President Trump ordered another wave of airstrikes against Iran Monday, marking the third consecutive night the US military has battered regime targets.
“We’re hitting them very heavy tonight, as you know,” the president told reporters in the Oval Office shortly after US Central Command announced the strikes.
“We have tremendous amounts of ammunition. We have numbers that we haven’t had in years, and we’re hitting them very hard and it’ll continue, and we’ll see what happens. But we’re knocking out all of their offensive capability, and we’re controlling the straits.”
CENTCOM announced Monday’s strikes in a statement posted to X.
“At 4:45 p.m. ET today, US Central Command began launching the third consecutive night of strikes against Iran, at the Commander in Chief’s direction,” read a statement released by the combatant command.
“These strikes will continue imposing a heavy cost on Iranian forces and degrade their ability to attack innocent civilians and commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz,” CENTCOM added.
Explosions rocked several cities along Iran’s Persian Gulf, including Jam, Konarak, Bushehr, Bandar Abbas and Bandar Kangan, according to Iranian state media and unconfirmed reports on social media.
Targets on the islands of Kish, Qeshm and Abu Musa also may have been struck.
US forces finished their mission at 10:15 p.m. ET, according to CENTCOM.
“During the five-hour mission, U.S. forces successfully struck military targets across Iran including Bushehr, Chah Bahar, Jask, Konarak, Abu Musa, and Bandar Abbas to further degrade Iran’s ability to attack commercial shipping,” CENTCOM said in a statement. “CENTCOM forces employed precision munitions against Iranian coastal defense systems, missile and drone sites, and maritime capabilities.”
The combatant command noted the more than 50,000 US service members deployed across the Middle East “remain vigilant, lethal, and ready.”
Trump formally notified Congress on Friday that the US resumed conducting “limited” and “measured” kinetic strikes in Iran on July 7.
During his Oval Office remarks on Monday, Trump reiterated that the US naval blockade of Iran’s ports was reinstated.
“We’re putting the blockade back, and it’s a blockade not for anybody but Iran,” Trump added. “In other words, anybody doing business with Iran can’t go through. Everyone else will be able to go through.”
The president noted that the “combination” of a Naval blockade and military strikes seems to be the most effective way to put pressure on the Iranian regime, which has refused to abide by the terms of a preliminary peace deal struck last month.
Trump further claimed that Washington had a “deal with [Iran] two days ago” but that Tehran backed out.
The president insisted that a negotiated settlement with Iran to end the war is still possible.
On Sunday night, US fighter aircraft, naval vessels, one-way attack aerial drones and one-way attack sea drones hit “dozens of targets at multiple locations,” according to CENTCOM, including Iranian military air-defense systems, coastal radar sites, missile and drone capabilities, and small boats.
Trump teased the latest show of US military might earlier on Monday as he vowed to take control of the Strait of Hormuz.
“We’re taking over the strait. They have nothing. They’ve got nothing,” Trump told “Fox & Friends” when asked about Iran’s claims to have closed the critical waterway.
“So we’re just going to hit them very hard, and we’re going to, we’re going to keep the strait, and we’ll probably run it,” the president later added.
“We’ll become the guardian of the strait. Maybe we’ll call it the guardian angel of the strait, and we should be reimbursed for that … We guarded it for nothing, and now we’re going to guard it — we’re going to get paid for guarding it.”
