Trump Unleashes New Wave of Strikes on Iran After Regime Attacks Shipping and Closes Strait of Hormuz

The US military launched a new barrage of strikes on Iran on Sunday evening to “continue degrading” Tehran’s ability to attack commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz.

President Trump directed the US Central Command forces to begin the fresh round of strikes around 5 p.m. ET to “hold Iranian forces accountable,” CENTCOM announced in a statement on X. 

After Iranian attacks on shipping, the president declared the MOU dead, and a cycle of escalation short of a breakout of full-scale war, but just, has been growing. Washington Post: The United States and Iran exchanged the heaviest fire in months on Sunday, with both sides striking numerous military targets after Iran announced the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and disabled a civilian container ship. U.S. officials, however, on Sunday morning rejected Tehran’s claim of control over the strait — continuing a cycle of contradictory statements and a stalemate over the vital waterway. The Persian Gulf Strait Authority — an Iranian body established in May on which the Treasury Department has imposed sanctions — posted online Sunday that passage through the Strait of Hormuz “is currently not possible” because of “recent illegal movements” by U.S. military forces in the region. Also Sunday, President Donald Trump told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the strait was open to commercial traffic. “It’s open. We bombed the hell out of them last night. They’re very, very evil and sick people,” Trump said. He said that the Iranians agreed to “a perfect deal for us” the day prior — “no nuclear, no this, no that, no nothing. They gave up everything.” “And then after that, they left the room. And then within an hour, they launched a drone at a ship,” Trump said. Iranian state media reported new consecutive attacks near the Strait of Hormuz later in the day Sunday. IRNA reported that “the enemy” attacked near the port city of Bandar Abbas along the Strait of Hormuz as well as Qeshm island in the strait on Sunday evening. The Iranian state media outlet said that according to initial reports, a maintenance worker was killed in an attack. Iran’s armed forces fired at least three waves of missiles and drones at U.S. military bases across the Persian Gulf — in Jordan, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman — early Sunday in retaliation for extensive U.S. bombing across southern Iran, according to the semiofficial Tasnim News Agency, which is associated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. (Washington Post.)

CENTCOM reports it has conducted hundreds of strikes aiming to degrade Iranian capabilities to attack shipping, and as of this writing it continues to strike at targets in Iran. CENTCOM: At 5 p.m. ET today, U.S. Central Command forces began launching more strikes against Iran to continue degrading their ability to attack civilian mariners and commercial ships freely transiting the Strait of Hormuz. The Commander in Chief has directed the strikes to hold Iranian forces accountable. (CENTCOM.)

Iran has been insisting that it has sole authority to authorize any transit of ships through the Strait of Hormuz, and it has become more aggressive in backing up that claim with force.

New York Times: Iran’s attack on a container ship came hours after a meeting between the foreign ministers of Iran and Oman about opening the strait to traffic. U.S. Central Command said on Saturday evening that it had launched strikes on Iran after the Iranian navy attacked a container ship in the Strait of Hormuz, rejecting a U.S. ultimatum to open the critical waterway to traffic. Hours earlier, the Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, had met in Oman with its top diplomat to discuss safe passage in the Strait of Hormuz, but he made no public commitments. The prospect of a reopening seemed dimmer than ever after Iran announced the attack, a warning shot on a container ship, and said it would close the strait “until the end of U.S. interference in the region.” The Iranian navy said it had fired after “several ships attempted to travel along an unapproved route” and ignored directions to transit through Iran’s territorial waters. It warned that it would meet any U.S. retaliation to its attack with a “forceful response.” Iran’s latest move came after a heavy week of skirmishes between the United States and Iran focused on the strait. Tehran’s military has continued to claim its own waters as the only viable route, and this week, U.S. officials said, Iran attacked three ships traveling through the waterway. Iran did not claim responsibility for those attacks. (New York Times.)