Iran vows to ‘punish the aggressor today’ after U.S. unleashes ‘heavy wave’ of strikes

Iran vowed to “punish” the United States on Thursday after the American military said it had completed a “heavy wave of strikes” overnight, the latest retaliation for an attack by Tehran on U.S. forces in the Middle East. The renewed fighting shattered a brief period of calm that had seen the two sides engage with a push to revive diplomatic efforts and stave off dramatic new escalation. But President Donald Trump said the U.S. would hit the Islamic Republic hard after its attack on an American base in Jordan. And the powerful Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) signaled the flare-up would not end there, warning early Thursday that “the aggressor will be punished today” following the U.S. strikes. Jordan said it intercepted a new barrage from Iran, while Kuwait said an Iranian strike hit a building belonging to a Chinese company, killing one worker. There were also signs that the war was again expanding and drawing in new countries, raising the stakes for the region and the global economy. After Saudi Arabia joined the U.S. in striking Iran-backed militants, Egypt confirmed Thursday that a drone ignited fires on two natural gas vessels at the port of Damietta. It was not immediately clear who was behind the drone strike — on a U.S.-owned floating storage facility and a Greek-owned tanker — but an attack there by Iran would mark a significant new expansion of the conflict to a key U.S. ally and mediator. It would also highlight the broader risk to the world’s energy supplies from the difficulty in resolving the conflict. Asked if it was Iran during an Oval Office event on Wednesday, Trump said he had been briefed on the incident and that “it’s a little more of the same.” “It’s going to be straightening out,” he added, without expanding on what exactly he meant. “In the meantime, we’re going to be hitting them very hard because it’s our turn to hit them.” Trump also vowed on Wednesday to “beat the f---ing s--- out of” Iran after its Tuesday attack on American forces, according to Fox News, which cited a phone call with the president. Hours later U.S. Central Command, or CENTCOM, said in a post on X it had completed a “heavy wave of strikes against Iran” in response to what it had previously described as an “attempted surprise attack” on American forces. CENTCOM said dozens of targets belonging to the Revolutionary Guard Corps were struck over two hours, including “military command centers, missile and drone facilities, coastal surveillance and defense sites, and maritime capabilities.” Strikes were reported in cities across Iran. Three Revolutionary Guard Corps members were killed in the northwestern Zanjan province. A toddler was among three people killed on the island of Qeshm, in the Strait of Hormuz, the state-owned IRIB news agency reported. The key waterway has become the focal point of the conflict and the main sticking point in peace talks. Some 20% of the world’s oil passed through the key trade route prior to the war, but shipping through Hormuz and along the Bab el-Mandeb Strait in the Red Sea has been slowed by attacks as the U.S. struggles to break Tehran’s stranglehold. Mediators, and Trump, had expressed some optimism about diplomatic efforts after the interim deal between the two sides collapsed into weeks of tit-for-tat strikes. But the new flare-up saw oil prices surge again, with the international benchmark Brent crude oil hovering around $90 a barrel early Thursday. According to MarineTraffic data analyzed by NBC News, a Qatar-managed liquid natural gas (LNG) tanker was able to travel from the Persian Gulf into the Gulf of Oman overnight, transiting the Strait of Hormuz through lanes managed by Iran. The Al Areesh appeared to be the first LNG tanker linked to Qatar to go through the strait since a tanker was struck by a missile at the beginning of July. Semiofficial Fars news agency said the tanker made the journey with Iran’s permission. Four additional ships were traveling through the Iranian route on Thursday, while an Iranian container ship that previously appeared to evade the U.S. blockade when entering the strait from the east made a return trip through the strait and toward the line of U.S. control. The container ship Nora had its signal turned off for part of its journey before it began transmitting again from the Gulf of Oman on Thursday morning. It had traveled into the Persian Gulf on July 19 after docking in China in June. MarineTraffic data indicated that the container ship was laden with cargo, and had a destination set for India. Meanwhile about 59 tankers or cargo ships passed through Bab el-Mandeb in the past roughly 24 hours.