Iran has responded to fresh American strikes with attacks of their own, hitting U.S. targets across the Middle East, including military bases in Jordan, Bahrain and Kuwait. The attacks were in response to the U.S. launching retaliatory strikes against Iran after U.S. President Donald Trump said Tehran shot down an American Apache helicopter that was patrolling the Strait of Hormuz. Washington claims an Iranian drone hit the helicopter, causing it to crash.
When it comes to ongoing talks to end the Middle East conflict, Iran said it would need to assess the situation in light of the fresh strikes. Trump had previously said the two countries were in the “final throes” of what will be a “very good deal” to end the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran, U.S. must move beyond ‘neither war nor peace’
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said his country and the U.S. need to move beyond “this state of neither war nor peace,” semi-official state news agency Mehr reported, per CNN. Pezeshkian said that ex-Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei “repeatedly emphasized that the issue of ‘neither war nor peace’ had to be resolved,” hinting that the only way to move past the current phase is through negotiation.
Trump says Iran will ‘pay the price’
Trump took to Truth Social on Wednesday morning to restate claims that Iran’s military was a “complete and total mess” and that its air force and navy “doesn’t even exist anymore.” “They have been completely defeated. Iran is all talk and no action. The Bully of the Middle East is DEAD!!!,” he said. “They’ve taken too long to negotiate a deal that would have been great for them, now they will have to pay the price!!!”
U.S. military says Iran strikes over for now
U.S. Central Command is claiming the retaliatory strikes against Iran over the down helicopter are over. In a statement, CENTCOM said its forces “struck Iranian air defence, ground control stations, and surveillance radar sites near the Strait of Hormuz with precision munitions from U.S. Air Force and Navy fighter jets.” “The operation was a proportional response to recent attacks on U.S. forces and international commercial ships transiting regional waters,” CENTCOM noted. “U.S. forces remain vigilant and postured to defend against unjustified Iranian aggression.”
Heavy strikes in Lebanon between Israel, Hezbollah
A number of deaths were reported early Wednesday morning after Israel hit Hezbollah forces with air strikes around the city of Tyre in Lebanon. Missiles targeted the town of Tayr, while another strike hit Palestinian refugee camp al-Bas, Al Jazeera reported. Heavy fighting continued overnight Tuesday into Wednesday between Hezbollah and Israeli forces. Hezbollah attacked Israeli soldiers in the town of Bayada, while the Lebanese militants also attacked troops in the town of Khiam. Israel also intensified its attacks on Niha, a town north of the Litani River.
Iran says more ‘devastating’ attacks if U.S. attacks again
The Iranian military has targeted a number of U.S. bases in the Middle East in response to American retaliatory strikes after President Trump said an Apache helicopter was shot down by Tehran, according to Khatam al-Anbiya, the operational headquarters of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said Wednesday morning. The attacks launched were “in response to the aggression of America’s terrorist military against areas in southern Iran under the false pretext of its helicopter crash,” said Khatam al-Anbiya, per NBC News. Iran has not claimed responsibility for shooting down the U.S. helicopter. Khatam al-Anbiya vowed there would be more “devastating and more wide-ranging strikes” to follow if U.S. military continued to strike Iran.
