In Brief
- The US struck two Iranian launchers on Iran's Larak Island.
- Iran said the attack killed and wounded several soldiers and citizens and would be met with a "response and punishment".
Iran's energy hub of Kharg Island is being blown to smithereens, United States President Donald Trump said on Monday AEST in a one-line social media post accompanied by an AI-generated video clip.
No other evidence showed the Iranian energy hub was under attack.
"Kharg Island being blown to smithereens!!! President DJT," Trump said on social media, but gave no further details.
Reuters news agency confirmed that an accompanying video clip showing dramatic explosions was most likely synthetically generated, using software that detects AI-manipulated imagery.
An Iranian official dismissed Trump's post and the AI-generated video clip as "laughable".
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"Trump’s tweets are laughable and conditions in Kharg are calm and appropriate," Hamid Bovard, chief executive of National Iranian Oil Co, said on Monday.
Attacking Kharg, which handled 90 per cent of Iran's oil exports before the war launched by US and Israeli attacks on 28 February, would severely disrupt its energy trade and put huge pressure on its economy.
First US military attack in weeks
The US said on Monday said it had attacked Iran's Larak Island in the strategic shipping lane on Hormuz, marking the first US strikes on its territory in a month.
The US said its attacks were aimed at preventing Iran from placing more sea mines in the strait, days after it announced it had completed clearing explosives from the waterway.
"US forces took limited, precise action against IRGC minelaying forces posing an imminent threat in the Strait of Hormuz," the US Central Command said in a post on X.
In retaliation for the attack, Iran attacked US military targets in the Middle East on Monday.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) said they retaliated for Sunday's attack by striking two US military air bases with ballistic missiles in US-allied Jordan, causing "heavy damage".
Jordan's army said it had intercepted eight missiles, without stating their origin.
Iran also said it targeted US military personnel at an air base in the United Arab Emirates and shot down a US drone over the Strait of Hormuz.
The IRGC said the US strikes resulted in "casualties" and that their subsequent attack on Jordan was "in response to the US-Zionist aerial aggression".
"We are not seeking war, but we will deliver a decisive response to the aggressors," Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said in a statement quoted by state TV.
Pezeshkian was speaking before travelling to Kyrgyzstan for the summit of a bloc that seeks to be a counterinfluence to the West, along with Russia's Vladimir Putin and China's Xi Jinping.
The exchange of fire between the US and Iran came shortly after their war hit the six-month mark, and at a time when hostilities had been subsiding.
In recent weeks, the administration of Trump has prioritised "economic warfare" over military strikes on Iran.
Iran has effectively blocked the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic sea lane through which one-fifth of the world's oil passed before the United States and Israel triggered the war.
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