EXCLUSIVE: Donald Trump, who welcomed Iraq’s new prime minister to the White House on Tuesday, is set to deploy US Marines and Special Forces to Kharg Island
US forces may be planning a partial ground invasion of Iranian territory in a bid to smash Tehran’s iron-grip on the Strait of Hormuz.
In a major operation, US Marines and Special Forces could be ordered to deploy to Kharg Island so they can control Iran’s fire-power onto the key waterway. It has followed another day of 120 massive strikes on Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps missile firing points and troops positions.
Saudi Arabia has opened up a new front in the war, bombing the airport in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa and Iran’s Houthi proxies fired missiles at the kingdom.
The strikes are the first claimed by the Houthis against Saudi Arabia since an informal truce in March 2022 following Houthi attacks on Saudi energy infrastructure.
The Houthis attacked Saudi targets, they claimed, in response to Riyadh opening fire on the airport, an attack approved by Yemen’s government to prevent an Iranian plane landing there. It said government forces would respond to any hostile aircraft violating Yemen’s airspace “by all available means”, and held Iran responsible. The latest attacks by the US followed Iran targeting shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, claiming they had travelled outside of the shipping lane designated by the IRGC.
Tuesday’s attacks on Iran mark a fourth round of powerful bombing raids on the country, aimed at forcing the Tehran regime to open up the Strait of Hormuz.
The US struck the Iranian city of Bushehr, Iran’s state news agency IRNA reports, citing a local official. Projectiles hit the city at four points in what the agency called the “continuation of the ceasefire violation by the American enemy.”
It came after reports that explosions were heard west of the strategic port city of Bandar Abbas, in Joghatai and Bushehr. The province of Bushehr is the location of Iran’s only working nuclear power plant.
The UAE said one crew member had been killed and several others injured after two vessels were hit by Iranian missiles in the Strait of Hormuz, near Oman.
Tehran claimed two “offending” tankers had been struck after ignoring warnings and attempting to pass through a “mined route”. US President Donald Trump Trump announced on Monday that the US naval blockade of Tehran’s ports would be reinstated today, insisting the US would “take over” the strait and acting as its “guardian angel”.
He said he would impose a 20% tax on all cargo for ships crossing – a move for which the UN’s shipping agency said there was “no legal basis”.
Iran, meanwhile, said it would control the waterway “forever”. Sources told the Mirror some of the impact sites of explosions in the US strikes have been hit as many as five times in a five hour onslaught of strikes. The latest US bombing runs battered IRGC sites all along Iran’s southern coastline in preparation for the US to take control of the Strait.
The US escalation came after reports Iran was preparing to withdraw from peace talks and the memorandum of understanding that put a halt on hostilities. Israel is on high-alert for Iranian attacks and has been asked to hold back from becoming involved in the renewed US strikes.
The UAE said two of its tankers were hit by Iranian cruise missiles whilst situated in the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran is claiming control of. A British intelligence military analyst told the Mirror: “The US strikes on Iran are more powerful and repetitive than before in a sign of an American escalation.”
“Talk of the taking of Kharg Island is now back on the table as President Trump is demanding control of the Strait of Hormuz. Military sites on the island have been hammered in a five hours operation, some of the points of impact hit as many as five times just to make sure they are effective.
“But taking the island would be crucial to gaining any sense of control of or protection of the Strait of Hormuz in any meaningful way.”
