Trump threatens to hit Iran ‘hard’ after U.S. and Iran trade strikes for first time in a month

Iran launched retaliatory missiles toward Jordan, a U.S. ally, but they were intercepted by American forces, a source said.

TEHRAN, Iran — President Donald Trump on Monday threatened to forcefully strike Iran after Washington and Tehran exchanged fire for the first time in a month.

“We’re going to hit them hard,” Trump told Fox News, according to the broadcaster’s chief foreign correspondent Trey Yingst.

The president vowed there would be “a response” after Iran retaliated to U.S. strikes with an attack on American bases in Jordan.

On Sunday, U.S. forces targeted two rocket launchers on a key island in the Strait of Hormuz. The U.S. strikes marked the first known attack by American forces since late July, and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, said several of its “fighters and compatriots” had been killed and injured in the assault.

It was the first major military escalation in weeks in the war between the U.S. and Iran, which began after American and Israeli forces launched a sweeping assault on Iran in late February, killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.