The Trump administration’s military released striking new video of U.S. bombardments along Iran’s coast, as the president called on Iranians to “rise up and fight.”
The footage appeared to show American strikes pounding Iranian targets across roughly 300 miles of coastline near the Strait of Hormuz, while Trump claimed Tehran’s economy was nearing collapse.
“I’m not trying to force Iran to the bargaining table, as ABC Fake News reported,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “I couldn’t care less if they sign a worthless, to them, agreement.”
He added that the U.S. was in a far stronger position, citing what he described as “almost total control of the Hormuz Strait” and saying Iran’s economy was “totally collapsing.” In Trump’s words, Iranian leaders were “just playing out the inevitable.”
The post ended with an unusually direct appeal to the public inside Iran: “When are the Iranian people going to rise up and fight?”
On Tuesday, over a dozen strikes targeted Iranian radar systems and military assets. Iranian state media reported strikes on the country’s oil-rich Qeshm Island, as well as in the southern port cities of Bandar Abbas and Chabahar.
Iran retaliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claiming that it had launched a ballistic missile strike on Camp Titin, a US Marine base in Jordan.
Trump’s latest strikes come after Iranian forces hit two US-backed commercial oil tankers attempting to cross the Persian Gulf earlier this week. For months, Iran has choked off the Strait of Hormuz with explosive suicide drones and sea mines, disrupting the narrow waterway through which one-fifth of the world’s oil normally flows.
Donald Trump called on the Iranian people to rise up against the Islamic regime
The video showed US strikes hammering Iranian targets across a 300-mile stretch of coastline of the Strait of Hormuz as Trump boasted that Tehran’s economy was collapsing.
A fighter jet takes off from a US warship on Tuesday evening
US cruise missiles are launched at Iranian military targets along the Strait of Hormuz
While Iran has continued to harass civilian oil tankers, roughly 50,000 US troops have been deployed across the region to enforce Trump’s naval blockade and squeeze the regime back to the negotiating table.
The US and Iran signed a 14-point ceasefire back in June that had been mediated by Pakistan. Both sides were given 60 days to negotiate an end to the war.
Fighting restarted within weeks, and the deal ran out on August 17 with nothing to replace it.
There are no talks going on now. Trump has said none are planned as refuses to extend the ceasefire.
The White House is demanding that Iran surrender its stockpile of enriched uranium and dismantle its nuclear program. Tehran has refused to make concessions unless the US lifts its naval blockade and allows Iran to control the strait.
Iran claimed that US strikes on Tuesday killed civilians at a wedding taking place at a home in Southern Iran. The Pentagon has denied these reports, adding it does not target civilians during precision strikes.
US forces continued intercepting incoming attacks late into Tuesday night, according to the Washington Post. It is not clear if Iran retaliatory strikes caused any damage to facilities or casualties.
Jordan, which hosts about 4,000 American troops and has repeatedly been targeted by Iran, said its forces confronted 13 ballistic missiles during the barrage. Ten were reportedly destroyed while the other three landed in remote parts of the country.
Fighting restarted within weeks, and the deal ran out on August 17 with nothing to replace it
While Iran has continued to harass civilian oil tankers, roughly 50,000 US troops have been deployed across the region to enforce Trump’s naval blockade and squeeze the regime back to the negotiating table
The war has now dragged on for more than six months since Trump launched Operation Epic Fury that has claimed the lives of 18 US service members
The war has now dragged on for more than six months since Trump launched Operation Epic Fury that has claimed the lives of 18 US service members.
The conflict remains deeply unpopular at home, with approval at just 31 percent as soaring fuel costs pile more pressure on American families.
Brent crude was trading at about $94 a barrel Wednesday morning, and the average price for regular gallon of gas in the US reached $4.12.