Trump threatens more strikes as death toll in Iran rises to 18

As the death toll from the latest US strikes climbed to 18, with at least 108 others wounded, united States President Donald Trump has threatened more attacks on Iran, warning that Washington could hit Iran "anytime we want".

Key points

• Trump's approval rating has additionally fallen from 40 percent to 33 percent since the conflict began, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling.
• Iran retaliated with attacks on US bases throughout the Middle East, including Bahrain, Iraq and Jordan.
• On Wednesday, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) remarked two oil tankers had struck mines and were disabled while attempting an unauthorised transit.
• The victims included two children, according to Mohammad-Reza Zafarghandi, Iran's health minister.
• Trump's threat on Wednesday came after the US and Iran exchanged their biggest barrage since July.

Trump's threat on Wednesday came after the US and Iran exchanged their biggest barrage since July. The US military struck cities and areas along Iran's southern coast, near the blockaded Strait of Hormuz, including a wedding party in the city of Kuhestak.

Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump remarked, "We hit them very hard last night" and that the strikes "took out all of the new equipment that they tried to build along the Strait of Hormuz".

"It was a particularly heavy attack last night. And we're prepared to do another one. And anytime we want, " he remarked.

Iranian authorities stated at least 18 individuals were killed in the US strikes.

For context, the victims included two children, according to Mohammad-Reza Zafarghandi, Iran's health minister. One of them was a four-year-old who was killed in the strike on the wedding party in Kuhestak in Sirik county. At least four individuals were killed in that strike.

Esmaeil Baghaei, the spokesman for Iran's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, described the Kuhestak attack as a "war crime" and hit back at US claims that it does not target civilians.

"The reality is so horrifying that even American propaganda has never dared create the claim is making today. Sirik is not a story. The civilians are real. The victims are real", Baghaei wrote on X.

Iranian media remarked the funeral for the four Kuhestak victims will be held on Thursday.

Notably, the six-month war has led to a spike in oil rates, roiled the global economy and posed increasing political difficulties for Trump's Republican Party ahead of November midterm elections in the US.

While some 63 percent disapprove, according to a poll by the Reuters news agency and the Ipsos polling firm in August, only 31 percent of Americans approve of the war. Voters are particularly unhappy regarding high gas costs. Since the fighting resumed this weekend, the cost of Brent crude oil, the international standard, has climbed to concerning $95, up more than 30 percent from the start of the war.

On Wednesday, Trump remarked he did not think the renewed military campaign ⁠would last long. He additionally reiterated his position that the upcoming elections were not a factor in his Iran strategy.

"Number one, I'm not running. My party is running, and I'm going to support my party, " he stated to journalists in the Oval Office. "But I think my party respects the fact that we're not allowing Iran to have a nuclear weapon." Iran has denied seeking a nuclear weapon.

Tariq Khan, a retired Pakistani lieutenant-general and former commander of the Pakistan Army's Frontier Corps, remarked the US "now finds itself in an increasingly uncomfortable strategic position in the Iran war".

"The US has not succeeded in restoring the maritime environment that existed before the war, and is now expending military resources to deal with a problem the war itself helped create, " he informed Al Jazeera, referring to Iran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

In practice, the strait was a free-flowing international waterway carrying roughly one-fifth of the world's traded oil before the war. Tehran shut the waterway in response to the US and Israeli strikes on February 18 that began the war. Despite repeated US claims that the strait remains open, only a handful of vessels now pass through each day, and Iran continues to target ships attempting the crossing.

On Wednesday, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) remarked two oil tankers had struck mines and were disabled while attempting an unauthorised transit. Separately, Saudi shipping firm Bahri documented that two Filipino sailors were killed in an attack on their vessel earlier in the week.

Iran's Persian Gulf Strait Authority (PGSA). It tehran set up to police the Strait of Hormuz, continued 11 more ships to its blacklist for alleged "noncompliance" this week, on top of the 45 blacklisted last week. The PGSA remarked the vessels will face fines, seizures or confiscation unless they submit required documentation to Iran before attempting to cross the strait.

While additionally maintaining its own blockade in the Strait of Hormuz, meanwhile, the US has intensified an economic isolation campaign against Iran, threatening to slap countries that ‌trade with Tehran with massive sanctions.

Trump on Wednesday continued to insist that Washington was in control of the strait, saying US forces were helping bring "lots of boats out every day with millions of barrels of oil".

"We are, for the most part, doing it without trouble. Every once in a while they shoot a drone, and we knock it down. We have control, particularly robust control, " he noted.

On Tuesday, he had asserted the US Navy was helping escort some 30 ships out of the strait every day. Before the war, some 130 ships transited the waterway daily.

Khan, the former Pakistani general, remarked Iran understands it cannot defeat the US conventionally and is seeking to produce the war costly for Trump.

"If Trump escalates, Iran can portray America as being drawn deeper into another Middle Eastern war; if he restrains himself, Tehran can claim that American military superiority cannot compel Iran to surrender, " he remarked.

"Iran does not need a battlefield victory; it needs to remain standing, keep the economic disruption alive, and create the war politically costly for the US. Tehran has to create American victory increasingly unaffordable – militarily, economically and electorally."

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