U.S. Launches Strikes After Iran Fires On Ship In Strait Of Hormuz
U.S. Central Command launched a wave of strikes against Iran on Saturday 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.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, the country’s primary military force, responded to the strikes early on Sunday, saying that it had targeted U.S. assets across the Middle East. The United Arab Emirates’ defense ministry later said it was intercepting missile and drone attacks from Iran. Qatar’s defense ministry also said it was intercepting missile attacks, though it did not specify their origin.
The exchange of strikes came after a heavy week of skirmishes between the United States and Iran and threatened to undermine efforts to rekindle a fragile truce that had eroded over disagreements about the Strait of Hormuz. Tehran’s military has continued to assert that its waters are the only viable route through the critical passage, even as the United States has demanded that Iran abandon its claim and say that all channels for crossing the strait are open.
READ ALSO: Band Members Among 10 Killed When Plane Crashes In Popular Tourist Destination
U.S. officials issued an ultimatum on Friday, saying that if Iran did not comply with those demands, “We’re not going to have a good outcome for them.” After the Iranian attack on the container ship on Saturday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth suggested that the United States might be following through on that threat. “Iran made a poor choice,” he said. “Now they pay.”
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, and the prospect of a reopening seemed only to dim with the latest round of tit-for-tat attacks.
The Iranian navy said it had fired the initial attack on the container ship after “several ships attempted to travel along an unapproved route” and ignored directions to transit through Iran’s territorial waters. The U.S. military did not immediately specify where it had struck, but Central Command announced early on Sunday that it had concluded the attack, about four hours after it began.
Iran’s state broadcaster reported that explosions had been heard in key cities across the country’s southern coast that had been targeted in previous rounds of U.S. strikes, many of which include major energy centers and Iranian military installations. The broadcaster said that Iranian military barracks had been hit in Bushehr and a military site in Deyr, but did not say whether there had been casualties.
