Trump threatens further Iran strikes as US attacks kill 18, including children at wedding

President Trump stood before reporters at the White House on Wednesday and made a stark declaration: the United States could strike Iran whenever it chose to do so. The threat came as the death toll from the latest round of American military operations climbed to 18, with more than 100 others injured. Among the dead were two children, including a four-year-old killed in a strike on a wedding celebration in the city of Kuhestak, located in Sirik county along Iran's southern coast near the Strait of Hormuz.

The exchange of fire between Washington and Tehran represented the heaviest bombardment since July. American forces targeted cities and installations along Iran's coastline, striking what Trump described as newly constructed equipment near the strategic waterway. Iran responded by launching attacks on US military bases scattered across the Middle East—in Bahrain, Iraq, and Jordan. Trump told the assembled press that the American strikes had been severe and that his military stood ready to conduct additional operations at any moment.

Iranian officials rejected the American narrative of precision targeting. Mohammad-Reza Zafarghandi, Iran's health minister, confirmed the death toll and identified the youngest victim. Esmaeil Baghaei, spokesman for Iran's Foreign Ministry, characterized the Kuhestak wedding strike as a war crime and challenged the US assertion that it avoids civilian casualties. "The reality is so horrifying that even American propaganda has never dared make the claim," Baghaei wrote on social media, emphasizing that the victims were not abstractions but actual people. The funeral for the four people killed in Kuhestak was scheduled for Thursday.

The six-month conflict has reshaped global markets and American domestic politics in ways that complicate Trump's position. Oil prices have surged roughly 30 percent since fighting resumed over the weekend, with Brent crude now trading near $95 per barrel. The Strait of Hormuz, which once carried about one-fifth of the world's traded oil in a steady flow of roughly 130 vessels daily, has become a contested zone. Iran closed the waterway in February after US and Israeli strikes initiated the war, and despite repeated American claims of control, only a handful of ships now attempt passage each day. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps reported that two oil tankers struck mines while trying to cross, and a Saudi shipping company confirmed that two Filipino sailors were killed in a separate attack on their vessel earlier in the week. Iran's newly established Persian Gulf Strait Authority added 11 more ships to its blacklist this week alone, threatening fines and seizure for vessels that do not comply with documentation requirements.

Trump insisted that American forces maintained firm command of the strait, claiming that US Navy escorts were moving approximately 30 ships out daily—a figure far below the pre-war baseline. He acknowledged occasional Iranian drone attacks but characterized them as manageable obstacles. The administration has simultaneously intensified economic pressure on Iran, threatening sanctions against any country that trades with Tehran while maintaining its own blockade operations.

Public support for the war has eroded significantly. A Reuters and Ipsos poll conducted in August found that only 31 percent of Americans approved of the military campaign, while 63 percent disapproved. Voters expressed particular frustration over rising gas prices at the pump. Trump's own approval rating has declined from 40 percent to 33 percent since the conflict began. When asked whether the upcoming midterm elections influenced his Iran strategy, Trump stated that he was not personally running but was committed to helping his party, framing the conflict as necessary to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Iran has consistently denied pursuing a nuclear arsenal.

Military analysts offered a different assessment of the strategic landscape. Tariq Khan, a retired Pakistani lieutenant-general and former commander of the Pakistan Army's Frontier Corps, told Al Jazeera that the United States now occupied "an increasingly uncomfortable strategic position." He noted that American military objectives had not been achieved—the maritime environment had not been restored to its pre-war state, and the conflict itself had generated the very problems the US was now attempting to solve. Khan suggested that Iran's strategy was not to achieve conventional victory but to make the war progressively more costly for Trump across military, economic, and electoral dimensions. By remaining standing and sustaining economic disruption, Iran could claim success regardless of whether Trump escalated further or exercised restraint. The calculation, Khan argued, was designed to make American victory increasingly unaffordable.