US strikes Iran with 49 Tomahawk missiles; Iran hits 18 American bases

US military strikes on Iran entered a second consecutive day Wednesday local time, pushing tensions between the two countries to a breaking point. American forces carried out additional strikes across Iran, while Tehran responded with retaliatory attacks and announced a full closure of the Strait of Hormuz, bringing the fragile truce to a critical juncture.

CENTCOM announced on X, formerly Twitter, that it "initiated additional self-defense strikes against multiple targets inside Iran" at 5:15 p.m. EDT Thursday — 6:15 a.m. Korean Standard Time Thursday. The command described the strikes as "a response to Iran's unjustified and ongoing provocations" but declined to identify the specific facilities or locations targeted.

Fox News correspondent Trey Yingst reported that President Donald Trump said in a phone interview with him that US fighter jets used 49 Tomahawk missiles to strike targets near Tehran and elsewhere in Iran. Trump told Yingst that "we hit them very hard tonight" and that "the attack was vicious and violent."

Trump also said in the phone interview that he had personally spoken with an Iranian official, who asked him to halt the airstrikes.

The additional strikes came roughly five hours after Trump told reporters at the White House that he would "hit Iran again, harder, on Thursday." Trump said he was "very close to a deal" but that Iran "keeps stalling," expressing frustration with Tehran's approach to negotiations.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, speaking to reporters the same day at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida, said, "If we have to negotiate with bombs, we will negotiate with bombs — and we're better at that than any country in the world." His remarks made clear that the continued strikes were also intended to pressure Iran into agreeing to an end-of-war deal.

Iran struck back immediately. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps launched attacks on 18 US military bases across the Middle East, according to Reuters and other international media. For the second straight day, Iran fired missiles and drones at the US Navy's 5th Fleet base in Bahrain. Iran also said it struck a military radar at Harir Air Base in northern Iraq.

The Iranian military said the operation was carried out "in response to recent US airstrikes on southern Iran" and emphasized that its forces, "alongside other military organizations, remain ready to continue responding to what they have defined as the aggressor enemy." Iran's military also said it would continue operations until it determined that its response to what it called acts of aggression had been sufficient and its objectives achieved.

Iran also took the drastic step of fully closing the Strait of Hormuz. In a statement Thursday, the Khatam al-Anbia Central Headquarters — which commands Iran's unified military — declared that "any vessel attempting to transit the strait will be a target for fire," announcing a ban on all ship traffic including oil tankers and commercial vessels. Iranian media reported that two ships violating the ban were fired upon.

Iran has maintained a blockade and control over the Strait of Hormuz since the conflict began. Even as the US military launched a counter-blockade against vessels traveling to and from Iran, some commercial ships had continued to transit the strait during the recent end-of-war negotiations. Thursday's announcement signals that Iran intends to dramatically tighten enforcement of the closure going forward.

The relentless exchange of strikes has pushed the truce between the two countries to the brink of collapse. The US and Iran had been observing a ceasefire since April 7 and conducting end-of-war negotiations, and despite sporadic armed conflict in recent weeks, both sides had maintained that the truce remained in effect. There are now growing concerns that prospects for a peace deal may also be slipping away. By Kim Young-chul