Trump warns Tehran over Pickaxe Mountain activity; U.S.-Iran exchange attacks on ships near Hormuz

BREAKING: Trump warns Iran 'not to get cute' over activity at a suspected nuclear site on Pickaxe Mountain, as US and Iranian forces exchange attacks on ships near the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran says it attacked ten ships near the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday. Tehran also fired ballistic missiles at a US base in Jordan, days after American forces destroyed five Iranian oil tankers. Twenty percent of the world's oil moves through that strait, and Brent is now sitting above a hundred dollars a barrel.

And behind the shooting, there's a mountain. Trump warned Iran, in his words, not to get cute over activity at Pickaxe Mountain, a tunnel complex two kilometres from the bombed Natanz enrichment site. Satellite analysis from CSIS shows more road and construction activity there this year than at any point in the site's history. Trump says the US will hit it very hard if that continues.

He also told reporters he thinks the war ends immediately after November's midterms, because Iran can't hold out longer. So by the President's own account, this gets worse before it gets better, and oil in triple digits is the price of admission.

This is Angel Manalo, reporting for HIT.