US and Iran Exchange Strikes Amid Escalating Regional Tensions

President Donald Trump said he was "not trying to force Iran to the bargaining table," as U.S. forces completed a fresh round of strikes against the Middle Eastern country on Tuesday stateside.

In a Truth Social post, Trump reiterated that the U.S. has "almost total control" over the Strait of Hormuz, while adding that Tehran's economy was collapsing.

He said that Iran was just "playing out the inevitable" and asked "When are the Iranian people going to rise up and fight?"

In a post on X, the U.S. Central Command said that it struck air defense and communications sites, and radar systems in Iran, in retaliation against the "recent attempted attacks" by the country against commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and against American service members.

Tehran has responded to American strikes, targeting U.S. ally Jordan. The country's armed forces said that it was targeted by a missile attack that originated from Iranian territory.

A spokesperson for Jordan's armed forces said on X that 10 of 13 missiles were intercepted by the country's air defense systems, with the three fell in remote areas. No injuries or deaths were reported.

Bahrain's armed forces said on Instagram Wednesday that they had intercepted and destroyed a number of "treacherous Iranian air strikes today," following an earlier announcement by Bahrain's interior ministry of "an alert of potential threat."

Oil prices continued to rise in Asia trading Wednesday following the strikes, after international benchmark Brent rose 4.5% to $94.52 a barrel on Tuesday, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures added about 5% to $90.03 per barrel, hitting levels not seen since July 24.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in an interview with Fox Business Tuesday that the Strait of Hormuz will become a "worthless piece of water" in two years, arguing that oil will instead flow across land pipelines and bypass the Strait.

Iranian forces on Monday stateside hit a U.S. base in Jordan after American forces attacked rocket launchers on Iran's Larak Island the day before. Washington claimed that the launchers were preparing to fire rockets carrying sea mines into the Hormuz Strait.

The Sunday strikes were the first time that the U.S. and Iran traded attacks in about a month, and after the Trump administration said it was launching an "economic D-Day" on Tehran's backers.