US and Iran Trade Strikes for Second Day as April Ceasefire Frays

Today’s Focus

US Central Command (Centcom) said it carried out a second wave of “self-defense strikes” against military, surveillance and radar installations in southern Iran early Thursday, hours after President Donald Trump promised on Truth Social that American forces would “hit them hard again.”

The Guardian reported explosions in Tehran, the port city of Bandar Abbas, and other areas along the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s government released no damage assessment.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) responded by firing ballistic missiles at US bases across the region, according to Iranian state media cited by the BBC. The IRGC said it launched 12 missiles at the Muwaffaq Salti Airbase in Jordan.

Jordanian state media, citing an unnamed military official, said 20 missiles were intercepted by air defenses near Azraq with no casualties or damage. Kuwait briefly closed its airspace, and Bahrain’s interior ministry posted images of shrapnel from intercepted drones.

Iran’s foreign ministry declared in a statement carried by Iranian outlets that the US attacks have rendered the April 8 ceasefire “practically meaningless” and accused Washington of violating the UN Charter. Tehran also said the Strait of Hormuz is “closed until further notice.”

The exchanges follow the downing of a US Apache helicopter over the strait, which Trump has blamed on Iran. Reuters reported a tanker carrying 20 Indian crew was hit off Oman, the third such vessel struck in a suspected US operation this week. Three Indian seafarers were killed Tuesday on the tanker Settebello, according to an Indian official cited by The Guardian.

The Debate

Supporters argue

Trump and Centcom commanders frame the strikes as a measured response to Iranian aggression that the April ceasefire was meant to end. In a Centcom statement quoted by the BBC and The Guardian, the command said the operation was a reply to “Iran’s unwarranted and continued aggression,” pointing to the downed Apache helicopter and attacks on commercial shipping.

Trump told reporters Wednesday that Tehran would “pay the price” for stalled negotiations, according to The Guardian’s live coverage. Administration allies argue that allowing Iran to choke off the Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly a fifth of global oil flows, would hand Tehran economic leverage over US partners in Asia and Europe.

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), a frequent Iran hawk, has repeatedly argued that only sustained military pressure forces the regime back to the table. Republican leadership on the Senate Armed Services Committee has echoed that view in public statements supporting Centcom’s targeting of radar and missile sites rather than civilian areas, calling the strikes proportionate to Iranian provocations.

Critics argue

Iran’s foreign ministry called the US strikes “illegal and criminal,” saying in a statement carried by Iranian state media and quoted by The Guardian that they constitute “a flagrant violation of the United Nations Charter.”

Senate Democrats have pushed back on the absence of a fresh congressional authorization. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) has previously argued that strikes of this scale require a vote under the War Powers Resolution, and Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) said on social media this week that the administration is “sleepwalking into a regional war” without a defined objective.

Progressive groups, including Win Without War, contend that the cycle of tit-for-tat strikes is eroding the April truce that took months to negotiate. The International Crisis Group warned in a Wednesday note that closing the Strait of Hormuz could trigger a global oil shock and draw in Gulf states reluctant to host further US retaliation from their soil.

What the experts say

The Strait of Hormuz is the world’s most important oil transit chokepoint, with about 20 million barrels per day moving through it in 2023, according to the US Energy Information Administration. A sustained closure has historically pushed Brent crude prices up by double digits within days, based on Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas research on past Gulf disruptions.

Vali Nasr, professor of international affairs at Johns Hopkins SAIS, has argued in recent academic writing that Iran’s leadership treats regime survival as the overriding objective and is more likely to escalate than capitulate when faced with direct US strikes on its territory.

Brookings Institution senior fellow Suzanne Maloney, a former State Department Iran policy planner, has written that ceasefires with Tehran historically unravel when neither side believes the other will sustain a long campaign. The Congressional Research Service reported in 2024 that US bases in Jordan, Bahrain and Kuwait host roughly 13,500 American personnel combined, putting significant numbers of troops within range of Iranian missiles each time strikes resume.

By the Numbers

12: ballistic missiles Iran’s IRGC said it fired at Jordan’s Muwaffaq Salti Airbase, according to Iranian state media cited by the BBC.

20: missiles Jordan said its air defenses intercepted near Azraq, per Jordanian state media.

April 8: date of the US-Iran ceasefire that Tehran now calls “practically meaningless,” according to Iran’s foreign ministry.

3: vessels carrying Indian crew hit in suspected US strikes this week, Reuters reported.

3: Indian seafarers killed Tuesday on the tanker Settebello off Oman, according to an Indian official cited by The Guardian.

20 million: barrels of oil per day that transited the Strait of Hormuz in 2023, per the US Energy Information Administration.

13,500: approximate US military personnel stationed across Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan, per a 2024 Congressional Research Service report.