US strikes Iran over Hormuz ship attack, Tehran lashes out again at Gulf states
The United States attacked Iran on Sunday over an Iranian attack on a vessel in the Strait of Hormuz, setting the container ship ablaze and forcing its crew to abandon it. Iran apparently responded with strikes targeting Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
The strait has become the key sticking point in any further negotiations between Iran and the United States to find a permanent end to the war that began back on February 28.
About a fifth of all traded oil and natural gas passed through the strait before the war began. Iran’s grip on it during the war led to a global energy crisis, though oil prices have sharply dropped since wartime highs of US$120 a barrel.
The US military's Central Command said it hit some 140 targets in the strikes, far more than the last two rounds, and went after missile and drone launch sites, ammunition dumps, communication equipment and other sites.
The attacks “degrade Iran’s ability to attack civilian mariners and commercial vessels freely transiting the strait," it said.
The new crossfire in the Persian Gulf comes after US President Donald Trump suggested an interim deal and ceasefire in the Iran war was “over".
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth wrote online: “Iran made a poor choice. Now they pay.”
Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, the speaker of Iran's parliament and a main negotiator, responded.
“The era of one-sided deals is OVER,” he wrote on X. “We told you: keep your word or pay the price. Reality is knocking.”
The US launched three rounds of airstrikes targeting Iran in the last week over Iranian attacks on ships heading through the Strait of Hormuz using a route seeking to avoid the Islamic Republic’s territorial waters.
Tehran retaliated by attacking nations in the region hosting US military forces, while insisting it alone must control the strait and potentially charge vessels for travelling through it.
Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and UAE all attacked
Missile alerts sounded across several Gulf Arab nations.
Qatar's military said in a statement it intercepted incoming Iranian fire, with explosions heard in neighboring United Arab Emirates.
Three people, including a child, were wounded as a result of falling shrapnel from the interception of Iranian attacks, Qatar's Interior Ministry said.
Meanwhile, missile alerts sounded in Bahrain, an island kingdom in the Persian Gulf home to the US Navy's 5th Fleet. Kuwait's military also said it was intercepting incoming fire.
It wasn’t immediately clear what locations were under attack in the UAE, which so far hadn’t been targeted in the latest round of attacks by Iran. The latest attack on the Emirates, home to Abu Dhabi and Dubai, came in May when a drone sparked a fire on the edge of the country's sole nuclear power plant.
Iran also made a series of claims about attacks elsewhere that were not immediately confirmed.
In the Strait of Hormuz attack, a Cyprus-flagged container ship was hit by Iran and suffered “significant engineroom damage” and a civilian crew member is missing, U.S. Central Command said.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations centre, overseen by the British military, said the ship had been traveling in a route hugging the shoreline of Oman. That's been the way ships have gotten in and out of the Persian Gulf while avoiding Iranian territorial waters. The ship's crew abandoned the vessel as it was ablaze, the centre said.
Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said multiple vessels “disregarded our warnings and instructions to correct their course and proceed along the approved route.” One of them “was struck by a warning shot and brought to a stop.”
Iran said that the strait would remain closed “until further notice” and said it would consider targeting “additional enemy bases in the region” if it faced more attacks.
Senior US officials had previously said in Washington that negotiations to further cement last month's deal to end the war will be unable to progress without the strait being secure — and had even said they expected Iran to offer public statements to that effect.
Instead, the Revolutionary Guards Corps said multiple vessels "disregarded our warnings and instructions to correct their course and proceed along the approved route.” One of them “was struck by a warning shot and brought to a stop.”
Iran said that the strait would remain closed “until further notice” and said it would consider targeting “additional enemy bases in the region” if it faced more attacks.
A little more than an hour later, the US announced its own new round of strikes.
“Iran made a poor choice. Now they pay,” Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth posted on social media.
Attacks followed more diplomatic talks about the strait
The latest flurry of shots from both sides followed Iran and Oman’s foreign ministers meeting on Saturday to discuss the strait that lies between them, after days of Iranian attacks on ships and U.S. retaliation that dealt a blow to the interim deal to end the war.
Iran’s new supreme leader, still unseen since the war began, also vowed in his first statement since the funeral of his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that Iranians would avenge his killing in the war’s opening strikes on February 28.
Such revenge “is the will of our nation and must certainly be carried out", Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said in a statement carried on state television, hours after US President Donald Trump threatened more missile attacks.
Oman said it and Iran agreed to keep talking about the Strait of Hormuz “at the technical and political levels".
Iran accuses Washington of violating ceasefire deal
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said he met with his counterpart in Oman to discuss “appropriate mechanisms for ensuring the safe passage of ships".
The world for decades has considered the strait an international waterway. Iran has insisted that the strait now remain under its control and that it be allowed to charge ships moving through it, a stance it took after the war began. The US urges mariners to transit on a southern route through Oman’s territorial waters.
About a fifth of all traded oil and natural gas passed through the strait before the war began. Iran’s grip on it during the war led to a global energy crisis, though oil prices have sharply dropped since wartime highs of US$120 a barrel.
Iran's top diplomat also accused the US of violating the interim deal by ending waivers allowing Iran to sell crude oil on the open market in US dollars. Washington ended them in response to the attacks on ships in the strait.
“Reality check: There can only be mutual compliance,” Araghchi wrote on X.
Trump says he responded to threats to kill him
A thousand “missiles are Locked and Loaded and aimed at the Islamic Republic of Iran, with thousands more to immediately follow, should the Iranian Government act on its threat,” Trump wrote on social media overnight
He said he was responding to threats “to assassinate, or attempt to assassinate” him. During Khamenei's funeral, mourners held posters or banners calling for Trump to be killed along with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Trump has declared the ceasefire over but said the US would continue negotiations.
US officials, speaking Friday on condition of anonymity about the current situation with Iran, said the resumption of strikes in recent days came after what they described as a rogue faction of Iranian hard-liners tried to sabotage the ceasefire.
Iran has insisted its theocracy is unified under the new supreme leader.
After the US wrapped up its latest strikes on Thursday, more attacks reportedly hit Iran, raising questions about who else may be targeting the Islamic Republic.
Israel didn't claim them, meaning the Gulf Arab states may have launched them, likely as a means to deter Iran from attacking them again. Iran on Thursday retaliated for US strikes by targeting Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait and Qatar.
The strikes in Iran over two days killed at least 17 people and wounded 115 others, Iranian Health Ministry spokesperson Hossein Kermanpour said.
Additional reporting by 1News.