US targets Iranian missile launch sites and boats, Iran reports explosions at sites along Strait of Hormuz, activates air defenses

US targets Iranian missile launch sites and boats in ‘self-defense’ strikes

 Zachary Cohen

The US military conducted “self-defense strikes” targeting Iranian missile launch sites and boats around the Strait of Hormuz on Monday amid a ceasefire between the two countries and ongoing negotiations to end the war, according to US Central Command.

“U.S. forces conducted self-defense strikes in southern Iran today to protect our troops from threats posed by Iranian forces,” CENTCOM spokesman Timothy Hawkins told CNN in a statement when asked about explosions reported around the Strait of Hormuz.

“Targets included missile launch sites and Iranian boats attempting to emplace mines. U.S. Central Command continues to defend our forces while using restraint during the ongoing ceasefire,” he added.

Some background: US and Iranian forces have previously exchanged fire during the ceasefire. In early May, US forces targeted Iranian military facilities responsible for launching a series of “unprovoked” missile, drone and small boat attacks against American warships transiting the strait.

President Donald Trump previously authorized US forces to respond to Iranian provocations around the key waterway.

Iran reports explosions at sites along Strait of Hormuz, activates air defenses

Three explosions were heard in the port city of Bandar Abbas, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said in a short statement early Tuesday local time citing “sources,” but there was no immediate official confirmation of the cause of the blasts.

In a later statement, the IRGC said the sound of an explosion has been heard near Bandar Abbas airport. Iran’s air defense system in Bandar Abbas “has been activated to counter hostile targets,” the IRGC added.

Iran’s state-run Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) also reported that the “sound of several consecutive explosions was heard around midnight … in Bandar Abbas city, the cause of which has not yet been announced by official sources.”

Iran’s semi-official Fars News Agency, citing witnesses, said similar sounds were also reported in the Persian Gulf near Sirik and Jask.

Earlier, Iran’s armed forces said they had destroyed a hostile drone in the Persian Gulf area, the reports said.

Bandar Abbas in southern Iran, the site of a key Iranian naval and air base, is strategically located along the Strait of Hormuz.

Reports Of Deadly US-Israeli Airstrikes On Iran's Port Of Bandar Abbas As Trump Issues Enriched Uranium Demand

Reports Of Deadly US-Israeli Airstrikes On Iran's Port Of Bandar Abbas As Trump Issues Enriched Uranium Demand

TYLER DURDEN

Fresh US-Israeli Military Action in Hormuz Strait

This is either a sign of US talks falling apart (once again), or else some last minute leverage building by Washington and the Israelis: there are emerging reports that US and Israeli jets have targeted Iranian vessels in the Strait of Hormuz in the late night hours (local).

US-ISRAELI STRIKES TARGET IRAN VESSELS IN HORMUZ STRAIT: NOUR

Few details have been confirmed, but IRGC channels say as follows (unconfirmed):

Unofficial channels affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards: Fighter jets attacked two boats in the port of Bandar Abbas, killing four people

Earlier there were reports of explosions heard in the same area, and local reports of a missile having targeted the runway at Bandar Abbas airport.

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In Rare Phone Call, Macron Warns Belarus' Lukashenko Against Directly Joining Ukraine War

In Rare Phone Call, Macron Warns Belarus' Lukashenko Against Directly Joining Ukraine War

TYLER DURDEN

In their first direct contact since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, French President Emmanuel Macron telephoned Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko to warn him against increasing his country's engagement in the war, according to sources who spoke to AFP.  

"[Macron] highlighted the risks Belarus will face if dragged into the war in Ukraine. He also called on Lukashenko to take necessary measures to improve relations between Belarus and Europe," a source told AFP. Lukashenko let Russia use Belarus as a staging area for the 2022 invasion, and has continued to let Russia launch missile and drone strikes from Belarus over the more than three years of war. 

Last week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Russia might be preparing to open a new front in the war, striking northern Ukraine and Kiev with heightened involvement of the Belarusian military. 

Zelensky's warning came after Belarus announced its participation in three days of massive nuclear drills with Russia. Russia’s Defense Ministry said the exercise involved 64,000 troops, over 200 missile launchers, more than 140 aircraft, 73 surface warships and 13 submarines, including eight armed with nuclear-tipped ICBMs. The drills focused on the “preparation and use of nuclear forces under the threat of aggression,” it said.

Ukraine's Border Guard Service, however, said they haven't observed signs of Russian or Belarusian troops massing on the frontier -- yet. "If we talk about the line of our border, then, fortunately, as of this moment, we do not record any movement of equipment, weapons, or personnel in the immediate vicinity of our border or such accumulation," said a spokesman. He did claim that intelligence shows Putin has been increasing pressure on Lukashenko to join the war.  

Amid the mounting tension, Lukashenko last week offered his availability for a meeting with Zelensky. "If (Zelensky) wants to discuss something, seek advice, or anything else, please do. We are open to it," Lukashenka said. "I am ready to meet with him anywhere - in Ukraine, in Belarus - and discuss the problems of Belarusian-Ukrainian relations." Lukashenko also dismissed the idea that Belarus would directly join Russia's war, saying that wouldn't happen unless "aggression is committed against (Belarusian) territory."

Russia's Belarus-based arsenal includes the Oreshnik -- Russia's nuclear-capable, hypersonic, intermediate range ballistic missile (IRBM). Over Saturday night, Russia made rare use of the cutting-edge Oreshnik missiles in a spectacular assault on Kiev and nearby territory. The attack made good on Putin's vow to avenge a Ukrainian strike that hit a secondary-school dormitory in the Russian-controlled Luhansk oblast, killing at least 18 people. Belarus announced the deployment of Oreshniks on its territory in late December.   

Macron initiated Sunday's call. Their last phone conversation came on Feb 26, 2022, just two days after the Russian army launched its so-called "special military operation" aimed at cleaving Ukraine's eastern Donbas region from the country. 

Netanyahu orders IDF to 'hit the gas' on Hezbollah strikes amid drone strikes in northern Israel

Netanyahu orders IDF to 'hit the gas' on Hezbollah strikes amid drone strikes in northern Israel

AMICHAI STEIN

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that he ordered the IDF to "hit the gas," striking Hezbollah, noting that the military had already killed "more than 600 Hezbollah terrorists in the last few weeks."

"We will hit them. That's right, they are shooting drones at us, fiber drones. We have a dedicated team working on that, and we will resolve it as well. In the meantime, you are showing resilience," Netanyahu said, adding that he wanted to "congratulate the residents of the north for a resilience that inspires all of us."

"But what this requires of us now is to increase the blows, to increase the force. We will hit them on the shin and thigh," he concluded.

The prime minister's comments come hours after multiple sources confirmed to The Jerusalem Postthat IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir said Israel should attack Beirut in response to Hezbollah's drone attacks on Israeli troops in southern Lebanon during a Security Cabinet meeting.

Zamir arrived at the meeting after visiting Israel's Northern Command on Sunday, where he conducted a situational assessment and approved operational plans for continued fighting against Hezbollah.

Later, he visited the 401st Brigade and was present at the brigade's headquarters when Sgt. Nehoray Leizer was killed by an explosive drone.

A US official told the Post that "Hezbollah has ignored repeated requests to stop firing at Israel, including a recent ultimatum. Israel will never be expected to passively absorb attacks on its forces and civilians. This is not the Biden administration. The status quo is untenable."

"We must put an end to the threat of Hezbollah's explosive drones," Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said in a Monday statement. "For every explosive drone, ten buildings in Beirut should fall."

"A strategic threat is not answered by defense alone, but by changing the rules and the equation," he added, pointing out the recent NIS 2 billion defense budget he had approved to address the ongoing drone threat. 

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir echoed Smotrich's sentiment in a Monday post to X/Twitter.

"It is forbidden to normalize the reality of explosive drones; it is time for the prime minister to bang on Trump's table and inform him that we are returning to war in Lebanon," Ben-Gvir wrote. "We need to cut off electricity in Lebanon, conquer Dahiyeh, and return to an intense war."

Iran signals ‘mass sacrifice’ in 'high stakes' Saddam-era warning amid Trump deal talks

Iran signals ‘mass sacrifice’ in 'high stakes' Saddam-era warning amid Trump deal talks

Emma Bussey

President Masoud Pezeshkian invoked one of Iran’s strongest wartime symbols on May 24, signaling Tehran’s resolve to hold its ground against the U.S. and Israel across the region, a counterterrorism expert said.

The Iranian leader's remarks came at a key moment in diplomacy, as President Donald Trump said a deal with Tehran to end the war is "largely negotiated" and warned the U.S. would either sign "a great and meaningful" agreement or walk away entirely.

While Iran signaled broad agreement with Washington on some points, it said a final deal is not imminent and that negotiations over the remaining details are still underway.

In an X post marking the anniversary of the 1982 recapture of Khorramshahr from Iraqi forces during the Iran-Iraq War, Pezeshkian said, "Khorramshahr today is Iran, the Persian Gulf, and the Strait of Hormuz," adding that "resistance, self-sacrifice, and repelling aggression are rooted in the culture of this land."

Analysts claimed Pezeshkian was deliberately invoking one of the deepest ideological touchstones of the Islamic Republic — the battle that came to symbolize national resistance, civilian sacrifice and defiance against invasion.

"This is the Iran-Iraq War reference, and the timing is the point," said Dr. Omar Mohammed, director of the Antisemitism Research Initiative Program on Extremism at George Washington University.

May 24 marks the anniversary of the 1982 liberation of Khorramshahr, the southwestern city Saddam Hussein captured early in the war and Iranian forces retook after months of brutal urban combat.

"This is one of the Islamic Republic’s foundational mythological moments — civilian resistance, mass sacrifice, repelling an ‘aggressor army.’ Roughly what the Great Patriotic War is to Russia. The rhetorical move is the extension," Mohammed told Fox News Digital.

"He’s mapping the 1980-82 defensive-war frame onto the current confrontation: Iran attacked by an aggressor, ordinary citizens (‘battle-untested but brave’) expected to stand and fight, with ‘resistance, sacrifice, repelling aggression’ cast as the cultural default mode."

Some of the phrasing, Mohammed said, also evokes volunteer and Basij fighters versus a professional invading army. The analyst noted that Pezeshkian’s "Hormuz line" comment reflects a standard Iranian escalation tactic.

"Invoking the strait inside a wartime-mobilization frame — even rhetorically — is a deliberate signal, not throat-clearing," he added.

"The Khorramshahr frame is the deepest register the regime has. It’s what they reach for to signal existential war, not a managed crisis."

Mohammed explained that Pezeshkian’s X post is framing the current confrontation from the presidential account to send a "high-stakes message."

"It’s also a tell on internal posture: Khorramshahr, in short, means ‘we are being invaded and we will not negotiate,’" he added.