Explosions were heard tonight in several locations in southern Iran as the US military launched more strikes against the country.
The attacks come following a warning from President Donald Trump, who vowed to forcefully respond to Iran’s attempted missile attack a day earlier on US forces in the Middle East.
Here’s what else you should know:
- Other Trump comments: During an interview with Fox News this morning, the US president said, “We are going to beat the f**king sh*t out of them,” after the US military intercepted what it described as a “surprise attack.” Separately, Trump said that he would be “quite disappointed” with President Xi Jinping of China if he provided weapons to Tehran.
- Iran’s attack: On Tuesday, US Central Command said it intercepted all the Iranian missiles fired toward US forces. The attempted strike was a departure from the usual pattern in the tit-for-tat attacks, which have seen Iran responding to US strikes, and appeared to demonstrate Tehran’s willingness to restart the hostilities.
- US-Saudi strikes: Separately, US Central Command said Saudi Arabian forces joined strikes against the Iran-allied Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) in Iraq. The PMF said at least 20 people were killed and four members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp were killed in the Wednesday strikes, according to a provincial Iranian official.
- Strait of Hormuz update: Vessel traffic through two critical shipping chokepoints remains heavily depressed amid US-Iran tensions and threats to trade in the region.
CNN’s Christian Sierra, Kevin Liptak, Aqeel Najim, Nechirvan Mando, Mohammed Tawfeeq and Avery Schmitz contributed reporting.
