‘They better not do that’: Trump warns Iran as Tehran strikes US bases, says ‘will hit with force never seen before…’
Trump warns Iran of retaliation with force ‘never seen before’ as tit-for-tat attacks escalate following Khamenei’s killing and a new wave of Iranian missile and drone strikes.
The confrontation between the United States and Iran entered a more volatile phase on Sunday after President Donald Trump issued a stark warning against further Iranian retaliation, threatening unprecedented military force even as Tehran announced a new wave of missile and drone strikes targeting American and Israeli assets across the region.
The exchange marks one of the most dangerous moments in the rapidly escalating conflict triggered by the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, an event that has reshaped regional politics and sparked unrest beyond Iran’s borders.
Trump issues warning on Truth Social
Trump delivered his message through a statement posted on his Truth Social platform, responding to reports that Iran was preparing intensified retaliation.
“Iran just stated that they are going to hit very hard today, harder than they have ever been hit before,” the US president wrote.
“They better not do that, however, because if they do, we will hit them with a force that has never been seen before!”
The post concluded with the full statement released by Trump:
“Iran just stated that they are going to hit very hard today, harder than they have ever hit before. THEY BETTER NOT DO THAT, HOWEVER, BECAUSE IF THEY DO, WE WILL HIT THEM WITH A FORCE THAT HAS NEVER BEEN SEEN BEFORE! Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP”
The warning underscores Washington’s readiness to escalate further should Iranian attacks continue.
Iran launches sixth wave of attacks, targets US bases
Shortly after Trump’s remarks, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced it was carrying out a sixth wave of retaliatory operations, according to Iranian state media.
The IRGC said it launched “extensive missile and drone” attacks targeting Israel and US military installations across the region. Iranian reports claimed that 27 American bases were targeted, alongside Israel’s Tel Nof airbase, the Israeli military’s command headquarters at HaKirya in Tel Aviv and a major defence industrial complex in the same city.
Iranian forces warned that they would “implement a different and harsh step of revenge, with successive, regrettable slaps,” signalling the possibility of continued strikes.
Independent verification of the full scope of the attacks remains limited.
Iran confirms Khamenei’s killing, declares leader a “martyr”
Iranian state news agencies confirmed the death of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, hailing him as a “martyr” and framing his killing as a defining moment for the Islamic Republic.
Tehran also confirmed the deaths of senior figures including Ali Shamkani, a top political adviser to Khamenei and secretary of Iran’s Defence Council, and Mohammad Pakpour, commander-in-chief of the IRGC.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian condemned the killing “as a great crime” and pledged retaliation, according to a statement released by his office.
Regional reaction spreads beyond Iran
The fallout has extended across neighbouring countries, particularly Iraq, where influential cleric Muqtada al-Sadr expressed his “sadness and sorrow” over Khamenei’s death and declared three days of public mourning.
In Baghdad, protests erupted in the heavily fortified Green Zone — home to government institutions and foreign embassies — with demonstrators confronting security forces amid rising anti-American sentiment.
Meanwhile, Qatar’s Ministry of Interior reported eight additional injuries linked to Iranian strikes, bringing the total number of wounded since the onset of hostilities to 16.
About the Author
Sayantani Biswas is an assistant editor at Livemint with seven years of experience covering geopolitics, foreign policy, international relations and global power dynamics. She reports on Indian and international politics, including elections worldwide, and specialises in historically grounded analysis of contemporary conflicts and state decisions. She joined Mint in 2021, after covering politics at publications including The Telegraph. <br> She holds an MPhil in Comparative Literature from Jadavpur University (2019), with a specialisation in postcolonial Latin American literature. Her research examined economic nationalism through Eduardo Galeano’s Open Veins of Latin America. She also writes on political language, cultural memory and the long shadows of conflict. <br> Biswas grew up in Durgapur, an industrial town in West Bengal shaped by migration, which drew families from across India to the Durgapur Steel Plant. As the only child in a joint family, she spent years listening—almost obsessively—to her grandparents’ testimonies of struggle, fear and loss as they fled Bangladesh during the Partition of 1947. This formative exposure to lived historical memory later converged with her training in Comparative Literature, equipping her to analyse socio-economic structures and their reverberations. <br> Outside the newsroom, she gravitates towards cultural history and critical theory, returning often to texts such as Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed. As a journalist, she is committed to accuracy, intellectual rigour and fairness, and believes political reporting demands not only clarity and speed, but historical depth, contextual precision, and a disciplined resistance to spectacle.