US President Donald Trump warned on Wednesday (Jul 8) that the bombing of Iran will increase significantly if Tehran continues to attack ships in the Strait of Hormuz.

"This is in retribution for yesterday’s bombing of ships by Iran. If it happens again, it will get much worse!" the US president posted on social media over a picture of an apparent bombing of a site in Iran.

The US military said on Wednesday that it was launching fresh strikes on Iran aimed at keeping the critical Strait of Hormuz open to traffic, hours after Trump declared that an interim agreement to end the war with Iran was "over".

The latest round of attacks, which the US said was launched in response to Tuesday's assault on three cargo ships transiting the strait, rattled several cities along Iran's southern coast and left some areas without power.

"US Central Command forces have started conducting additional strikes against Iran to further degrade their ability to threaten freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz," CENTCOM, the US military's Middle East command, wrote on X. “The US is holding Iran accountable for recent unjustified aggression against commercial shipping and civilian crews freely navigating a vital international waterway.”

Wednesday's strikes against Iran will be greater in number than the ones carried out on Tuesday, a US official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Control of the strait, through which a fifth of global oil supplies passed before the war began with US-Israeli airstrikes on Iran on Feb 28, has given Tehran immense leverage, effectively allowing it to force a stalemate with the world's most powerful military.

While Iran has not claimed responsibility for the ship attacks, analysts say Tehran uses such actions to gain leverage in negotiations. The latest escalation dented hopes of turning a memorandum of understanding signed on Jun 17 into a permanent deal to end the war.

Iran said on Wednesday it had attacked US military sites in Bahrain and Kuwait in response to earlier US strikes on infrastructure, themselves retaliation for the ship attack.

Asked before a NATO summit in Türkiye whether the memorandum of understanding was over, Trump said: “It's a very interesting question. To me, I think it's over. I don't want to deal with them.”

"If we make a deal with Iran I'm not sure that will stick," he later said. "I found them to be very dishonourable people." But Trump, who has repeatedly threatened to escalate military action before backing off, said he did not expect a return to full-fledged war, and that it was not clear whether the negotiations on reaching a permanent deal would continue. At a press conference later on Wednesday, Trump said he did not think the war would restart.

"Anything that happens is going to be over very quickly ... and will only make it safer, including for oil," he said.

The latest US strikes pushed oil prices up more than US$1 a barrel in post-settlement trading on Wednesday, with Brent crude futures last at US$79.28 a barrel.

Even so, prices remained well below the late-April peak of more than US$120 a barrel.

MAJOR PORT CITY HIT BY STRIKES

Iran's state news agency reported explosions in several cities along Iran's southern coast, from the Strait of Hormuz to the Gulf of Oman.

Among the locations hit were Bandar Abbas, which is home to Iran's largest port and key facilities operated by both Iran's navy and the Revolutionary Guards.

The strikes also hit Konarak and Chabahar, where Iranian media reported power outages and damage to a maritime traffic control tower.

Explosions were also reported in the southeastern city of Iranshahr, according to Mehr News Agency.

Nournews, affiliated with Iran's top security body, cited an Iranian military source as saying that Iran was planning to soon launch a "massive attack" on US army bases in the region in retaliation.

Prior to the fresh US attacks on Wednesday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei had said US strikes had violated the memorandum by challenging a clause that "emphasises the Islamic Republic of Iran's responsibility in determining arrangements for the safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz".

A spokesperson for parliament's National Security Commission said options for retaliation included withdrawing from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, changing Iran's nuclear doctrine, and closing the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait at the mouth of the Red Sea, another crucial global shipping route.

– with Agencies inputs --