The United States has carried out a fresh round of strikes on Iranian military targets near the Strait of Hormuz, according to US officials quoted by Axios and The New York Times, as tensions between Washington and Tehran continue to escalate. The officials said the strikes targeted Iranian missile and air defence systems, as well as small vessels operated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Iranian state media reported that one person had died and two were injured in the attacks.
The official said the aim was to reduce Iran’s ability to attack commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. The strikes came after the US blamed Iran’s IRGC for a drone attack on a merchant vessel transiting the strategic waterway. The US military said it struck 140 Iranian military targets in what it described as its third round of attacks within a week.
Iranian state media reported explosions near Qeshm Island, Bandar Abbas and Hajjiabad in the southern province of Hormozgan. According to the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), Qeshm Governor Hossein Amir Teymouri said 10 to 11 “enemy projectiles” had struck Qeshm Island.
He said all of the sites targeted were military positions and that no casualties had been reported.
Video from Qeshm Island, Iran, following U.S. attacks on the area pic.twitter.com/LozmvC7OAo
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IRNA also quoted official sources as saying that “all of these areas are military” and that the attacks were under investigation.
Iran’s state broadcaster IRIB reported several explosions near Qeshm Island, while the semi-official Fars News Agency said blasts were also heard near the port city of Bandar Abbas.
US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that the United States had hit Iran “very hard last night”. “These people, there’s something wrong with them,” Trump told CNN on State of the Union. “We had a deal with them yesterday,” he said. “They were giving up everything, and then all of the sudden, two hours after that, they hit a ship with a drone.”
The latest strikes are the newest exchange in a cycle of attacks between the United States and Iran centred on the Strait of Hormuz.
Although both countries agreed last month to restore access through the waterway under a temporary truce, Iran has maintained that all vessels passing through the strait must travel through its territorial waters, arguing that the route gives Tehran leverage in future negotiations.
Washington has rejected that position, insisting that all shipping lanes through the strait remain open to international traffic. Neither side has indicated it is prepared to compromise, raising concerns that the fragile truce could collapse.