hossein Mohebi warned on X that "harsh punishment awaits the aggressors" and that "America will regret its new attack."

Iran's Khatam al-Anbia Central Headquarters, which coordinates the country's armed forces, issued a statement threatening "a destructive and lethal blow" against "the cowardly and malicious American enemy" for striking Sistan-Baluchestan and Hormozgan provinces, and vowed to "impose a heavy price on the American military enemy."

The statement added that Iran had "repeatedly made clear it will never compromise on the rights of the Iranian people under any circumstances" and that its resolve was "firm," warning that "the enemy state of America will pay a heavy price."

Tuesday's strikes came just two days after US forces hit two IRGC rocket-launcher sites used for laying mines on Larak Island in the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday.

Following those strikes, Iran fired several missiles at two US air bases in Jordan — targeting technical infrastructure, maintenance facilities and fighter jet parking areas at the Muwaffaq Salti and Al-Azraq bases.

Tuesday's US strikes were retaliation for that Iranian response.

President Donald Trump had foreshadowed the move in a phone interview with Fox News on Tuesday, warning that Iran would face a powerful strike.

The exchange marks a resumption of hostilities roughly a month after Trump ordered a halt to US military strikes against Iran on July 24.

With Iran now threatening another round of retaliation, military tensions in the Middle East are expected to escalate further.


mokiya@heraldcorp.com