US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced that it had completed a wave of strikes against Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) targets in Iran early on Wednesday.
According to CENTCOM, the strikes were carried out in retaliation for Iranian attacks on commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and the recent attack on US troops stationed in the region.
“US forces struck Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps targets, including air defense sites, radar systems, maritime assets and facilities, mine-laying capabilities, and communications sites,” CENTCOM said in a post on X/Twitter.
“The strikes follow recent attempted attacks by the IRGC against commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and against American service members.”
Several explosions were heard in the cities of Bandar Abbas, Ahvaz, Aghajari, and Sirik, according to Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting.
Additionally, locations near the cities of Ahvaz and Aghajari were struck by American missiles, IRIB reported, citing the deputy governor of Khuzestan Province.
Following the strikes, electrical power was lost in several parts of Hormozgan Province, it noted. Power has been restored to Qeshm County in Hormozgan, the area’s governor announced on Wednesday morning.
IRGC claims US struck a wedding in Sirik
IRIB claimed that a US airstrike on Sirik hit a wedding, killing four and wounding 63. The United States did not immediately respond to the allegations.
CENTCOM clarified that civilian sites, including the wedding, were not targeted in the strikes, in statements given to Reuters on Wednesday.
“The US military never targets civilians, unlike the Revolutionary Guards,” CENTCOM told Reuters.
Air defenses were also reportedly activated in eastern Tehran, the IRGC-affiliated Tasnim News Agency reported.
The US military attacked two Iranian government tankers during Tuesday’s strikes on Iran, American officials told Axios.
This is the first time that the US has struck an Iranian tanker under a new “tanker-for-tanker” policy rather than to stop a ship violating the naval blockade.
IRGC claims US strikes kill four airmen in Kermanshah, three Basij in Hormuz's Lavan Island
The policy, which Axios said was approved by US President Donald Trump, aims to deter Iranian attacks on tankers traveling through the Strait of Hormuz.
On Wednesday morning, Iran claimed that four personnel from the IRGC’s air force were killed in a US strike in Kermanshah, in the west of the country, state media reported.
The terror group also claimed that US strikes killed three members of its Basij paramilitary on Lavan Island in the strait.
Trump confirms strikes, says they are 'very justified'
Trump later confirmed the strikes in a post on Truth Social, echoing CENTCOM’s reasoning: “The United States is, as we speak, striking Iranian Targets near the Strait of Hormuz.
“The strikes are large and powerful, and in retaliation for the Iranians’ failed attempt at adding sea mines to the strait, which currently has no mines (They have been completely removed or detonated!), and the Iranians shooting eight missiles, all successfully knocked down, at our Military Base in Jordan.”
Trump threatened Iran that, should Iran respond to the “very justified attack,” it will be hit “again at a much harder and higher level, 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!”
Iran will respond to the newest wave of US strikes with an attack “several times larger,” Tasnim reported on Tuesday night, citing a senior Iranian military source.
In a statement shared by Tasnim, the General Staff of Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters stated that it would “deliver crushing and devastating blows to the despicable and malevolent American enemy.”
“The more the terrorist US military persists in its malign activities in the region, the heavier the losses it will be forced to bear,” it added.
“We have repeatedly declared, and are resolved, that under no circumstances will we yield on the rights of the heroic Iranian nation, and we will impose a heavy cost on the American enemy.”
Iran's foreign ministry responds to US strikes
“The United States’ catalog of atrocities against the nation of Iran is now complete: a residential home in Kuhestak, #Sirik, was brutally attacked tonight while families were celebrating a wedding,” Esmaeil Baghaei, spokesperson for Iran’s foreign ministry, said in a post on X.
“More than 50 innocent men, women, and children were martyred or wounded. This cruelty cannot be separated from the chain of atrocities that preceded it in #Minab, #Lamerd, Qeshm and elsewhere nor from the strikes on military targets that were dressed in deceptive justifications,” Baghaei added.
“More dangerous than the bomb itself is the normalization of bombing; and more dangerous than silence is the conversion of silence into legitimacy,” he wrote. “Iran will respond to these savage crimes with firmness. Turning a blind eye to injustice does not contain it; it only emboldens the perpetrators.”
US strikes Iranian launchers on Larak Island
On Sunday, the US launched its first strikes against Iran in weeks, targeting two launchers on Larak Island after IRGC forces were identified as preparing the launchers to fire toward the strait.
In response, Iran launched several missiles at US troops and military assets stationed in Jordan.
Trump confirmed during a Monday phone call with Fox News’s Trey Yingst that all but one were intercepted by US air defense systems and that nothing of importance was hit during the attack.
Trump vowed that the United States would “hit [Iran] hard” in retaliation for its attempt to target US troops.