US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that Iran’s energy hub of Kharg Island was being “blown to smithereens”, after US forces struck two rocket launchers on another Iranian island in the first known American military attacks on the Islamic Republic since late July.
Kharg Island handled 90% of Iran’s oil exports before the war began with US and Israeli attacks on February 28. Any major attack on the island would severely disrupt Iran’s energy trade and place significant additional pressure on its economy.
“Kharg Island being blown to smithereens!!! President DJT,” Trump said on social media, without providing further details. The White House and the US Defense Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment outside regular business hours.
Reuters confirmed that an accompanying video showing dramatic explosions was probably synthetically generated, based on analysis using software designed to detect AI-manipulated imagery. There was no immediate response to Trump’s comments in Iranian media.
The remarks followed a US attack on two Iranian rocket launchers on Larak Island, about 660 km east of Kharg. A US official said American forces targeted the launchers after Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps forces were observed preparing to fire rockets carrying sea mines into the Strait of Hormuz.
Larak Island lies near the strategic port of Bandar Abbas and overlooks shipping lanes at the entrance to the Gulf, giving it a critical role in tensions surrounding Iran, maritime security and global energy supplies.
The US Central Command described the operation as “limited, precise” action against Iranian Revolutionary Guard minelaying forces that posed an “imminent threat” in the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran responded by launching ballistic missiles at two US bases in Jordan. Jordan’s armed forces said they had intercepted eight missiles that entered its airspace. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said the attack killed and wounded several soldiers and citizens and vowed a “response and punishment” from Tehran, according to Iranian state media.
The renewed military exchanges came after weeks in which the Trump administration had increasingly relied on economic pressure against Tehran and its business partners. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Sunday that new secondary sanctions were likely to be announced weekly, initially targeting banks.
“We’re starting with the banks, and we’re telling the banks it’s not okay to have Iranian money and to aid the regime,” Bessent said in an interview with Reuters.
Meanwhile, threats to shipping have affected traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. The number of visible commodity vessels transiting the waterway fell to five a day over the weekend, according to shipping data, although the actual number could be higher because some vessels have switched off automatic identification systems to avoid attacks.
Trump said last week that all mines had been detonated or removed from international waters in the strait and warned that any vessel placing new mines would be destroyed. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’ navy rejected his claims that the waterway was open, calling them “an obvious lie” and saying the strait remained closed to ships without Iranian permission.
The Strait of Hormuz carried nearly a fifth of global crude oil and liquefied natural gas shipments before it was blockaded during the six-month-old Iran war. Iran is the third-largest producer in the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, making the renewed threats to its energy infrastructure and regional shipping routes a matter of wider global significance.
