Trump says the US will take out Pickaxe Mountain in Iran

WASHINGTON, July 13 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that the United States would destroy the “Mountain” in Iran and warned that “Washington will continue to hit the country hard.”

“We’re going to destroy Mount Pickaxe. Tell the Iranians to be ready,” Trump said in an interview on the Hugh Hewitt Show.

“We’re watching Mount Pickaxe closely. We don’t see any activity there. Their nuclear situation isn’t very good. Every time we hear about it, we blow it up. That’s why they don’t like to talk about it. But we’ll probably give Pickaxe a shot soon,” Trump said.

Located near Iran’s badly damaged Natanz uranium enrichment facility, Kazma Mountain is a heavily fortified site that hosts two deeply buried tunnel complexes that experts consider to be beyond the reach of the most powerful bunker-busting bombs in the U.S. arsenal.

Trump said earlier Monday that the United States would restart its blockade of Iranian shipping in the Gulf and ensure the Strait of Hormuz remains open — for a fee — after the two sides exchange more missile and drone attacks.

“We’re going to hit them hard tonight and we’re going to hit them hard tomorrow. And there’s nothing they can do about it,” he said on the Hugh Hewitt Show.

(Reporting by Ismail Shakil, Daphne ​Psaledakis, Christian Martinez and Jonathan Landay; Editing by Caitlin Webber and Michelle Nichols)