The furious Iranian regime has warned President Donald Trump if he deploys American soldiers in a ground assault, they will face a “swamp of death”. The US and Israeli bombardment of Iran has been relentless since the war started on February 28, decimating the Iranian navy and air force, as well as destroying thousands of rocket launch sites and military infrastructure.

But despite an impressive tally of more than 19,500 targets eliminated, the Iranians are still proving capable of launching aerial attacks against Israel and neighbouring Gulf states and US bases. An Iranian missile attack on Friday wounded at least 10 US service members, including two with serious ­injuries, and damaged or wrecked several planes at a military base in Saudi Arabia.

Tehran has also been able to shut down the vital Strait of Hormuz waterway, which usually carries around 20% of the world’s oil and gas supply. Last night, Donald Trump told the Financial Times (FT) he could “take the oil in Iran” and possibly seize Kharg Island, which lies just 15 miles off the Iranian coast. The small archipelago processes around 90% of Iran’s oil production.

The US is reported to be sending around 2,500 Marines to the region, and Trump told the FT: “To be honest with you, my favourite thing is to take the oil in Iran, but some stupid people back in the US say: ‘Why are you doing that?’ But they’re stupid people.

He told the paper: “Maybe we take Kharg Island, maybe we don’t. We have a lot of options, it would also mean we had to be there [in Kharg Island] for a while.”

Speaking before Trump made his comments about possibly landing on Iranian territory, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps spokesman Ebrahim Zolfaqari said: ‘Unfortunately, the leaders of the United States have delegated the authority to command the armed forces to someone who, due to imbalance, dangerous and wrong positions and decisions, has led the US army into the swamp of death.”

Zolfaqari’s statement was backed up by Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s parliamentary speaker, who claimed the US was publicly sending “messages of negotiation and dialogue” but at the same time “secretly planning a ground attack”.

He added: “Our men are waiting for the arrival of the American soldiers on the ground to set them on fire and punish their regional allies once and for all.”

Sirens sounded at dawn near Israel’s main nuclear research centre, a part of the country that has been targeted repeatedly in recent days. Israel’s military also said it had taken out two drones launched from Yemen, where the Iranian-backed rebels entered the war on Saturday with their first missile attack.

Iran kept up the pressure on its Gulf Arab neighbours, as Saudi Arabia intercepted five missiles targeting its oil-rich Eastern province, Bahrain sounded a missile alert, and a fireball erupted over Dubai as an incoming missile was taken out by defences.

In Kuwait, an Iranian attack hit a power and desalination plant, killing one worker and injuring 10 soldiers, the state-run KUNA news agency reported.

Desalination plants are crucial to water supplies in the Gulf Arab states, and an Iranian attack during the war previously damaged a desalination plant in Bahrain. The facilities are typically paired with power plants, because of the large amount of energy required to remove salt from the water to make it drinkable.

Israel’s military launched a new wave of attacks on Iran, saying it was striking “military infrastructure” across Tehran, and explosions were heard in the Iranian capital. Iranian state media reported a petrochemicals plant in Tabriz, in the north, sustained damage after an airstrike and firefighters had to put out a blaze.

In Lebanon, which Israel has invaded by ground, an Indonesian peacekeeper was killed and three others were wounded when a projectile exploded near a village in the south.