US launches strikes on Iran for third straight night as Trump says deal still 'possible'

US forces launched strikes on Iran for a third straight night early on Tuesday, as hostilities escalate despite US President Donald Trump saying a deal was "still possible".

US Central Command wrote on X that its forces "successfully struck military targets across Iran including Bushehr, Chah Bahar, Jask, Konarak, Abu Musa, and Bandar Abbas" in an operation that lasted five hours.

Moments after the military announced the new strikes, Trump called it “another major attack.”

“We’re hitting them very hard. And it’ll continue, and we’ll see what happens,” he told reporters in the Oval Office. “We’re knocking out all of their offensive capability and we’re controlling the straits. We’re putting the blockade back.”

Iran responded by launching strikes on Bahrain as well as two UAE-linked tankers in the Strait of Hormuz.

The United Arab Emirates’ Defence Ministry said early Tuesday that the attack killed one mariner and wounded eight others.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards claimed the attack on the tankers, saying the vessels “ignored repeated warnings.”

They also said they had carried out missile and drone strikes on Bahrain, after the Gulf country urged citizens to take shelter as a siren sounded.

"Several weapons support warehouses, a satellite communications center and the residential building for US forces in Bahrain were targeted," Iranian state television IRIB quoted the Guards as saying.