An Iraqi Shiite soldier chants on the eve of funeral ceremonies for the late Iranian Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei exterior the Imam Ali Shrine in Najaf, Iraq, Tuesday, July 7, 2026.
Hadi Mizban/AP
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Hadi Mizban/AP
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The U.S. army attacked Iran early Wednesday after it mentioned Tehran struck three ships within the Strait of Hormuz, a part of an American effort that additionally revoked the Islamic Republic’s capacity to overtly promote crude oil on the earth market. Iran retaliated with strikes concentrating on Bahrain and Kuwait.
The regional crossfire raised the dangers that an interim settlement to halt preventing within the struggle might break down, placing the Center East once more susceptible to a wider battle.
The assaults on delivery and the ensuing strikes got here through the dayslong funeral for Iran’s Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed Feb. 28 within the struggle’s first moments at age 86. The funeral, which ends Thursday, had been considered a interval of decrease tensions — although mourners have repeatedly referred to as for the killings of U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Negotiations to succeed in a remaining deal had been on account of begin after Khamenei’s burial and give attention to the hardest issues, together with totally reopening the strait and rolling again Tehran’s disputed nuclear program. However the brand new assaults threw that into query.
“The era of bullying and extortion is over,” Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf wrote on X. “It leads nowhere. We don’t fold.”
In a single day US strikes goal Iran
The U.S. army’s Central Command mentioned American forces launched the strikes “to impose heavy costs for targeting and attacking commercial shipping crewed by innocent civilians in an international waterway.”
It mentioned it hit Iranian targets together with air protection techniques, radars and over 60 small boats utilized by Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard. These boats have been key in harassing ships within the strait.
The U.S. army stays “postured and prepared to hold Iran accountable when the agreement is not adhered to or obeyed,” it added, saying this spherical of assaults had ended.
Iran acknowledged the strikes, however supplied no phrase on any losses. Iranian state media reported the sound of explosions in Bandar Abbas, Qeshm and Sirik.
Map displaying the place a tanker was struck within the Strait of Hormuz.
Will Jarrett/AP
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Will Jarrett/AP
Wednesday morning, each Bahrain, residence to the U.S. Navy’s fifth Fleet, and Kuwait, residence to U.S. Military forces, sounded missile alerts. The Guard issued an announcement acknowledging concentrating on U.S. army installations in each nations.
“The child-killing and terrorist U.S. army … openly violated the ceasefire and violated the Islamabad understanding by launching an airstrike on a number of coastal bases and civilian stations on the coasts of Hormozgan and Mahshahr provinces,” it mentioned, with out addressing the assaults on ships within the strait.
Bahrain sounded its alert a second time later Wednesday morning.
An analogous spate of Iranian assaults on delivery and U.S. retaliatory strikes occurred late final month — which equally drew Iranian assaults on Bahrain and Kuwait. Wednesday’s strikes additionally got here as Trump was in Turkey for a summit of the NATO army alliance.
US revokes license for the sale of Iranian oil
The U.S. additionally revoked a license that approved the sale of Iranian oil as a part of the interim deal. That had allowed Iran for the primary time in years to conduct oil gross sales overtly on the worldwide marketplace for U.S. {dollars}. Iran lengthy had been suspected of promoting sanctioned crude oil at below-market costs to China.
The choice got here after the strikes on delivery. One tanker was touring off the coast of Oman when it was hit and caught hearth, the UK Maritime Commerce Operations heart mentioned. Iranian state tv mentioned the liquefied pure fuel tanker got here underneath assault after ignoring warnings however didn’t straight declare the assault.
The opposite two ships sustained some injury, however nobody was injured, and each continued on their means within the Strait of Hormuz, the U.Ok. maritime company mentioned. Iran has maintained a chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz for the reason that struggle, disrupting world vitality markets as a fifth of all traded oil and pure fuel handed by way of the channel in peacetime. The ships attacked Tuesday all seemed to be utilizing a route near Oman’s shore, moderately than one ordered by Tehran.
Tehran repeatedly has declared that solely its authorised route by way of the strait is protected and is suspected of attacking different ships which have used the Oman route.
Majed al-Ansari, a spokesperson for the Qatari Overseas Ministry, mentioned the Qatari tanker Al Rekayyat was focused in an “unacceptable attack” on worldwide navigation and world vitality safety. He mentioned Qatar holds Iran “fully legally responsible.”
Iran and america agreed as a part of the interim deal to permit ships to move with out paying expenses for 60 days. However Tehran insisted it should management the vessels’ routes and later cost charges for passage, which might upend many years of observe within the waterway.
The U.S. and plenty of Gulf Arab states say they won’t conform to Iran charging for passage by way of the strait.
