US President Donald Trump has accused the Iranian government of killing more than 100,000 protesters and claimed that Tehran is struggling to pay its military and security personnel.
Trump made the allegations in a post on Truth Social on Monday, hours after US forces struck two Iranian rocket-launch systems on Larak Island in the Strait of Hormuz.
“Iran has officially become a failed state. They are finished!” Trump wrote, alleging that the country has no effective navy or air force, no functioning currency and is unable to pay its army or police. He also claimed that inflation in Iran had reached 300 percent and described the country’s leadership as being in “complete disarray.”
Trump further alleged that more than 100,000 protesters had been killed by the Iranian authorities and said those responsible should face prosecution for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Monday’s strike was reportedly the first US attack on Iranian territory since late July. A US official said American forces targeted the rocket systems after detecting members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) preparing to use rockets to deploy naval mines in the Strait of Hormuz.
Larak Island is located about 1,100 kilometres from the Iranian capital, Tehran.
In retaliation, the IRGC launched a combined drone and rocket attack on US air bases in Jordan, according to Iran’s Fars news agency.
The attacks reportedly targeted technical infrastructure and areas used to house military aircraft at the King Hussein and Al-Azraq US bases in Jordan. Fars reported that the strikes caused extensive damage, although the claims could not be independently verified.
In a statement, the IRGC warned that military aggression would not weaken Iran’s control over the Strait of Hormuz and vowed to respond to every attack with what it described as increasingly destructive retaliation.
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