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Pedestrians walk past a mural on a street in downtown Tehran, Iran, on the 31st of last month (local time). / AFP, Yonhap

The U.S. and Iran traded military strikes again in the Middle East on the 1st (local time), heightening the drums of war.

U.S. Central Command, which oversees American forces in the Middle East, stated on social media that day, "At 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time today, U.S. forces began airstrikes targeting the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) inside Iran."

It added that "these strikes follow recent attempted attacks by the IRGC targeting commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz and U.S. service members deployed to the region."

The Financial Times (FT) reported, citing maritime security analysts, that a vessel belonging to South Korean shipping company Sinokor Merchant Marine was among the two commercial ships attacked by the IRGC.

Iran launched an immediate counterstrike. In a statement released that day, the IRGC characterized the U.S. strikes on its southern coast as an "act of desperation" and stated that, as a first measure, it shot down an advanced U.S. MQ-9 drone using a new air defense system.

In a subsequent statement, the IRGC claimed that a number of U.S. soldiers were killed in an attack on a U.S. military base in Jordan, but Reuters reported that no official statement has yet been issued by the U.S. side regarding the claim.

IRGC spokesperson Hossein Mohebbi responded on social media, warning that "harsh punishment awaits the aggressors" and that "the U.S. will come to regret this new attack."

Iran's General Staff of the Armed Forces, its supreme military advisory body, and the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, its top joint operations command, also ordered a resolute response on the 1st to the U.S. airstrikes and warned that the U.S. would pay a heavy price, Iranian dissident outlet Iran International reported.

In a joint statement, they declared, "In response to U.S. airstrikes on Sistan and Baluchestan and Hormozgan provinces, the Iranian military will deliver a powerful and crushing blow to the evil and hostile American enemy," adding, "The longer the terrorist entity known as the U.S. military persists in its hostile acts in this region, the greater and heavier the losses they must bear."

This U.S. operation was carried out two days after American forces struck two IRGC mine-laying rocket launchers on Larak Island in the Strait of Hormuz on the 30th of last month.

At the time, Iran retaliated by firing multiple missiles at the technical infrastructure, maintenance depots, and aircraft mooring facilities of two U.S.-occupied airbases in Jordan—King Hussein and Muwaffaq Salti (Azraq) Air Bases—and the latest U.S. strike is seen as a direct response to those actions.

                                                                                                            Kim Hyun-min