US and Iran exchange strikes after US attacks IRGC targets in southern Iran

The US military said it launched waves of sustained attacks on Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) targets along the southern Iranian coast on Tuesday, leading to Tehran launching missile and drone strikes on "military installations" in Jordan, Bahrain and Kuwait, while threatening a wider response.

Tehran's semi-official media said its troops fired missiles and drones in response to US strikes, and explosions were reported over the southern Jordanian city of Aqaba while sirens sounded in Mafraq.

Jordan's Armed Forces said in a statement that they intercepted 13 ballistic missiles that entered the kingdom's airspace, while Kuwait's army issued emergency alerts that it is intercepting an "Iranian aggression".

The IRGC has issued a statement via Iranian media saying that the strikes had "tightened the grip on the Strait of Hormuz" and that the US would "regret" its actions.

Iranian state media claimed that the US first bombed civilian sites along Iran’s southern coast and hit a civilian airport, with explosions heard in the areas of Bandar Abbas, Sirik, Qeshm island, Asaluyeh, Lavan, Jask, Jiroft and other locations.

Tehran claimed that at least four people, including a child, were killed and several wounded when a US strike hit a home where a wedding ceremony was being held in Kuhestak in southern Iran.

Iran’s Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei threatened with "unforgettable lessons for the American enemy" in a post on X.

US Central Command (CENTCOM) said the strikes followed "recent attempted attacks by the IRGC against commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and against American service members deployed to the region."

In a post on his Truth Social platform, US President Donald Trump warned Tehran that if it retaliates for what he called "this very justified attack," Iran will "be hit again at a much harder and higher level."

Trump told Fox News on Tuesday that it notified its Gulf allies before the strikes and that they focused heavily on efforts to undermine radar installations undergoing repairs that had been decimated by earlier US-Israel strikes in the six-month war.

Trump, in a phone call with the network, said the US military had been monitoring Iran’s efforts to rebuild radar systems and waited until the work was almost completed before carrying out the strikes.

Earlier Tuesday, Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said his country was ready to return to a ceasefire agreement brokered with the US in June if Washington was willing to abide by the terms.