Iran says two tankers have hit Hormuz naval mines, attacks regional targets in retaliation to U.S. strikes

Two oil tankers struck naval mines while attempting to transit the Strait of Hormuz, Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on Wednesday, after the Iranian military made retaliatory strikes on U.S. bases in the Middle East. In a statement shared by state media, the influential hardline military group said the vessels had been disabled and forced to disembark their crew after ignoring warnings to take an "illegal route" through the Strait. 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. The latest exchange of military strikes came as the Financial Times published an investigative report claiming Russia was secretly helping Iran to develop advanced supersonic cruise missiles capable of threatening U.S. aircraft carriers and other warships in the region. 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 "treacherous Iranian air strikes today," following an earlier announcement by Bahrain's interior ministry of "an alert of potential threat." 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. Strikes on Sunday 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.