Despite an ongoing ceasefire as the US and Iran attempted to broker a deal, both sides have kept up military strikes.
US Army Photo
President Donald Trump said Wednesday he thinks the Iran ceasefire is "over." Throughout it, there's been a lot of shooting, and more strikes may be on the way.The violence was not constant, but it never fully disappeared. During what was supposed to be a pause in the fighting while a deal was made, Iran attacked US forces, Gulf states, and commercial shipping, and the US military responded with its own strikes while, for a period, also executing a blockade of Iranian ports.During a news conference at the NATO summit in Turkey, Trump expressed frustration with Iran and threatened further military action. "I don't want to deal with them anymore," he said. "As far as I'm concerned, it's over." Trump added that the US will "very probably" attack Iran on Wednesday evening.Oil prices surged on the news after having earlier returned to pre-war levels.The night before the president's decision, the US said it conducted a "series of powerful strikes" against Iran in retaliation for Tehran attacking three commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday. US Central Command said American forces hit more than 80 Iranian targets, including air defense systems, command and control networks, and anti-ship missiles around the strait. They also struck over 60 Iranian Revolutionary Guard small boats.The strikes, CENTCOM said, were meant "to impose heavy costs for targeting and attacking commercial shipping crewed by innocent civilians in an international waterway."It added that Iran's attacks on civilian shipping were a violation of the US-Iran ceasefire. Trump expressed a similar sentiment at the NATO summit, accusing Iran of violating the agreement "every day."
