Trump vows to hit Iran hard after first exchanges of fire in a month

DUBAI/ASHEVILLE, (North Carolina): US President Donald Trump on Monday promised further strikes against Iran after the first tit-for-tat attacks in a month, as a conflict that had lately settled into an economic standoff threatened to escalate into open fighting again. Iran launched missiles overnight at two US air bases in Jordan in response to a US attack on Iran’s Larak Island, where Washington said it had struck Iranian launchers firing mines into the Strait of Hormuz. “We’re going to hit them hard,” a Fox News reporter quoted Trump as later telling the channel. “There will be a response.” A senior Iranian source told Reuters the overnight exchanges of fire, the first since late July, were a “limited and contained confrontation” but said Tehran would deliver a harsh response if attacked again. Trump said US air defences had downed all Iranian missiles that could have caused any damage and that new US economic sanctions on Iran were having a big impact, Fox News reported. Earlier, Trump had posted to social media two videos depicting explosions engulfing Iran’s main oil export terminal, with the message “Kharg island being blown to smithereens!!!” But the videos were generated b