Trump threatens Iran with 20 times more ‘death, fire and fury’: As it happened

Iran’s Armed Forces and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps are fully ready and “awaiting” the US fleet in the Strait of Hormuz, IRGC spokesperson Ali Mohammad Naeini has said, claiming that the end to the conflict will be decided on Iran’s terms.

“The armed forces of the Republic of Iran are awaiting the US naval fleet in the Strait of Hormuz region and are waiting for the aircraft carrier Gerald Ford,” Naeini said in an apparent rebuke to US President Trump. “He has claimed the presence of commercial and military ships in the region and their easy passage through the Strait of Hormuz; while American ships, vessels, and all fighter jets have fled the region and are stationed at a distance of more than 1,000 kilometers to avoid Iran’s powerful missiles and drones.”

South Korea has sought to reassure the public that the potential redeployment of US missile-defense assets, the Patriot and THAAD systems, from the peninsula to the Middle East will not weaken deterrence against Pyongyang.

“Depending on how the situation unfolds, USFK [US Forces Korea] may dispatch some air defense systems abroad in accordance with its own military needs,” President Lee Jae Myung said during a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, according to Yonhap. “While we have expressed opposition, the reality is that we cannot fully push through our position.”

Lee added that Seoul expects US forces stationed in the country to continue contributing to stability and peace on the Korean Peninsula. Tehran has argued that US bases make host nations less secure and turn them into priority targets in the event of a conflict.

The IRGC has claimed that the 33rd wave of its retaliatory Operation True Promise 4, launched in recent hours, involved a salvo of at least ten solid-fuel Kheibar Shekan medium-range ballistic missiles equipped with one-ton warheads. According to Press TV, the targets included Tel Aviv, the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet base in Bahrain and other American military installations in the region. Despite Tehran’s claims of successful strikes, there was no confirmation of impacts, with both Israel and the Gulf states strictly censoring the reporting.

The US Central Command has published another video allegedly showing recent strikes against several unspecified Iranian targets at unknown locations and times. “The Iranian regime can try to hide their missile launchers, but US forces won’t stop looking. When we find them, we’re taking them out,” CENTCOM said in a post on X.

Vice President J.D. Vance and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth have attended the dignified transfer ceremony for the seventh American soldier killed in the US-Israeli war on Iran. US Army Sgt. Benjamin Pennington, 26, died on Sunday from injuries sustained in a March 1 strike on Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia. His flag-draped casket was brought by a C-17 aircraft to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Monday evening, according to videos from the ceremony.

READ MORE: Urals tops Brent: Will the US-Israeli war on Iran make Russia richer?

President Trump has threatened Tehran with “death, fire and fury,” calling the alleged US restraint so far a “gift” to China and other “nations that heavily use the Hormuz Strait.”

“If Iran does anything that stops the flow of Oil within the Strait of Hormuz, they will be hit by the United States of America TWENTY TIMES HARDER than they have been hit thus far,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. 

“Additionally, we will take out easily destroyable targets that will make it virtually impossible for Iran to ever be built back as a Nation again — Death, Fire, and Fury will reign upon them — But I hope, and pray, that it does not happen!”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has told his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian that the violation of his nation’s airspace “cannot be excused for any reason whatsoever” and that “Türkiye will continue to take all necessary measures against this,” according to Ankara.

READ MORE: NATO intercepts ‘Iranian missile’ near Türkiye

The Turkish National Defense Ministry said on Monday that another missile allegedly fired by Iran was neutralized by NATO air defenses in the country’s airspace, following a similar incident last week.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran is ready to form a joint team to investigate the claims of countries and hostile regimes against Iran, in order to clear up the misunderstanding regarding the alleged missile attacks by Iran on Turkey, so that the relations between the two friendly and brotherly countries are not always affected by news propaganda,” Pezeshkian told Erdogan, according to Tehran’s readout of Monday’s phone call.

Tehran’s regional neighbors should not act surprised when the US military assets located on their territories and used in attacks on Iran come under retaliatory strikes, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has said.

“Thank you CENTCOM for admitting that you are using our neighbors’ territory to deploy HIMARS systems against our people, apparently including a desalination plant. Nobody should complain if our powerful missiles destroy these systems wherever they are in retribution,” Araghchi wrote in a post on X.

At least one person has been killed and several others injured after a suspected Iranian missile hit a residential building in Manama, Bahrain, according to the country’s Interior Ministry.

Asked whether the US will accept any responsibility for the deadly strike on an Iranian girls’ school that left over 160 people dead, President Trump said he hasn’t seen any proof of American involvement and attempted to shift the blame onto Tehran.

“I will say that the Tomahawk, which is one of the most powerful weapons around, it’s used by, you know, it’s sold and used by other countries… And whether it’s Iran, who also has some Tomahawks – they wish they had more. But whether it’s Iran or somebody else, the fact that a Tomahawk is very generic, it’s sold to other countries, but that’s being investigated right now,” Trump said.

US officials have confirmed the use of Tomahawk missiles – which have a range of up to 1,600 km – in strikes on Iran. Videos verified by a number of news agencies show what appears to be a Tomahawk missile impacting near the school in Minab, southern Iran, on February 28. The US is the only party involved in the conflict that possesses these weapons.