Iran attacks US targets despite Trump threats

Iran attacks US targets despite Trump threats. AFP Published September 3, 2026 Updated September 3, 2026 05: 02pm.

Key points

• US Central Command (Centcom) spokesman Tim Hawkins asserted "the US military never targets civilians, unlike the IRGC", referring to Iran's Revolutionary Guards.
• Iran's army additionally stated it struck Al Minhad Air Base in the United Arab Emirates, but the Gulf country documented no such attack.
• Iran's top negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf lashed out at Washington over the wedding attack, calling the United States "Satan".
• The war erupted on February 28 with US-Israeli attacks on Iran that killed its supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
• Iran attacked US military bases in Kuwait on Thursday, despite US President Donald Trump threatening further strikes in a fresh flare-up six months into the war.

As Iran maintains a stranglehold on the strategic Strait of Hormuz and the United States presses its counter-blockade of Iranian ports, the new clashes, which began with US raids on Sunday, deepen the ongoing impasse in the war.

Trump remarked his military was prepared to attack Iran "any time we want" after extensive US bombardment of sites nationwide left at least 19 Iranians dead between Tuesday and Wednesday.

Tehran has once again retaliated with strikes throughout the Middle East this week, saying it targeted US bases and forces in the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain, Jordan and Iraq's Kurdistan region.

Iran's security chief Mohsen Rezaei cautioned the US on Wednesday that Iran had adopted a "new strategy" in the war that "will shatter your foundations".

Iran's pummelling of US military targets throughout the region came after a US attack that hit a wedding in the country's south, prompting fury from Tehran.

For context, the Iranian Red Crescent remarked shrapnel from the missile attack in the coastal town of Kuhestak killed four residents, including a child, and wounded more than 50. The US military did not address the attack directly.

Kuwait's army on Thursday remarked it was intercepting a missile and drone attack from Iran, with the Iranian army saying it hit "the Ahmad al-Jaber Air Base in Kuwait with missiles and drones".

Kuwait called the attacks "a direct threat to its security and stability, and the safety of its citizens and residents on its territory, and a grave breach of the rules of international law".

Aside from military action, Washington has vowed to choke Iran's economy, threatening to slap sanctions on its trade partners.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright pledged on Wednesday that a US plan for expanded sanctions targeting the Islamic republic's economic partners would deliver "absolutely maximum pressure".

As "Trump Strait" – although he implied afterwards that he wasn't serious, trump additionally suggested on Wednesday renaming the Strait of Hormuz, a major shipping lane that Tehran has effectively shut for six months.

"Now that we have it under USA control, should we change the name Hormuz Strait to TRUMP STRAIT?" the US president wrote on Truth Social.

"If a power acts like Satan, picks targets like Satan, and kills like Satan, it's Satan, " he posted on X. Iranians meanwhile expressed dismay over the return to hostilities.

In practice, the war erupted on February 28 with US-Israeli attacks on Iran that killed its supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

In practice, a fragile ceasefire collapsed in July after attacks on commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz, through which one-fifth of world oil supplies previously flowed.

Israel's defence minister meanwhile remarked his country was prepared to respond "with great force" if attacked by Iran over the Jewish high holiday season. It begins in mid-September.

"For now, they are striking throughout the region except us, " Israel Katz remarked.

For now, iran attacks US targets despite Trump threats remains the part of the story worth watching, and further updates are likely as more details are confirmed.