{"id":547002,"date":"2026-07-13T06:58:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T06:58:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/547002\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T06:58:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T06:58:12","slug":"us-launches-more-strikes-on-iran-as-standoff-over-strait-of-hormuz-escalates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/547002\/","title":{"rendered":"US launches more strikes on Iran as standoff over Strait of Hormuz escalates"},"content":{"rendered":"

The US launched several waves of strikes on Iran on Sunday over an Iranian attack on a container ship in the Strait of Hormuz that set it ablaze and left a crew member missing the day before.<\/p>\n

Iran responded with attacks on Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Jordan and Oman \u2014 the nation on the other side of the strait that Tehran has pressed to collaborate in managing shipping traffic.<\/p>\n

The US military said it was seeking \u201cto degrade\u201d Iran\u2019s \u201cability to attack commercial ships freely transiting\u201d the critical strait.<\/p>\n

The statement came after a third round of strikes late on Sunday night and into Monday in Iran.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/x.com\/CENTCOM\/status\/2076415793458303021?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw<\/p>\n

The first wave, on Sunday morning, came in response to an Iranian strike on a container ship in the critical waterway on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Iran responded to those strikes by attacking Gulf Arab states in an escalating cycle of violence that left the negotiations between Tehran and Washington to end the war at the edge of collapse.<\/p>\n

The US struck again later in the day.<\/p>\n

The governor of Qeshm Island near the strait told Iran\u2019s state-run IRNA news agency that projectiles were fired at military targets, with no casualties.<\/p>\n

Explosions were also heard in the coastal city of Bandar Abbas and Hajiabad city to the north.<\/p>\n

\"USUS President Donald Trump suggested last week that the interim deal in the war was \u2018over\u2019 (Alex Brandon\/AP)\n<\/p>\n

A US official said a few strikes were conducted on missile and air defence systems, as well as small boats of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard at a couple of locations around the strait to further degrade Iran\u2019s ability to attack commercial shipping.<\/p>\n

Iran and the US are nearly at the midway point of the 60-day period of their interim deal aimed at reaching a permanent end to the war.<\/p>\n

The strait, a key route for the global supply of oil and natural gas and long considered an international waterway, has become a sticking point in negotiations that seem in danger of collapse.<\/p>\n

\u201cA return to full-scale hostilities would have catastrophic consequences,\u201d United Nations secretary-general Antonio Guterres said, according to a statement.<\/p>\n

The US military\u2019s central command said earlier on Sunday it hit some 140 targets, including missile and drone launch sites, ammunition dumps, communication equipment and other sites.<\/p>\n

It said the attacks, heavier than in recent days, would weaken Iran\u2019s ability to threaten shipping.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/x.com\/CENTCOM\/status\/2076295579194237259?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw<\/p>\n

\u201cWe bombed the hell out of them last night,\u201d US President Donald Trump told NBC\u2019s Meet The Press.<\/p>\n

Semi-official Iranian news agencies reported that a navy officer was killed.<\/p>\n

Iran retaliated by attacking nations in the region hosting US military forces, while insisting it alone must control the strait and potentially charge vessels for travelling through it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe era of one-sided deals is OVER,\u201d Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, the speaker of Iran\u2019s parliament and a main negotiator, wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe told you: keep your word or pay the price. Reality is knocking.\u201d<\/p>\n

The US has launched three rounds of airstrikes targeting Iran in the last week over Iranian attacks on ships heading through the strait using a route off Oman, seeking to avoid the Islamic Republic\u2019s territorial waters.<\/p>\n

The US military and Mr Trump asserted that the strait remained open on Sunday.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/x.com\/UK_MTO\/status\/2076164855959101508?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw<\/p>\n

Iran said the strait was closed until calm is restored, and it would consider targeting \u201cadditional enemy bases in the region\u201d if it faced more attacks.<\/p>\n

The US military said more than 140 ships had transited the strait over the past week.<\/p>\n

A multinational body overseen by the US navy said traffic continued \u201cat reduced levels\u201d off both Oman and Iran.<\/p>\n

It said nearly 140 vessels transited daily before the war.<\/p>\n

About a fifth of all traded oil and natural gas passed through the strait before the war began.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s grip on it led to a global energy crisis, although oil prices have sharply dropped since wartime highs of 120 US dollars a barrel.<\/p>\n

Missile alerts sounded across several Gulf Arab countries early on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\"Pro-governmentPro-government demonstrators wave Iranian and religious flags as they commemorate the late Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran on Saturday (Vahid Salemi\/AP)\n<\/p>\n

Qatar\u2019s military said it intercepted incoming Iranian fire, with explosions heard in the neighbouring United Arab Emirates.<\/p>\n

Three people, including a child, were wounded as a result of shrapnel from the interception of Iranian attacks, Qatar\u2019s interior ministry said, giving no further details on their condition.<\/p>\n

Missile alerts sounded in Bahrain, an island kingdom in the Persian Gulf home to the US navy\u2019s 5th Fleet.<\/p>\n

Kuwait\u2019s military also said it was intercepting incoming fire.<\/p>\n

The Omani state news agency said drones struck sites in an area that sits on the Strait of Hormuz and issued a shelter-in-place warning for residents in the region.<\/p>\n

The attack came a day after Oman and Iran held talks on the strait.<\/p>\n

Oman summoned the Iranian ambassador to protest against the strikes, the first such move since the war began, calling Iran\u2019s acts \u201cirresponsible\u201d.<\/p>\n

Three Iranian missiles struck areas across Jordan, causing minor damage but no injuries, Jordan\u2019s state news agency reported.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/x.com\/UK_MTO\/status\/2076218832973082901?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw<\/p>\n

Sirens also sounded in the UAE, but the government said missiles did not cross into its territory.<\/p>\n

A Cyprus-flagged container ship was hit by Iran and suffered \u201csignificant engine-room damage\u201d, the US central command said.<\/p>\n

Oman\u2019s maritime authority said it rescued 23 crew members but one was missing.<\/p>\n

India\u2019s ministry of external affairs said the missing man is an Indian national and it was working with Oman to locate him.<\/p>\n

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations centre, overseen by the military, said the ship had been hugging Oman\u2019s shoreline.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said multiple vessels \u201cdisregarded our warnings\u201d and ignored instructions to follow what it called an approved route. One \u201cwas struck by a warning shot and brought to a stop\u201d.<\/p>\n

Iranian state media later reported US strikes across the country, including southern Iran in the province closest to the strait and military sites in a province near Tehran.<\/p>\n

The strait sits in both Iran and Oman\u2019s territorial waters.<\/p>\n

Oman said on Saturday that it and Iran had agreed to continue discussing the strait \u201cat the technical and political levels\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"ChildrenThe strait sits in both Iran and Oman\u2019s territorial waters (Amirhosein Khorgooi\/ISNA via AP)\n<\/p>\n

Iran offered no statement about the strait being open to all, something sought by the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

Mr Trump suggested last week that the interim deal in the war was \u201cover\u201d.<\/p>\n

But mediators, including Pakistan, Qatar and Egypt, have continued efforts to reach an agreement.<\/p>\n

A regional official involved in the mediation said efforts to shore up the ceasefire continued on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Pakistan said its foreign minister had spoken by phone with Iran\u2019s top diplomat and urged \u201cde-escalation\u201d on both sides.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, unseen since the war began, vowed on Saturday in his first statement since the funeral of his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, that Iranians would avenge his killing in the war\u2019s opening strikes on February 28.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The US launched several waves of strikes on Iran on Sunday over an Iranian attack on a container…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":547003,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-547002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=547002"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547002\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/547003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}