Iran's Kharg Island hit; Explosions heard before Trump's deadline end

Iran's strategically important Kharg Island in the Persian Gulf was reportedly attacked, explosions heard, according to local media.

Ahead of the US President Donald Trump's negotiation deadline, Iran's strategically important Kharg Island in the Persian Gulf has come under attack, and thick plumes of smoke were seen as a result of the alleged attack, reports Iran's Mehr News on Tuesday .

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) issued a chilling warning that "restraint is over" after strikes hit Kharg Island, metro.co.uk reported. The attacks followed Iran's rejection of a fresh US ceasefire proposal to end the war, now in its sixth week.

“We will target the infrastructure of America and its partners in such a way that America and its allies will be deprived of the region's oil and gas for years. America's regional partners should also know that up until today, we have exercised a great deal of restraint for the sake of good neighbourliness," said IRGC.

The IRGC warned it could strike US and allied infrastructure, vowing to disrupt regional oil and gas flows "for years."

This followed Trump's weekend remarks musing about US forces seizing Kharg Island.

Iran's primary oil export terminal, which handles up to 90% of its crude shipments with 30 million barrels of storage, lies 16 miles off the coast, about 300 miles northwest of the Strait of Hormuz.

Also called the "Forbidden Island" for its isolation and heavy defences, it had been previously threatened by Trump with strikes unless Hormuz Strait vessel attacks ceased.

US President Donald Trump recently threatened to destroy the island unless a deal to end the war is reached quickly and the Strait of Hormuz reopens “immediately.”

Additionally, two people were killed in a US–Israeli attack on a rail bridge in the central Iranian city of Kashan, a regional official told state‑run IRNA news agency, hours after Israel warned Iranians to stay away from trains, as per the Times of Israel.

On March 13, the US Air Force carried out a large‑scale bombing raid on Kharg Island, targeting over 90 Iranian military sites, including air‑defence facilities, naval bases, missile‑storage bunkers, and related infrastructure, while deliberately sparing oil and gas export facilities.