Tehran has been rocked by another wave of powerful airstrikes just hours after President Donald Trump vowed the United States would hit Iran “hard,” in what officials are calling the most intense bombardment of the capital since the war began.

Residents across western and southern Tehran reported a night of relentless blasts as cruise missiles and guided bombs slammed into Revolutionary Guard bases, air‑defence sites and suspected missile depots ringing the city. Phone videos show multiple fireballs blooming on the horizon, followed by shockwaves that rattled apartment blocks and plunged entire districts into darkness.

US officials, speaking on background, say the strikes were green‑lit after intelligence indicated fresh Iranian preparations for long‑range missile launches against US forces and Israel. Target lists reportedly included command bunkers, radar networks and underground entrances to Iran’s much‑touted “missile cities” buried beneath the hills around Tehran.

Iranian state media concedes “martyrs and material losses” but insists key capabilities remain intact, accusing Washington of “cowardly terror from the sky” and promising that ballistic missiles and Shahed‑style drones will answer the escalation. Hospitals in the capital, already strained by earlier raids, are treating dozens of wounded, with local reports of blood shortages and rolling power cuts.

For millions watching Trump’s “hit hard” speech replayed alongside images of burning compounds on Tehran’s edge, one fear is taking hold: that each new round of strikes is no longer about leverage at the negotiating table, but about driving a confrontation that neither side seems willing—or able—to stop.