The United States Central Command (CENTCOM) announced this Monday a new series of bombings on Iranian territory, thus continuing the third night of consecutive attacks after US President Donald Trump warned that they would "hit" Tehran hard during the early morning.
"At 4:45 AM (10:45 AM peninsular time), US Central Command began launching, for the third consecutive night, attacks against Iran by order of the commander-in-chief. These attacks will continue to impose a high cost on Iranian forces and degrade their ability to attack innocent civilians and commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz," the military command stated in a brief note.
According to CENTCOM, US forces have "successfully" hit military facilities located in Bushehr, Chah Bahar, Jask, Konarak, Abu Musa, and Bandar Abbas, with the aim of "further diminishing Iran's ability to attack commercial shipping."
For this offensive, Central Command units used precision-guided munitions against Iranian coastal defense systems, missile sites, and drones, as well as against naval assets of the Islamic Republic, in an operation that, they specified, lasted about five hours.
The attacks occurred shortly after the White House tenant declared in an interview with the conservative channel Salem News Channel that the United States would "hit" Iran "very hard" on Monday night and also throughout Tuesday.
"We are going to hit them very hard tonight and we are going to hit them hard tomorrow and there is not a damn thing they can do about it. They have nothing. They can't do anything but talk big. I've gotten to know them and they are totally crazy," he stated.
Subsequently, the Republican tycoon insisted from the Oval Office, where he reiterated the promise of "another very important attack" tonight against Iran, that Tehran has violated "probably about ten times" the agreement reached with Washington, a provisional peace document announced in mid-June in which both parties agreed to the immediate cessation of military actions.
"They want to reach an agreement. They have returned to the table. We reached an agreement two days ago and they want to reach an agreement. They have been negotiating for 47 years, but no one has ever attacked them militarily," Trump stressed, assuring that US forces are "hitting the Islamic Republic very hard."
The Iranian Army reported late Monday that its units had launched drone and missile attacks against strategic US targets in Kuwait, and also claimed responsibility for launching cruise missiles against an "American enemy ship."
On the other hand, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard announced shortly before that its aerospace defenses had shot down an American MQ1 drone in the Strait of Hormuz, according to the state agency IRNA.
In parallel, Iranian media have reported explosions on the islands of Kish, Qeshm, and Abu Musa, as well as in the city of Bandar Abbas, the main Iranian port in the Strait of Hormuz area.
Meanwhile, the deputy director of security and law enforcement for Khuzestan province, Valiollah Hayati, explained, in statements disseminated by the Mehr agency, that several areas of the Omidiyeh district, in the southwest of the country, have been hit by "projectiles from the American enemy."
"According to the initial assessments of the situation in the affected areas, so far there are four injured in this incident and relief efforts are underway," added the provincial official.