WASHINGTON — The United States launched a major wave of strikes against Iran early Sunday after an Iranian attack set a container ship ablaze in the Strait of Hormuz and forced its crew to abandon the vessel.
Iran appeared to respond with attacks targeting Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, further escalating tensions across the Gulf.
The Strait of Hormuz has emerged as the main obstacle to renewed negotiations between Washington and Tehran aimed at securing a permanent end to the war that began on Feb. 28.
About one-fifth of globally traded oil and natural gas passed through the strait before the conflict. Iran’s control of the waterway during the war triggered a global energy crisis, although oil prices have fallen sharply from wartime highs of $120 a barrel.
The US military’s Central Command said it struck about 140 targets in Iran, significantly more than during the previous two rounds of attacks.
The targets included missile and drone launch sites, ammunition depots, communications equipment and other military facilities.
The strikes were intended to “degrade Iran’s ability to attack civilian mariners and commercial vessels freely transiting the strait,” Central Command said.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wrote online: “Iran made a poor choice. Now they pay.”
The renewed crossfire came days after President Donald Trump said the interim agreement intended to halt the war was effectively “over.”
The United Arab Emirates warned residents on Sunday of an incoming missile and drone attack, while explosions were heard in neighboring Qatar.
A missile alert sounded in Qatar shortly after the blasts, and the Qatari military said it had intercepted the incoming Iranian fire. Missile alerts were also activated in Bahrain.
In the Strait of Hormuz incident, a Cyprus-flagged container ship suffered “significant engine-room damage” after being struck by Iran, while one civilian crew member remained missing, according to US Central Command.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said the vessel had been traveling close to Oman’s coastline, along a route used by ships seeking to avoid Iranian territorial waters.
The crew abandoned the vessel after it caught fire, the center said.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said several vessels had ignored warnings and instructions to change course and use an approved route.
It said one vessel was struck by a warning shot and forced to stop.
Tehran said the Strait of Hormuz would remain closed “until further notice” and warned that it could target additional regional bases if Iran came under further attack.
Iranian state media reported that the US strikes targeted Bandar Abbas, Sirik and other areas along the Strait of Hormuz.
The violence followed talks on Saturday between the foreign ministers of Iran and Oman over the strait after several days of Iranian attacks on commercial vessels and US retaliation.
Oman said the two countries had agreed to continue discussions on the Strait of Hormuz at both technical and political levels.
Iran, however, did not issue the public commitment sought by Washington to reopen the waterway fully to international shipping.
Iran’s new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, also vowed to avenge the killing of his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, during the opening strikes of the war on Feb. 28.
“Such revenge is the will of our nation and must certainly be carried out,” he said in his first public statement since his father’s funeral.
US officials have said renewed Iranian attacks were carried out by a hardline faction seeking to sabotage the ceasefire, although Tehran has insisted its leadership remains united under the new supreme leader.
Previous rounds of attacks on Iran last week killed at least 17 people and injured 115 others, according to Iranian Health Ministry spokesperson Hossein Kermanpour.
Source: Saudi Gazette