United States President Donald Trump on Sunday threatened to bomb Iran’s power plants and bridges starting Tuesday if the country does not open the Strait of Hormuz.

“Tuesday will be power plant day and bridge day all wrapped up in one in Iran,” Trump said in a social media post. “There will be nothing like…open the f**kin’ strait…or you’ll be living in hell…just watch.”

The US president’s 10-day deadline to Iran will expire on Monday. He had previously threatened to bomb the country’s energy, water and oil infrastructure if no deal was reached to open the maritime chokepoint.

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Here are more top updates from the conflict in West Asia:

  • Later, Trump told Fox News that he believed that there was a “good chance” of making a deal with Iran on Monday, ahead of his deadline for Tehran to reopen the strait. “They are negotiating now,” the US president told the American news channel. “If they don’t make a deal and fast, I’m considering blowing everything up and taking over the oil.”
  • The second crew member from a US fighter jet downed inside Iran on Friday has been rescued, Trump said on Sunday. US and Iranian forces had been locked in a race to locate the F-15E pilot since Friday. Hours after Tehran said that it had shot down the fighter jet on Friday, US media reported that American special forces had rescued one of its two crew members. The second pilot had been missing.
  • “We got him!” Trump said on social media on Sunday, adding that the pilot is now safe. Trump said that the US military had in the past several hours “pulled off one of the most daring search and rescue operations” in US history. Earlier on Sunday, reports had quoted unidentified officials as saying that the second crew member had been recovered after a “heavy firefight”.
  • Trump said on social media that the US military had sent “dozens of aircraft” to retrieve the crew member. “He sustained injuries, but he will be just fine,” the US president said.
  • Trump also said that the first pilot had been rescued on Friday, “which we did not confirm [at the time], because we did not want to jeopardise our second rescue operation”.
  • “This is the first time in military memory that two US pilots have been rescued, separately, deep in enemy territory,” he said, adding that no member of the rescue teams had been injured in the operations.
  • The Iranian military claimed that it downed several US military aircraft, including a C-130 transport plane, that were involved in the rescue of the missing pilot, Tasnim news agency reported. However, The New York Times reported that the US forces had themselves destroyed the aircraft after they got stuck in sand at a remote airstrip that was being used during the operation, to ensure that the equipment does not fall into Iranian hands.
  • The Iranian military on Saturday rejected Trump’s threat to destroy the country’s critical infrastructure if it does not accept a peace deal or reopen the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours, AFP reported.
  • General Ali Abdollahi Aliabadi, in a statement from the Iranian military’s central command, described Trump’s threat as a “helpless, nervous, unbalanced and stupid action”.
  • Aliabadi was reacting to Trump’s comment on Saturday that time was running out for Tehran and that if it did not make a deal within two days, “all hell will [rain] down on them”. The US president had on March 26 said he would pause attacks on Iranian energy facilities for 10 days and had claimed that talks with Tehran were going “very well”.
  • A fire broke out at Kuwait’s Shuwaikh oil sector ​complex, which includes the country’s ⁠oil ministry and the headquarters of the state-owned Kuwait Petroleum Corporation, on Saturday after it was hit in a drone attack, Reuters reported. No injuries ​had been reported and emergency services were trying to douse the fire.
  • The ministries complex in Kuwait city had also sustained “material damage” after a drone strike, the country’s finance ministry said on Sunday. No injuries had been reported.
  • Two Kuwaiti power and water desalination plants were damaged in an Iranian drone attack, the country’s electricity and water ministry said Sunday. While the attack resulted in “serious material damage and the shutdown of two electricity generating units”, there were no injuries.
  • Bahrain’s state-owned firm Bapco Energies said that an Iranian drone attack had led to a fire at a fuel storage facility. The fire was extinguished and the damage was being assessed. There were no injuries.

The conflict

The US and Israel launched an attack on Iran on February 28, claiming that Tehran’s action posed an existential threat to Israel. Washington acts as a guarantor of Israel’s security. Iran has retaliated by striking Israel and US military bases in the region and targeting major cities in Gulf countries.

Tehran has also effectively blocked the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterbody connecting the Gulf to the Arabian Sea, for most international commercial vessels, triggering a global energy crisis. About 20% of global petroleum supply passes through the maritime chokepoint.

Israel has been claiming that Iran is close to obtaining a nuclear weapon, which could alter the regional security balance. Tehran has long maintained that its nuclear programme is for civilian purposes.