The US military launched a new barrage of strikes on Iran on Sunday evening to “continue degrading” Tehran’s ability to attack commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz. 

President Trump directed the US Central Command forces to begin the fresh round of strikes around 5 p.m. ET to “hold Iranian forces accountable,” CENTCOM announced in a statement on X. 

There is expected to be a “bigger” wave of US attacks on Iranian military targets on Sunday night than the strikes carried out earlier in the day, a US official told the New York Times.

Early reports from Iran’s state media indicated that among the targets of the strikes was a telecommunications tower near the village of Tahroi in Sirik, Hormozgan Province, which borders the Strait of Hormuz, the outlet reported.

The strikes follow an intense bombing campaign led by US forces on 140 targets in the Islamic Republic late Saturday, after Iran attacked a commercial vessel and declared the key oil choke point closed.

The US on Saturday pounded targets including missile and drone sites, naval assets, ammunition storage facilities, communication networks, and surveillance locations, CENTCOM said in a previous statement. 

After the round of strikes, Trump insisted the Strait of Hormuz was open — contradicting Tehran’s warnings that the vital route remains closed. 

“Yeah, it’s open. We bombed the hell out of them last night,” Trump told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

In response to the American airstrikes, Iran launched a wide-scale assault against American facilities across the Middle East — escalating a pattern of attacks between the nations and leaving negotiations to end the war on the brink of collapse.

The IRGC said it destroyed a command-and-control center and drone hangars in Jordan, targeted a radar site in Kuwait, attacked aircraft carrier support and refueling platforms in Oman, and struck a jet maintenance center and command base in Qatar.

Other attacks and missile interceptions were reported in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, where the US houses military bases.

Iran and the US have nearly reached the halfway point of the 60 days of their interim deal aimed at reaching a permanent end to the war that began in late February.

Iran’s chief negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, vowed that the attacks would persist if the US continued to undermine the country’s control over the economically vital waterway, which oversees 20% of the world’s oil transport.

“The era of one-sided deals is OVER. We told you: keep your word or pay the price. Reality is knocking,” Ghalibaf wrote X.

With Post Wires