The Iran War entered its 39th day on Tuesday as President Donald Trump threatened to destroy “a whole civilization.” This weekend Trump set an 8 PM Eastern Time deadline for Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz.
“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will,” Trump said on Truth Social. He added that tonight would be “one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the World. 47 years of extortion, corruption, and death, will finally end.”
In a Monday press conference, Trump had threatened to destroy “every bridge in Iran” and “every power plant” within four hours of his deadline passing.
Vice President JD Vance said on a trip to Hungary Tuesday morning that the U.S. has “tools in our toolkit that we so far haven’t decided to use,” and that Trump “will decide to use them if the Iranian’s don’t change their course of conduct.”
Israel’s military warned Iranians in a Farsi-language post to avoid rail travel. “Your presence on trains and near railway tracks puts your life at risk,” a spokesman said in the statement.
An Iranian official on Monday urged students, athletes, and artists to form human chains around the country’s power plants ahead of the deadline. Fars News on Tuesday morning published photos of a human chain formed by Iranian adults at a power plant in the city Tabriz.
Tasnim News Agency reported warnings from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on Tuesday that if its “red lines” are crossed, its retaliation against U.S. and allied infrastructure “will deprive them of the region’s oil and gas for years.” The IRGC added that Iran’s response would “extend beyond the region.”
Israel’s Channel 13 News now displays a large digital clock, counting down the hours and minutes until Trump’s deadline expires.
U.S–Israeli strikes targeted Kharg Island on Tuesday morning, with U.S. officials telling Fox News that dozens of bombs targeted “military targets.”
U.S. or Israeli forces bombed a Jewish synagogue on Passover, with Iran’s Mehr News Agency publishing images showing extensive damage to the temple.
Iran’s Red Crescent Society recorded at least 17 airstrikes on Iranian civilian targets overnight, including attacks on Azadi Square, Palestine Square, and three petrochemical facilities.
Iran said it conducted drone strikes Tuesday on Israeli petrochemical industries near Dimona, the U.S. Navy maintenance center at Port of Jebel Ali in the UAE, and radar systems at Ahmad Al-Jaber Air Base in Kuwait.
The Financial Times reported that Saudi Arabia’s Jubail Industrial City, which houses petrochemical facilities, was also targeted in overnight attacks.
The strikes came in response to U.S.–Israeli attacks on Iran’s petrochemical facilities, including the South Pars complex in Asaluyeh, one of the world’s largest natural gas fields.
Satellite imagery shows Iranian drone strikes also hit the EQUATE petrochemical complex in Kuwait’s Shuaiba Industrial Area. Iran’s attacks on Kuwait follow a France 24 investigation confirming U.S. HIMARS launchers fired long-range ATACMS missiles at Iran from Kuwaiti territory.
An American journalist who had been kidnapped last week in Baghdad is being released, according to an Iraqi militia backed by Iran.
Read the full article here
