The US military completed a round of strikes early Thursday morning in Iran, which began on Wednesday evening, US Central Command (CENTCOM) confirmed.
A US official told The Jerusalem Post that “Everything depends on Iran’s response. If they continue firing, what happened last night could become a daily or even weekly occurrence. We are prepared.”
"US Central Command forces completed an additional round of strikes against Iran on July 8 to further degrade Iran's ability to attack commercial shipping and innocent civilian mariners in the Strait of Hormuz," CENTCOM said in a statement on X/Twitter.
"CENTCOM forces hit approximately 80 Iranian military targets July 7, including more than 60 Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps small boats, to impose heavy costs for Iran violating the ceasefire by attacking three commercial vessels navigating the Strait of Hormuz."
In the early hours of Thursday morning, shortly after explosions were heard in southern Iran, CENTCOM claimed responsibility for the strikes in a post on X, saying the objective was "to further degrade [Iran's] ability to threaten freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz."
Thursday morning's strikes were greater in number and scope than the night before
Wednesday and Thursday's US strikes against Iran were slated to be greater in number than the ones carried out on Tuesday, a US official told Reuters. The strikes took place shortly after US President Donald Trump declared that the Memorandum of Understanding with Tehran "is over."
Iranian semi-official Mehr News Agency reported that air defenses were activated in southern Iran after explosions were heard in the cities of Bandar Abbas, Sirik, Konarak, and Chabahar.
Iranian state news agency IRNA claimed that shrapnel from the US attacks struck a hospital and hit power lines in Chabahar, with the semi-official Nour News adding that the Iranian armed forces are preparing to launch a "massive attack" on US army bases in the region shortly.
US strikes targeted a maritime traffic control tower
Attacks targeted a maritime traffic control tower and depot in the port city of Chabahar, the IRGC-run Fars News Agency claimed.
The US attacks on Iran were "in retribution for yesterday’s bombing of ships by Iran," Trump said in a post on Truth Social, explaining the targeting of port cities, "If it happens again, it will get much worse!"
In another post on Truth Social, Trump reposted an X post which stated that "US strikes indeed targeted Iranshahr Airport in the southeastern Iranian city of Iranshahr," adding that the airport is "partially utilized by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Aerospace Force."
Local Iranian news reported that the US strikes on Bushehr didn't cause any damage to the nuclear power plant.
The US notified Israeli officials ahead of the attack on Iran, Israel's public broadcaster KAN News reported.