Trump warns Iran of harder hits as U.S. investigates wedding party strike claims

The war between the United States and Iran, which officials had declared concluded months earlier, reignited this week with a ferocity that left both sides trading strikes across the Middle East and raising the stakes with each volley. On Tuesday evening, American forces conducted what President Trump described as a "very heavy attack" on Iranian targets, striking what the military said were Revolutionary Guard positions, air defense systems, radar installations, and mine-laying equipment along the Strait of Hormuz. By Wednesday morning, Trump was already signaling readiness for more. "We're prepared to do another one anytime we want," he told reporters in the Oval Office, adding that the strikes were a response to Iranian aggression in Jordan. "They gave a little love tap, but we hit them very hard last night."

Iran answered within hours. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the country's central military command claimed overnight attacks on at least seven military bases across the region—facilities in Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates where American forces are stationed or have operated. Jordan's military confirmed it was struck by 13 ballistic missiles, of which 10 were intercepted and three landed in remote areas without causing reported casualties. Bahrain said Iranian drones were intercepted. Neither country's claims of damage to the other could be independently verified, and U.S. Central Command dismissed Iranian assertions that American personnel had been killed.

But beneath the military accounting lay a more troubling allegation. Iranian state television reported that an American airstrike had struck a wedding celebration in a private home in the southern province of Hormozgan, in the Sirik district. According to Iranian officials, three missiles hit the gathering. The foreign ministry said more than 50 people—men, women, and children—were killed or wounded. State television put the death toll at four confirmed dead, with roughly 70 total casualties and six people in critical condition. Video footage showed a crater in the floor of the room where the party was held, wreckage scattered across nearby alleyways, and wounded children in hospital beds. A man identified as the bride's father, Ali Mallahi, told state media: "I really don't know what to say. Thank God the casualties were not higher." Another survivor, speaking from a hospital bed with a head injury, described hearing fighter jets overhead as he arrived at the wedding. "As we arrived there, an explosion happened. It was really powerful, so powerful that even before I arrived there, pieces and debris from the building smashed into my head and face and I passed out," he said. "Lots of children and women were horribly injured. All the people were ordinary people."

U.S. Central Command said it was investigating the reports. "We're aware of the reports, which originated from Iranian state media, and we are looking into them," Navy Captain Tim Hawkins said in a statement. "The U.S. military never targets civilians, unlike the IRGC." The military did not confirm or deny that the strike had occurred, nor did it provide details of what it believed had been hit at that location. Iran's foreign ministry spokesman, Esmaeil Baqaei, framed the alleged strike as part of a broader pattern. He referenced a school in Minab that was struck earlier in the war, killing dozens of children, and called the wedding attack the latest in a "chain of atrocities." U.S. officials had previously acknowledged striking the school but said it was not intentionally targeted and may have been hit in error due to outdated intelligence.

The escalation has sent oil markets surging. Brent crude, the international benchmark, traded near $96 a barrel early Wednesday, up roughly 40 percent from a year ago. West Texas Intermediate crude was trading above $90. The price increases reflect the renewed disruption to tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint through which roughly a third of the world's seaborne oil passes. Trump has suggested renaming the waterway the "Trump Strait" now that, in his view, it is under American control. The U.S. Navy has redirected 86 commercial vessels as of Wednesday and disabled three others to enforce what it calls a blockade of Iran.

The blockade is creating acute shortages inside Iran. The country has struggled to import enough fuel to meet domestic demand, and long lines have formed at filling stations in Tehran. On Wednesday, Iranian authorities announced the arrest of 11 foreign nationals suspected of attempting to smuggle nearly 100,000 gallons of diesel fuel out of the country using a tugboat. Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf called on citizens to conserve fuel. The economic pressure, combined with the renewed military strikes, underscores how thoroughly the conflict has reshaped the region's security and energy landscape.

Meanwhile, the formal status of the war itself remains ambiguous. The Trump administration declared "Operation Epic Fury" concluded on May 5, the same day Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters the operation was over and the administration was moving to a new phase called "Project Freedom." Yet an Air Force email obtained by CBS News from August instructed military personnel to stop referring to the conflict by the old operation name—three months after it was supposedly ended. The U.S. and Iran have continued exchanging fire since May, with lengthy pauses punctuated by sudden escalations. This week's strikes suggest those pauses may be over. Trump has dismissed the possibility of a negotiated settlement, telling Fox News that any agreement with Iran "isn't worth the paper it's written on." He warned the Iranian government: "If they retaliate, they'll be hit much harder. And if they do it again, they'll be no longer."