President Donald Trump warned Wednesday that the U.S. would target Iranian power plants and bridges next week unless Tehran returned to the negotiating table, as the military completed a fresh round of strikes against Iran.
U.S. Central Command said a 90-minute operation wrapped up at 7:30 a.m. ET on Wednesday. The military said it had fired precision munitions at coastal defense installations and sites used to store and launch cruise missiles on Greater Tunb Island. CENTCOM said the operation was intended to reduce Iran's capacity to threaten vessels moving through the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump issued his infrastructure threat during a Fox News interview on Tuesday evening. "Next week it gets really bad for them because next week comes the power plants," he said. "Next week comes the bridges. We're going to knock out all their power plants. We're going to knock out all their bridges unless they get to the table and negotiate." He added that attacks on Iran "will continue until I say enough."
The IRGC announced that it had carried out retaliatory strikes on American military positions in Bahrain, Kuwait, and Jordan, according to Al Jazeera. The IRGC said it inflicted damage on the U.S. Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain and a logistics hub in Kuwait. Jordan's military said its air defenses intercepted three Iranian ballistic missiles. Iranian government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani said more than 30 civilians had been killed in recent U.S. attacks across southern Iran.
Brent crude was trading above $85 a barrel Wednesday as markets remained uneasy about shipping disruptions in the strait.
The escalation follows days of intensifying conflict. Trump abandoned a plan to impose a 20% fee on cargo transiting the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday after Gulf states offered investment commitments, while the U.S. naval blockade on Iranian ports went into effect the same day. The U.S. struck roughly 140 targets in Iran last week after Iranian forces attacked a container ship in the strait, and Trump subsequently declared the ceasefire between Washington and Tehran was "over."
The U.S. also reinstated the Iran naval blockade Monday alongside the now-abandoned toll announcement. Before the current conflict began, the Strait of Hormuz handled roughly a fifth of the world's daily oil and liquefied natural gas trade.