Iran has issued a warning of “devastating and widespread” retaliation against Donald Trump following the former US President’s recent inflammatory comments on social media. Trump had threatened to target Iran’s power facilities, drawing a sharp response from Tehran.
The Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, Iran’s top military command unit, declared earlier today, “Should civilian targets continue to be attacked, our subsequent offensive and retaliatory actions will be significantly more destructive and extensive.” This statement was broadcasted by Iranian media outlets.
The heightened tensions follow Trump’s threats to strike Iran’s civilian infrastructure unless the Strait of Hormuz is reopened. The former president stated on Sunday, “Tuesday will be Power Plant Day and Bridge Day combined in Iran.”
He continued with a provocative tone, saying, “There will be nothing like it! Open the Strait, you maniacs, or prepare for a living nightmare — JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah.”
The strategic Strait of Hormuz, a vital maritime passage for global oil shipments, has been largely inaccessible since conflict erupted in late February, intensifying geopolitical tensions in the region.
The Strait of Hormuz, one of the most important waterways in the world, has been effectively shut off since war broke out in late February.
With its key role in the global trade of oil, its closure has sent oil and gas prices soaring, and has destabilised economies across the world.
Iran’s move to pressure the US has infuriated Trump, who previously said in his address to the American people last week that he planned to hit the nation hard over the next two to three weeks.
Iran has threatened Donald Trump (pictured) with ‘devastating and widespread’ retaliations
Missiles launched by Iran in retaliation for attacks by the United States and Israel are seen in the skies over Hebron, Palestine, on April 6, 2026
Iran released pictures which, it claims, show the downed US search and rescue aircraft
Overnight, Trump made good on that promise by carrying out joint attacks with Israel that killed over 25 people in Iran.
Explosions rang out into the night in Tehran and low-flying jets could be heard for hours as the capital was pounded. Thick black smoke rose near the city’s Azadi Square after one airstrike hit the Sharif University of Technology grounds, where Iranian media reported damage to the buildings as well as a natural gas distribution site next to the campus.
It wasn’t immediately clear what had been targeted on the grounds of the university, which is currently empty of students, as the war has forced all schools into the country into online classes.
However, multiple countries over the years have sanctioned the university for its work with the military, particularly on Iran’s ballistic missile program, which is controlled by the country’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.
A strike near Eslamshahr, southwest of Tehran, killed at least 13 people, the semiofficial Fars news agency reported. Five others were killed when a residential area in the city of Qom was hit, and six more were killed in strikes on other cities, the state-run IRAN daily newspaper reported.
Three more people were killed when an airstrike hit a home in Tehran, Iranian state television reported.
More than 1,900 people have been killed in Iran since the war began, but its government has not updated the toll for days.
Following Trump’s expletive-laced posts on Easter Sunday, Iran’s parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf called the threats of targeting Iran’s infrastructure ‘reckless.’
‘You won’t gain anything through war crimes,’ Qalibaf wrote on X, adding: ‘The only real solution is respecting the rights of the Iranian people and ending this dangerous game.’
And Iran’s deputy foreign minister Kazem Gharibabadi said Trump’s threats to strike power plants and bridges in Iran could amount to war crimes.
‘The American president, as the highest official of his country, has publicly threatened to commit war crimes,’ Gharibabadi said in a post on X, citing Article 8(2)(b) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
In Israel’s Petah Tikva, paramedics provided medical treatment to an injured woman in serious condition with a chest injury from shrapnel and evacuated her to the Beilinson Hospital.
Trump had earlier threatened to attack Iranian bridges and power plants in a bizarre Easter message
Israel’s Magen David Adom and Fire and Rescue services said earlier today that there are several reported sites of Iranian missile hits in the northern city of Haifa
Search and rescue teams are continuing operations, as numerous security forces, civil defense and fire crews are continuing their work at the scene, following Iran’s retaliatory strike targeting northern Israel, in which a missile directly hit a building in Haifa on April 5, 2026
Firefighters in that city are handling cars on fire and continue searching to ensure there are no people trapped in the rubble.
In Tel Aviv, a man slightly injured by glass shrapnel was evacuated to the Ichilov Hospital.
Footage provided by rescue service Magen David Adom shows damage to residential buildings due to the attack.
Meanwhile, Israel’s military warned the public on Monday morning of another missile barrage coming from Iran, the fourth-such alert of the day.
Israel’s Magen David Adom and Fire and Rescue services said earlier today that there are several reported sites of Iranian missile hits in the northern city of Haifa.
At one site, four people were slightly injured, including two children.
The missile attacks hit residential areas and a factory in the city. The factory was hit by shrapnel from an interception.
It is unclear if all the reported hits were caused by shrapnel from interception or direct hits.
Video footage, provided by Magen David Adom, of the affected sites show active fire and bombed cars in what appears to be a residential area.
Images show destroyed aircraft reportedly used during a US special forces rescue operation to recover crew members from a downed fighter jet
Iranian authorities claimed their air defenses shot down multiple US aircraft during the operation
The missile strikes come a day after another attack from Iran also hit a Haifa residential area, killing two people and injuring others.
Two other people remain missing under the rubble caused by Sunday’s strike and their fate is still unknown.
In the United Arab Emirates’ capital of Abu Dhabi, authorities said a Ghanaian man suffered wounds from shrapnel after the interception of an Iranian missile over the city’s Mussafah neighbourhood.
That’s near Al Dhafra Air Base, which hosts US forces and has been repeatedly targeted by Iran in the war.
The overnight attacks follow the daring rescue of an American airman who was left in hiding for nearly two days, and whose successful saving has prompted Trump to be even bolder with the Iranians.
The airman, alongside a pilot, had been in an F-15 fighter jet, which was shot down over a remote area of Iran on Friday.
The pilot had safely ejected and was rescued by two military helicopters the same day, but the second crew member, a highly-respected colonel, had remained missing.
He was then forced to evade pursuing Iranians for almost two days while Reaper drones overhead protected him from danger.
Armed with only a handgun to protect him and injured from his ejection from the F-15, the colonel hid from danger before making a daring dash to the rescue site as hundreds of special forces personnel searched the area for him in a complex rescue mission.
It involved deceiving Iranian forces by having the CIA spread word that US forces already found the colonel, as he continued to hide in the mountains, reaching elevations of around 7,000 feet.
At the same time, Iranian forces put a $60,000 bounty on the pilot’s ‘head’, as they urged locals near the crash site to seize the American.
But US warplanes fired bombs and weapons to keep the Iranians away, as soldiers scoured the area for the missing pilot.
As US forces closed in on the stranded officer, a firefight broke out with Iranian troops.
When they made the extraction, two of the five rescue planes became stuck in a remote airfield inside Iran and were blown up by special forces to avoid being captured by the enemy.
Three rescue planes flew out of Iran to Kuwait, and the mission was completed just before midnight.
Trump touted the operation late on Saturday night as ‘one of the most daring Search and Rescue Operations in US History.’
He said this was the first time in military memory that two US Pilots have been rescued, separately, deep in ‘Enemy Territory,’ as he defiantly said that no American warfighter would ever be left behind.
He said dozens of aircraft armed with ‘the most lethal weapons in the World’ were sent by the US military to retrieve him.
‘This brave warrior was behind enemy lines in the treacherous mountains of Iran, being hunted down by our enemies, who were getting closer and closer by the hour,’ Trump added in a Truth Social post.
He added that both operations were concluded ‘without a SINGLE American killed, or even wounded.’
Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike on the area of Ali al-Daher in southern Lebanon as seen from nearby Kfar Roummane on April 6, 2026
Wreckage believed to be from US military transport aircraft and helicopters related at a remote landing site in Iran, April 6, 2026
Beyond Trump’s military threats, diplomatic efforts are still underway to see if a solution can be reached to open the waterway.
Oman’s foreign ministry said that deputy foreign ministers and experts from Iran and Oman met to discuss proposals to ensure ‘smooth transit’ through the strait.
Egypt said that foreign minister Badr Abdelatty had spoken with US envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi, as well as with Turkish and Pakistani counterparts.
Russia said that Araghchi also spoke with Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov.
