The United States and Iran have exchanged attacks after the US military said Iran struck ships in the Strait of Hormuz, threatening a fragile ceasefire between Tehran and Washington.
The US Central Command (CENTCOM) said its strikes on Iran began on Tuesday and were conducted “in response to Iranian attacks on three commercial vessels that were transiting the Strait of Hormuz”.
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CENTCOM said it hit “over 80 targets with precision munitions” before concluding the strikes approximately four hours after they had begun.
Iranian military leaders pledged a “crushing response” to the attack, adding that they would not allow foreign interference in the management of the Strait of Hormuz.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) later said it targeted 85 US military sites in Bahrain and Kuwait in response to the attacks. The Iranian army said a drone attack targeted US forces at the Sheikh Isa airbase in Bahrain.
The flare-up comes as US President Donald Trump is in Turkiye attending this year’s NATO summit. It risks derailing last month’s agreement between the US and Iran to extend their ceasefire and enter into talks on ending the war, although neither country has immediately signalled they plan to abandon negotiations.
On Wednesday morning, NATO chief Mark Rutte called the US’s latest attacks on Iran “absolutely necessary”, arguing it had to “forcefully react” to what amounted to Iran breaching the ceasefire agreement.
‘Highly escalated situation’
Iranian media reported several explosions in the southern port city of Sirik, where projectiles were said to have hit commercial and fishing piers, as well as Qeshm Island and areas near Bandar Abbas.
Sirens also sounded in Kuwait and Bahrain hours after the initial attacks on Iran. Kuwait’s air defences were confronting “hostile” missile and drone attacks, its army said.
The US strikes targeted Iranian air defence systems, coastal surveillance systems, surface-to-air missiles, antiship cruise missiles and drone launch sites, an unnamed US official told the Reuters news agency. Iranian state media reported that several people were injured by shrapnel at the Sirik commercial pier.
The IRGC later said it had shot down a US MQ9 drone in southern Iran.
“According to state TV, six explosions have been heard on the island of Qeshm, which is the largest island in the vicinity of the Strait of Hormuz, with very geostrategic significance when it comes to Iran’s control and authority over the strait,” Al Jazeera’s Tohid Asadi reported from Tehran.
“The state TV also says that at least seven explosions have been heard in the areas close to Sirik port, which is very important because it oversees the Strait of Hormuz, another strategic point from which Iran imposes its control and authority over the strait,” Asadi said.
“Starting from the time after the signing of the memorandum of understanding, we have been witnessing limited confrontation and escalation in this highly escalated situation at the Strait of Hormuz,” he added.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, who was in Iraq for the funeral procession of Iran’s slain Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, returned following the attacks.
Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs held Washington responsible for the consequences of breaching the MoU agreed between the two countries in June, which extended an April ceasefire and launched talks aimed at ending the US-Israel war on Iran, which began in late February. The MoU mandated lifting the US naval blockade on Iran in exchange for Tehran reopening the vital Strait of Hormuz.
The US also agreed at the end of June to waive sanctions on Iranian oil for 60 days.
However, the US Department of the Treasury on Tuesday moved to revoke the temporary suspension of sanctions on Iranian oil, less than 20 days after the MoU was signed. The department cancelled a licence announced in June that had allowed Iran to produce, sell and deliver crude oil and related products through August 21.
Mohammad Ghalibaf, Iran’s chief negotiator, called the reinstatement of oil sanctions “major MoU violations” by the US, citing “attacks on southern Iran” as further violations.
The move by the Treasury Department comes after tankers in the Strait of Hormuz were attacked. A Qatari tanker caught fire off the coast of Oman on Monday after being struck by an “unknown projectile”, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO).
Iranian TV reports said the liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker came under attack after ignoring warnings, but Tehran did not directly claim the assault. Neither CENTCOM nor the IRGC commented on the incident.
A second ship, a Saudi-flagged crude oil tanker, was also damaged in the Strait of Hormuz when the IRGC fired missiles, sources told Reuters.
“We’ve been there before,” Al Jazeera’s Mike Hanna said, reporting from the White House, referring to the reciprocal attacks exchanged between the US and Iran in late June. “The response by the US is in retaliation for what it says is Iran breaking the MoU, which provides a basis for the ceasefire.”
“But to understand the background to this, Iran, since the signing of the MoU, has insisted that shipping transiting the Strait of Hormuz do so by a northern route, which is closer to Iran and which it effectively controls,” Hanna said. “The US has been urging ships to go through what it says is a US Navy southern protected route.”
