Iran says two tankers have hit Hormuz naval mines. U.S. disputes claim

Two oil tankers struck naval mines while attempting to transit the Strait of Hormuz, Iran's Revolutionary Guard said Wednesday, after the Iranian military made retaliatory strikes on U.S. bases in the Middle East.

In a statement shared by state media, the influential hard-line military group said the vessels had been disabled and forced to disembark their crew after ignoring warnings on taking an "illegal route" through the strait.

President Donald Trump said he was "not trying to force Iran to the bargaining table," as U.S. forces completed a fresh round of attacks against the Middle Eastern country on Tuesday stateside.

U.S. Central Command disputed Iran's claim of striking the two oil tankers, saying in a social media post on Wednesday that "No ships have hit mines in the Strait of Hormuz. This is yet another IRGC attempt to intimidate regional commercial shipping through disinformation."

The latest exchange of military strikes came as the Financial Times published an investigative report claiming Russia was secretly helping Iran to develop advanced supersonic cruise missiles capable of threatening U.S. aircraft carriers and other warships in the region.

In a Truth Social post, Trump claimed the U.S. has "almost total control" over the Strait of Hormuz, while adding that Tehran's economy was collapsing.

He said Iran was just "playing out the inevitable" and asked, "When are the Iranian people going to rise up and fight?"

In an earlier post on X, U.S. Central Command said that it struck air defense and communications sites, and radar systems in Iran, in retaliation against the "recent attempted attacks" by the country against commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and against American service members.

Tehran responded to American strikes, targeting U.S. ally Jordan. The country's armed forces said it was targeted by a missile attack that originated from Iranian territory.

A spokesperson for Jordan's armed forces said on X that 10 of 13 missiles were intercepted by the country's air defense systems, with the three fell in remote areas. No injuries or deaths were reported.

Bahrain's armed forces said on Instagram on Wednesday that they had intercepted and destroyed "treacherous Iranian air strikes today," following an earlier announcement by Bahrain's Interior Ministry of "an alert of potential threat."

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in an interview with Fox Business on Tuesday that the Strait of Hormuz will become a "worthless piece of water" in two years, contending that oil will instead flow across land pipelines and bypass the strait.

Strikes on Sunday were the first time that the U.S. and Iran traded attacks in about a month, and after the Trump administration said it was launching an "economic D-Day" on Tehran's backers.