US launches strikes on Iran following ‘attempted attacks in Strait’

American forces resumed strikes against Iran on Tuesday, US Central Command has said in a statement.

It accused the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) of “recent attempted attacks” against commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and “American service members deployed to the region”.

Shortly afterwards Donald Trump warned that Iran would be hit again at “a much harder and higher level” if it retaliated.

The IRGC said the US would regret the strikes and Iranian news agencies reported that retaliatory missile and drone attacks on “US bases and interests in the region” had begun.

The attack follows the first known US strikes on Iran since late July earlier this week, when forces attacked two rocket launchers on Larak Island in the Strait. Tehran retaliated by firing missiles at air bases in Jordan and a drone at the UAE.

On Tuesday Centcom said US forces had begun striking IRGC targets at 12:00 ET (16:00 GMT).

A regional official told state TV that a strike near Sirik in southern Iran had killed two people and wounded several at a wedding party.

Other reports said projectiles had hit the areas of Chabahar and Konarak and an airport in Jiroft, and that explosions were heard in Qeshm island and Bandar Abbas.

Trump said Tuesday’s “large and powerful” strikes were a response to Iran’s targeting of a US military base in Jordan, adding the country had “failed” at adding sea mines to the Strait.

He also threatened that a much larger-scale attack was “waiting in the wings”.