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Donald Trump has vowed to bomb an Iranian bridge or power plant every time Tehran fires on a ship in the Strait of Hormuz, in an extraordinary red-line threat ratcheting pressure on the regime as the crisis in the Middle East spirals.
The President laid down the ultimatum on Wednesday, warning the strikes could land on the Iranian capital, as oil prices spiked to their highest level in more than a month.
'Any time Iran shoots at a ship in the Strait of Hormuz, whether it be by Missile, Rocket, Drone, or any other weapon, the United States will bomb and destroy ONE BRIDGE OR POWER PLANT,' he wrote on Truth Social.
Strikes on civilian infrastructure can amount to a war crime under international law, military and legal experts have cautioned.
The threat capped an eleventh straight night of American bombing, with fresh raids pounding command centers, drone stores, aircraft hangars and maritime targets, US Central Command said.
Iran has all but strangled the channel that once carried a fifth of the world's oil, hammering tankers with drones and missiles and sending global markets into a tailspin.
Iran's Houthi allies in Yemen have torn open a second front this week, declaring a blockade on Saudi shipping through the Red Sea and threatening one of the last escape routes for Gulf oil.
The twin threat drove crude above $95 per barrel and forced two of the world's biggest shipping giants, CMA CGM and Maersk, to slap emergency fuel surcharges on customers.
Three American soldiers were killed over the weekend when Iranian missiles tore into their living quarters at a base in Jordan, and a fourth died in Iraq during a controlled demolition of a downed Iranian drone. It brings the American death toll to 18.
Trump vowed revenge, writing: 'Every time Iran kills an American Soldier they will pay for that killing many times over!'
The President's sights are now trained on Pickaxe Mountain, a fortified underground complex near Natanz where Israeli intelligence indicates Iran has hidden its nuclear enrichment centrifuges.
Trump said US forces would hit the site 'pretty soon, and very heavily', adding of the Iranians: 'There's not a thing they can do about it.'
The lair is buried so deep that weapons experts doubt even America's most fearsome bunker-busters could reach the centrifuges, forcing the US to consider sealing the tunnels instead.
US and Israeli forces flattened Iran's three main nuclear sites during last year's 12-day war, dropping 30,000lb bunker-busters in a blitz Trump branded a historic success.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tehran was not negotiating in good faith, telling reporters in Manila: 'The problem we're having right now is that they're not serious about talks.'
Trump has dispatched additional F-16 and F-35 fighter jets to the theater from European bases and examined new battle options from his military chiefs, in a sign the conflict is poised to escalate.
Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Dan Caine told senators during a hearing Tuesday that airpower alone could not bring Iran to heel.
'As you look across the totality of history, airpower's got limits, and we always have to be mindful of those,' Caine testified.
Caine was appearing alongside Secretary of War Pete Hegseth as the Pentagon requests an additional $67 billion in emergency funding from Congress to fund the war, on top of $37 billion already spent.
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