Trump Threatens 'Massive Attack' as Iran War Enters New Phase

President Donald Trump warned Thursday that he was weighing an attack on Iran larger than any strike launched since the war began, even as American forces carried out their 13th straight night of bombardment and Tehran responded by hitting U.S. military installations across the Gulf region.

"I am considering a massive attack. Bigger than ever before. I am close to making a decision. We are all set for it," Trump told Axios in an interview published Thursday.

U.S. Central Command said its latest round of strikes — completed at roughly 9 p.m. Eastern on Thursday — targeted Iranian military command centers, drone storage sites, communications networks, coastal surveillance positions and maritime capabilities. The stated goal was to reduce threats to commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, where traffic has slowed sharply in recent weeks.

Iran responded by claiming drone strikes against American military facilities in Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan. Bahrain's interior ministry confirmed that air-raid sirens were activated. Explosions also were reported near a U.S. base at Erbil International Airport in northern Iraq, temporarily halting flights before operations resumed. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps separately warned civilians across the Middle East to stay at least 500 meters from U.S. military installations.

The IRGC also claimed it struck an Amazon data center facility in Bahrain, though neither Amazon nor Bahraini authorities commented on that assertion.

Four people were killed and five injured in U.S. strikes near the southwestern Iranian city of Ahvaz, according to Iranian state media. Explosions were also reported in six other Iranian provinces.

Separately, Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen attacked two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea, opening what military analysts described as a second front in the conflict. The Houthis earlier this week announced a naval blockade of Saudi Arabia, citing Riyadh's siege on Yemen and attacks on the Yemeni capital's international airport. Trump threatened "major military punishment" for the Houthis and pledged to hold Iran responsible for their actions.

The fighting has squeezed shipping at two critical chokepoints. Ship-tracking data showed only one tanker completed a full crossing of the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday — the lowest single-day figure since early May. Some Chinese-flagged supertankers did transit the Bab el-Mandeb Strait on Friday despite the Houthi blockade declaration.

The disruption sent international benchmark Brent crude oil above $100 per barrel Thursday for the first time since May, the highest level in roughly two months, before pulling back to around $97 on Friday morning.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres told the Security Council the region was being pushed to the "edge of the unimaginable." "The situation is getting out of control," he said. "One crisis feeds another. One escalation triggers the next."

Senior Arab officials privately expressed growing frustration with the pace of U.S. escalation and the absence of a diplomatic path forward. "We have no clue where this is going," one senior Arab official told NBC News.

Meanwhile, the House passed a non-binding resolution calling on Trump to remove U.S. forces from the war — a measure reflecting congressional unease over a conflict lawmakers did not vote to authorize. It was the second such rebuke passed by the House since fighting resumed. Senate Democrats subsequently attempted to advance their own war powers resolution, but the measure failed 47 to 49.

A separate controversy emerged around U.S. casualty figures. The Pentagon's official online database listed the war's death toll at 14 — down from 18 the previous day — after four service members killed during renewed fighting this month were quietly removed from the count. Three military officials told The New York Times the four were removed because their deaths came after Trump declared a ceasefire in April. The acting Pentagon spokesman attributed the change to "temporary data disruptions" on the department's website.

Trump himself cited the higher number at a public event Thursday, saying, "That's 18 … and one is too many."