Trump vows more strikes on Iran after first direct military exchanges in a month

US President Donald Trump has vowed further military action against Iran following the first direct exchanges of fire between the two countries in nearly a month, raising fears that a conflict that had recently settled into an economic standoff could escalate into open fighting.

Iran launched missiles overnight at two US air bases in Jordan in response to a US strike on Iran's Larak Island. Washington said it had targeted Iranian launchers that were preparing to fire mines into the Strait of Hormuz.

"We're going to hit them hard," Trump was quoted as telling Fox News. "There will be a response."

A senior Iranian source described the overnight exchanges as a "limited and contained confrontation" but warned that Tehran would deliver a harsh response if attacked again.

Trump said US air defences had intercepted all Iranian missiles that could have caused damage, and that new US economic sanctions on Iran were having a significant impact.

In a separate development, Trump posted two AI-generated videos on social media showing explosions engulfing Iran's main oil export terminal, with the message "Kharg island being blown to smithereens!!!" No such attack took place. Iran called the post "laughable", while Vice President JD Vance said Trump "likes to switch it up on social media a little bit" and was "sending a message".

Washington has so far largely held off from striking Iran's major oil and gas infrastructure, a move Iran has said would trigger devastating attacks on its Gulf neighbours.

The conflict, which began six months ago, had mostly settled into an economic standoff since late July, with each side betting that rival blockades of shipping around the Gulf would force the other to back down.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Iran was "lashing out" because new sanctions were taking a toll on its economy. "They're in shock at the state of their economy," he told reporters at a G20 meeting in North Carolina. "I would think that they are lashing out kinetically because they are losing economically."

US forces struck two Iranian launchers on Larak Island on Sunday after Revolutionary Guard forces were observed preparing to launch rockets with sea mines into the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian media reported three people were killed in the attack, including two members of the Revolutionary Guards Navy.

The Strait of Hormuz, which normally handles a fifth of global crude oil and gas shipments, has been effectively blocked since the start of the war. Iranian state TV quoted the Revolutionary Guards as saying a supertanker had caught fire after being struck by two naval mines in the south of the strait, a claim the US military denied.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian struck a milder tone on Monday, telling Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of a regional security meeting in Kyrgyzstan that Iran still sought a negotiated resolution. "We believe that continuing the war is in no one's interest, neither ours, nor the region's, nor humanity's," he was quoted as saying.

Trump has yet to achieve the objectives he set out at the start of the war: dismantling Iran's nuclear programme, curbing its ability to attack regional rivals, and creating conditions for Iranians to overthrow their clerical rulers.