WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - For the second consecutive day, the US military attacked Iran's military surveillance capabilities, communication systems, and air defense sites in the south, calling them 'self-defense strikes.'
Iran responded with strikes targeting US military bases in Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan.
Iran's state media quoted the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as saying that it attacked a US command center in Jordan with ballistic missiles.
It claimed to have destroyed a large number of fighter jets and facilities at the Muwaffaq Salti Airbase.
The militaries of the American allies have reportedly activated air defenses and intercepted Iran's missiles.
The U.S. Central Command intensified attacks Wednesday within hours of President Donald Trump warning that the U.S. forces could resume attacks, blaming slow progress in negotiations to end the war.
CENTCOM confirmed that its forces 'completed additional self-defense strikes against multiple targets in Iran at the Commander in Chief's direction.'
U.S. Marine Corps, Air Force, and Navy assets fired precision munitions on Iranian targets that posed a threat to U.S. forces and international commercial ships transiting regional waters, it said in a press release.
Earlier in the day, Trump said the U.S. has been trying to make a deal with Iran, and that while Iran has gone through the motions of an agreement - has yet to actually commit with both words and deeds.
'I've been working with Iran for a number of months, and they should sign the deal,' Trump said at the White House. 'It's a good deal. It doesn't give them the right to have a nuclear weapon. In fact, it totally prohibits them from ever having a nuclear weapon.'
On Monday, Iran struck and brought down a U.S. helicopter near the Gulf of Oman. The crew from that aircraft has been safely returned. But the U.S. struck back yesterday and will again, the president said.
'We hit them hard yesterday and we're gonna hit them again hard today,' Trump said. 'We'll see what happens with the deal. We were really close to a deal. But they keep tapping us along. They keep playing us for suckers.'
After visiting troops in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth traveled back to the United States to MacDill Air Force Base in Florida for a meeting with U.S. Central Command leadership, where discussion centered on operations planned for Iran.
Hegseth said as many as 100 million barrels of oil have safely transited the Strait Of Hormuz with U.S. protection.
Two efforts are underway in the Arabian Gulf. One is that the U.S. is blocking the movement of vessels that are doing business with Iran. And the second is Project Freedom, where the U.S. is protecting the movement of commercial ships that are not doing business with Iran, he told reporters.
Hegseth said, U.S. Central Command has disabled the Iranian military and taken control of the Strait of Hormuz.
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