US strikes 90 Iranian military targets, hours after Trump says ceasefire a ‘waste of time’

By JESSICA RUSSAK-HOFFMAN

(JNS.org) – The American military attacked about 90 military targets in Iran, including “air defense systems, coastal surveillance assets, missile and drone storage sites, naval capabilities and military logistics infrastructure along Iran’s coastline,” U.S. Central Command said shortly before midnight on Wednesday night.

Military flyovers take place over the National Mall in Washington, D.C. during the Salute to America 4th of July celebrations for America’s 250th anniversary, July 4, 2026. Credit: Daniel Torok/White House.

“The latest strikes follow successful execution of offensive strikes in Iran the night before,” CENTCOM said. The strikes “further degrade Iran’s ability to attack commercial shipping and innocent civilian mariners in the Strait of Hormuz,” it added.

Hours before the strikes began, U.S. President Donald Trump said that negotiating with Iran regime leaders was “just a waste of time” and called the Iranians “liars,” “scum” and “sick people.”

“If they had a nuclear weapon, they’d use it,” Trump said earlier in the day. “As far as I’m concerned, it’s over.”

U.S. Central Command said that Trump ordered the additional strikes to “further degrade their ability to threaten freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz.”

“The United States is holding Iran accountable for recent unjustified aggression against commercial shipping and civilian crews freely navigating a vital international waterway,” CENTCOM said.

Trump shared video footage on Wednesday of loud booms, explosions and fire coming out of a building, including apparently at Iran’s Chabahar Port, and stated that “this is in retribution for yesterday’s bombing of ships by Iran.”

“If it happens again, it will get much worse,” he said.

Iran has reportedly said that it plans to respond.

On Tuesday, the U.S. military said that it hit more than 80 targets in Iran with “precision munitions as an immediate response to Iran’s latest attacks on commercial vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz.”

“U.S. forces struck Iranian air defense systems, command and control networks, coastal radar sites, anti-ship missile capabilities and more than 60 Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps small boats in and near the strait to degrade Iran’s ability to continue attacking international commerce flowing through the international trade corridor,” CENTCOM said at the time.

Earlier in the day on Wednesday, CENTCOM said that more than 20 U.S. naval warships were “patrolling waters across the Middle East, as CENTCOM forces continue promoting regional security and stability.”