A senior Iranian official made a thinly veiled threat against Donald Trump’s life on Tuesday as the US continued to pound Iran with bombs.
US defence secretary Pete Hegseth promised the “most intense” day of strikes yet, just a day after the US president vowed to rain down “death, fire and fury” on the Islamic Republic.
“The sacrificial nation of Iran doesn’t fear your empty threats,” security chief Ali Larijani wrote in a defiant post on X on Tuesday in response to Mr Trump’s Truth Social post.
“Even those bigger than you couldn’t eliminate Iran. Be careful not to get eliminated yourself.”
The war of words came as Iran continued to strike countries across the Gulf, with Bahrain reporting its first death – that of a 29-year-old woman – as a result of the ongoing conflict.
At least 12 people have been killed across the oil-rich nations, the vast majority of them migrant workers, according to the New York Times.
Around 140 US troops have been wounded in the past 10 days, the chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said on Tuesday. “The vast majority of these injuries have been minor, and 108 service members have already returned to duty,” he said in a statement to CNN.
Doubts have emerged over the war’s duration after Mr Trump said it would be a “short-term excursion” that would be over “very soon” in a statement to press on Monday.
Mr Hegseth said the war would be ended on “our timeline and at our choosing” as global supply chains reeled from surging oil prices. Energy markets have been plunged into chaos due to paralysed shipping routes in the Strait of Hormuz, which Tehran has threatened to fully close.
Mr Hegseth said that more fighter jets and bombers were being deployed to pound Iran as other experts have warned that the Islamic Republic could be playing a “war of attrition”, exhausting expensive US weaponry before using its better gear.
US president Donald Trump also threatened Iran with a military response “at a level never seen before” if mines are laid in the Strait of Hormuz, afterCNN reported that Iran had begun laying mines in the key shipping route – through which around one-fifth of the world’s crude oil passes.
Two intelligence sources told the broadcaster that mining was not extensive yet, with a few dozen laid in recent days.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said the consequences to Iran will be “at a level never seen before” if no action is taken to remove the mines.
“If for any reason mines were placed, and they are not removed forthwith, the Military consequences to Iran will be at a level never seen before,” he wrote. “If, on the other hand, they remove what may have been placed, it will be a giant step in the right direction!”
