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The US launched fresh strikes on Iran early on Wednesday, hitting more than 80 targets, according to US Central Command, which said the attacks were conducted in response to Tehran’s attacks on three ships in the Strait of Hormuz.
“US forces struck Iranian defense systems, command and control networks, coastal radar sites, anti-ship missile capabilities, and more than 60 Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps small boats in and near the strait,” the US military said in a statement posted to X.
The strikes came as US President Donald Trump was in Turkey for a summit of the NATO military alliance.
Iran immediately warned Washington it would “take whatever measures it deems necessary,” raising the risks that an interim agreement in the war halting fighting could break down, putting the wider Middle East again at risk of a wider conflict.
Bahrain, home to the US Navy’s 5th Fleet, sounded its missile alert sirens Wednesday morning after the American attack on Iran.
CENTCOM said American forces launched the strikes “to impose heavy costs for targeting and attacking commercial shipping crewed by innocent civilians in an international waterway.”
It said it hit Iranian targets including air defence systems, radars and over 60 small boats used by Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.
The US military remains “postured and prepared to hold Iran accountable when the agreement is not adhered to or obeyed,” it added, saying this round of attacks had ended.
Iran’s foreign ministry accused the United States of repeatedly violating the memorandum of understanding agreed between the two sides and threatened retaliation.
“The era of bullying and extortion is over,” Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf wrote on X. “It leads nowhere. We don’t fold.”
Iranian state media reported the sound of explosions in Bandar Abbas, Qeshm and Sirik, as Iran’s central military command warned it “will respond decisively to this aggression and terrorist act.”
“Under no circumstances will (the Iranian armed forces) allow interference in the affairs of the Strait of Hormuz, nor will they permit others to manage it,” it said.
A similar spate of Iranian attacks on shipping and US retaliatory strikes occurred late last month — which drew Iranian attacks on Bahrain and Kuwait.
The US also revoked a licence that authorised the sale of Iranian oil as part of the interim deal following the attacks on shipping.
One tanker was traveling off the coast of Oman when it was hit and caught fire, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations centre said, adding that the other two ships sustained some damage, but no one was injured, and both continued on their way in the Strait of Hormuz.
Additional sources • AP, AFP