U.S.-Iran Updates: U.S. Carries Out New Strikes on Iran after Trump Says “We’re Going to be Hitting them Very Hard”
By Tucker Reals, Khaled Wassef, Duarte Dias
What to know about the Iran war today:
- The U.S. carried out strikes on Iran Thursday morning, hours after President Trump told reporters the U.S. would “be hitting them very hard” in response to new attacks by Iran targeting U.S. forces in the Mideast.
- Hours later, Jordan shot down five missiles launched from Iran, Jordan’s state-run news agency said.
- At least 20 people were killed in joint U.S.-Saudi strikes on Iranian-backed forces in Iraq, an umbrella paramilitary group known as the Popular Mobilization Forces said Wednesday. Central Command said U.S. and Saudi forces conducted strikes late Tuesday on Iranian proxies in Iraq, the first confirmed attacks by a Gulf state during the war.
Pakistan says U.S.-Iran talks “ongoing” on de-escalation, Strait of Hormuz
Pakistan, which has been acting as a mediator between the U.S. and Iran, said Thursday that negotiations between the United States and Iran were “ongoing” despite a flare-up in fighting across the Middle East.
“Negotiations between parties are ongoing, particularly on (the) Strait of Hormuz and to de-escalate,” Pakistani foreign ministry spokesman Tahir Andrabi told reporters in Islamabad.
CBS/AFP
Revolutionary Guard says 2 tankers turned around in Strait of Hormuz
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps said Thursday that two oil tankers attempting to transit the Strait of Hormuz with U.S. support turned back after one of them caught fire.
“Last night, two oil tankers, encouraged by American aircraft, attempted to leave through the unsafe southern route of the Strait of Hormuz,” the Guards said in a statement. “After a major fire broke out on one of them, both vessels quickly turned back.”
Iran has kept control of the strait since the outbreak of the war in the Middle East on Feb. 28.
It has since insisted that ships in the waterway crucial for energy trade should cross through a route designated by Iran after requesting permission and paying service fees.
On Thursday, the powerful Guard reiterated that the strait is “our territory” and “cannot be reopened as long as the excessive rhetoric and threats of American officials and their interference in maritime movements in the region continue.”
Jordan says it intercepted 5 missiles from Iran
Jordan’s air defenses shot down five missiles launched from Iran Thursday morning, the country’s state-run Petra news agency said, hours after the U.S. military announced it had completed “a heavy wave of strikes against Iran” in response to an earlier Iranian missile attack on a U.S. base in Jordan.
No casualties were reported from Jordan’s interception of the missiles, the news agency quoted the spokesman for the country’s armed forces as saying.
The U.S. Central Command said in a social media post that for over two hours, the U.S. had struck “dozens” of targets belonging to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, including military command centers as well as missile and drone facilities, and coastal surveillance and defense sites.
The new strikes came hours after President Trump vowed to hit Iran “very hard” after it targeted a base in Jordan that hosts U.S. troops.
The latest barrage came after the U.S. partnered with Saudi Arabia to strike Iran-backed militias in neighboring Iraq, killing at least 20 fighters and six Iranian advisers on Wednesday.
U.S. wraps up strikes for the night, CENTCOM says
The U.S. concluded Wednesday night’s strikes against Iran at around 10 p.m. ET, U.S. Central Command said.
“CENTCOM assets struck dozens of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) targets in Iran, including military command centers, missile and drone facilities, coastal surveillance and defense sites, and maritime capabilities,” CENTCOM said.
U.S. strikes areas around Qeshm Island, Abadan, Iranian media says
The U.S. military struck locations around Iran’s Qeshm Island and the southwestern city of Abadan, Iranian media reported on Thursday, local time, citing regional authorities.
“A point near Qeshm was attacked by the American enemy military,” said Ahmad Nafisi, the deputy governor of the southern Hormozgan province, according to news agency Mehr.
Qeshm Island is located in the Strait of Hormuz and has been frequently targeted by the U.S. since the war began.
Fars news agency, citing the deputy governor of Khuzestan, said, “Points around Abadan city were attacked by missiles.”
U.S. launches new round of strikes on Iran, CENTCOM says
The U.S. began launching a new round of strikes on Iran around 8 p.m. ET Wednesday, U.S. Central Command said.
“The strikes are a powerful response to yesterday’s attempted Iranian attacks on U.S. forces based in the Middle East,” CENTCOM said.
Wednesday night’s strikes mark the first direct attacks by the U.S. on Iran since last week.
State Dept. announces sanctions targeting alleged scheme to collect fees in Strait of Hormuz
The State Department on Wednesday announced new sanctions on several entities that it alleges are involved in a scheme to extract fees from ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz.
The State Department accused the Persian Gulf Marine Insurance Company and Hormuz Safe Marine Services Authority, which it claims are both backed by the IRGC, of “running coercive ‘insurance’ schemes that extort international shipping transiting the Strait of Hormuz. These entities manufacture risk—including the threat of vessel seizures—and then charge commercial vessels for coverage against dangers created by the regime itself, generating revenue that sustains IRGC operations and Iran’s broader campaign of regional destabilization.”
The department also announced it had designated eight companies “operating vessels that have transported illicit Iranian crude oil and petrochemical products to China and the United Arab Emirates,” alleging those vessels are part of Iran’s shadow fleet.
Trump briefed on drone attack at Egyptian port
President Trump said he’s been briefed on the drone attack at an Egyptian port.
Asked by a reporter in the Oval Office if there was any indication the attack was linked to Iran, Mr. Trump said, “I’ve been briefed. It’s a little more of the same, but it’s going to be straightening out.”
CENTCOM says it’s redirected 20 ships in Iran blockade
The U.S. military’s Central Command said Wednesday it has redirected 20 commercial ships that it accuses of trying to evade its blockade on Iranian ports, up from 12 on Saturday.
U.S. forces have also boarded two ships and disabled two.
President Trump ordered the blockade to restart about two weeks ago.
Meanwhile, transits of the Strait of Hormuz by all ships — both Iranian and non-Iranian — remain extremely limited, amid Iranian threats to strike ships that don’t comply with its rules, according to analytics firm Kpler.
“We’re going to be hitting them very hard,” Trump says
President Trump reiterated that the U.S. would strike back at Iran in retaliation for the latest attack by the country’s Revolutionary Guard.
“We’re going to be hitting them very hard because it’s our turn to hit them,” Mr. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “They know it’s coming, they’re asking us not to do it.”
Drone strikes ignite fires at Egyptian port, maritime security firm says
Drone strikes ignited fires Wednesday on two natural gas vessels at an Egyptian port, a maritime security firm said.
The attacks were on a U.S.-owned floating storage facility and a Greek-owned tanker at Damietta, according to Ambrey, a British maritime security firm.
No injuries were reported from the fires, according to the Egyptian Petroleum Ministry, which gave no information on the cause.
It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the strikes.
Egypt, a close U.S. ally and regional mediator, is one of the countries in the Middle East to have been spared from direct military action during the war. A strike by Iran or its allies, if confirmed, would mark a significant widening of the conflict.
Fed holds interest rates steady, but 3 officials vote for hike
The Federal Reserve said on Wednesday that it is leaving its benchmark interest rate unchanged, a sign policymakers expect inflation to ebb despite higher energy costs due to the war in Iran.
This marks the fifth consecutive time the central bank has kept interest rates in the target range of 3.5% to 3.75%. The last time Fed officials voted to change interest rates was in December 2025, when it reduced its key rate by 0.25 percentage points.
Yet while the Fed voted to stand pat, three of the Federal Open Market Committee’s 12 voting members dissented from the decision. Such disagreement on the rate-setting panel is unusual, suggesting that some Fed officials are inclined to act now to extinguish inflation, according to Wall Street analysts.
Explosion reported at Egyptian port near Suez Canal entrance amid Houthi threat to Red Sea shipping
A British shipping firm reported an explosion Wednesday at an Egyptian commercial port on the Mediterranean Sea, near the mouth of the Suez Canal, which links Europe to the Red Sea and Saudi Arabia’s major oil and gas port of Yanbu.
London-based Inchcape said in a statement that an explosion at Egypt’s Damietta Port “specifically at the LNG [liquefied natural gas] terminal during cargo discharge operations,” had caused a partial closure of the facility, though local authorities responded promptly to bring the situation under control.
“The vessels involved have been safely relocated outside the port area,” the company said, adding that port operations were expected to resume overnight “at other berths and terminals.”
Inchcape’s main office told CBS News it could not provide any further information, and there was no immediate response from its Egypt office.
iStock/Getty Images
Iran’s Houthi allies in Yemen have attacked several ships in the Red Sea recently, after announcing a blockade of Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea shipping operations.
The Ambrey Maritime Security company said Wednesday that at least one drone struck a U.S. LNG storage facility at Damietta, but there was no immediate claim of responsibility by Iran or the Houthis.
If an attack is confirmed, it would be one of the first targeting energy infrastructure to extend beyond the immediate Persian Gulf and Red Sea regions into the Mediterranean since the war with Iran began five months ago.
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