The strikes follow attacks against commercial shipping and service members.
President Donald Trump announced "major combat operations" against Iran on Feb. 28, with massive joint U.S.-Israeli strikes targeting military, government and infrastructure sites.
Delegations from the U.S. and Iran entered negotiations in June aimed at a war-ending deal based on a memorandum of understanding signed by both countries.
The U.S. and Iran have nonetheless continued to exchange strikes, with the strategic Strait of Hormuz as the primary flashpoint.
Shortly after the U.S. confirmed it launched strikes against Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps targets, IRGC spokesperson Ebrahim Zolfaghari threatened a response is on the way.
"Gifts are on the way. We will no longer exercise restraint regarding Bahrain and Kuwait," Zolfaghari said in a post on X.
Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said that the U.S.'s naval blockade against Iran amounts to a military act and warned that Iran would respond militarily if the U.S. intensifies its blockade, in a a video statement on Iranian state media Tuesday.
If the United States' "will is that we do not export oil" from the Gulf, "no one will be able to export oil," Ghalibaf said.
Ghalibaf said Iranian forces are resisting the U.S. effort to get ships across the Strait of Hormuz. While Ghalibaf acknowledged that “the enemy managed to get some ships” through Hormuz, he stressed that Iranian forces remain “in complete control of the strait and will not allow it to be opened."
He also said the U.S. is giving ships "false guarantees" about its ability to cross a southern route in Hormuz, adding that ships that try to do so are being targeted.
"America wants to use the southern route of the Strait of Hormuz in violation of the Memorandum of Understanding, and we will not allow it," he said.
U.S. forces have begun striking Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps targets in Iran at 12 p.m. on Tuesday, U.S. Central Command said.
"The strikes follow recent attempted attacks by the IRGC against commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and against American service members deployed to the region," CENTCOM said.
On the sidelines of the G20 summit in North Carolina on Tuesday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent teased that there would be more sanctions on banks that the Trump administration is alleging facilitate business with Iran as part of their economic pressure campaign on Iran.
When asked, Bessent said that the level of intensity of these sanctions will be the gamechanger in upping pressure on Iran's economy.
"It's something at this level of intensity, the Treasury now has five new authorities, and it is across digital assets. It is across aviation. It is across maritime, and we are flexing every day," Bessent said.
"We are speaking to our allies here, who have all come forward, and we have had a great show of support, whether it's from the EU, the ECB, the the UK, the UAE, the Bahrainians. So we have seen great support around the world, and we have zero tolerance," Bessent later added.
Bessent added his plan to "economically asphyxiate this regime" to get them ready to a deal that President Donald Trump will approve of.
