Trump says US may hit Iran’s Kharg Island again ‘just for fun’ 

United States President Donald Trump has threatened further strikes on Iran’s Kharg Island and urged allies to deploy warships to secure the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway critical for global energy supplies, as Tehran promises to ⁠intensify its response.

Trump told the NBC News broadcaster on Saturday that the US strikes “totally demolished” much of the oil export hub and warned of more attacks on the island.

“We may hit it a few more times just for fun,” he said.

The remarks would mark an escalation for Trump, who had previously said the US was targeting only military sites on Kharg.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Iran would respond to any attack on its energy facilities.

Araghchi told the MS NOW news channel that the US attacked Kharg Island from two locations in the United Arab Emirates: Ras Al-Khaimah and a place “very close to Dubai”, calling it “dangerous” and saying Iran “will try to be careful not to attack any populated area” there.

The US Central Command, the US military’s combat command responsible for operations in the Middle East, declined to comment on Araghchi’s claim. A diplomatic adviser to UAE President Anwar Gargash said on social media the country has the right to defend itself but “still prioritises reason and logic, and continues exercising restraint”.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on Sunday said it carried out missile and drone strikes on targets in Israel and three US bases in the region, calling the attacks the first round of retaliation for workers killed in Iran’s industrial areas.

On Saturday, a missile strike on an industrial area of the central Iranian city of Isfahan killed at least 15 people as workers were inside a factory, according to Iranian media.

Meanwhile, Tehran’s ability to halt shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil cargoes pass, has triggered the biggest ever disruption in the global oil supply, rattling markets and governments alike.

“The Countries of the World that receive Oil through the Hormuz Strait must take care of that passage, and we will help – ⁠A LOT!” Trump wrote in a social media post on Saturday.

“The US will also coordinate with those Countries so that everything goes quickly, smoothly, and well.”

The war that Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched on February 28 has killed more than 2,000 people, mostly in Iran, according to reports from governments and state media.