{"id":630002,"date":"2026-05-08T01:30:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T01:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/630002\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T01:30:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T01:30:09","slug":"us-military-says-it-intercepted-iranian-attacks-on-3-navy-ships-in-strait-of-hormuz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/630002\/","title":{"rendered":"US military says it intercepted Iranian attacks on 3 Navy ships in Strait of Hormuz"},"content":{"rendered":"

The U.S. military said it intercepted Iranian attacks Thursday on three Navy ships in the Strait of Hormuz and \u201ctargeted Iranian military facilities responsible for attacking U.S. forces,\u201d highlighting the fragility of the month-old ceasefire<\/a> between the two countries. <\/p>\n

\"Children<\/p>\n

Children play in the water along the shore as a mix of bulk carriers, cargo ships, and service vessels sit offshore in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Sunday, April 26, 2026.<\/p>\n

Razieh Poudat \/ AP<\/p>\n

U.S. Central Command said in a social media post that U.S. forces intercepted \u201cunprovoked Iranian attacks\u201d and responded with self-defense strikes.<\/p>\n

The U.S. military said no ships were hit. It said it doesn\u2019t seek escalation but \u201cremains positioned and ready to protect American forces.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Iranian state media said the country\u2019s armed forces exchanged fire with \u201cthe enemy\u201d on Qeshm Island in the strait. It is the largest Iranian island in the Persian Gulf, home to about 150,000 people. It also houses a water desalination plant.<\/p>\n

Iranian state media also reported loud noises and defensive fire in western Tehran. In southern Iran, explosions were heard near Bandar Abbas, semiofficial Iranian news agencies Fars and Tasnim said. The reports did not identify the source of the blasts.<\/p>\n

Earlier in the day, a shipping data company reported that Iran has created a government agency to vet and tax vessels seeking passage through the crucial Strait of Hormuz<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Iranian effort to formalize control over the channel raised new concerns about international shipping, with hundreds of commercial vessels bottled up in the Persian Gulf and unable to reach the open sea. Still, hope that the two-month conflict could soon be over buoyed international markets<\/a>.<\/p>\n

U.S. administration has sent mixed messages<\/p>\n

The ceasefire<\/a> between the U.S. and Iran has largely held since April 8. In-person talks<\/a> between the two countries, hosted by Pakistan last month, failed to reach an agreement to end the war that began Feb. 28 when the U.S. and Israel launched strikes against Iran.<\/p>\n

Earlier Thursday, Tehran said it was examining the latest U.S. proposals for ending the war<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said the Islamic Republic was reviewing messages from Pakistan, which is mediating peace negotiations, but Iran \u201chas not yet reached a conclusion, and no response has been given to the U.S. side,\u201d Iranian state TV reported.<\/p>\n

At the Vatican<\/a>, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussed Middle East peace efforts with Pope Leo XIV, whose opposition to the Iran war has led to open sparring with President Donald Trump<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration has sent mixed messages<\/a> on its strategy to end the war. The tenuous ceasefire and previous declarations that military operations were over have given way to new threats of bombing<\/a> if Tehran does not accept a deal that allows for resumption of oil and natural gas shipments disrupted by the conflict.<\/p>\n

Trump reiterated those after Thursday\u2019s exchange of fire.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust like we knocked them out again today, we\u2019ll knock them out a lot harder, and a lot more violently, in the future, if they don\u2019t get their Deal signed, FAST!\u201d Trump said in a social media post.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, Trump suspended an attempt by the U.S. military to open a safe passage for commercial ships through the strait, saying the pause would allow more time to reach a peace agreement. An official in Saudi Arabia said Thursday that the key U.S. ally refused to support Trump\u2019s effort to reopen the strait by force.<\/p>\n

Pakistan says it expects a deal soon<\/p>\n

Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar spoke by phone Thursday with his Iranian counterpart, Abbas Araghchi, the Pakistani Foreign Ministry said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe expect an agreement sooner rather than later,\u201d Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tahir Andrabi said. \u201cWe hope the parties will reach a peaceful and sustainable solution that will contribute not only to peace in our region but to international peace as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

He declined to give a timeline.<\/p>\n

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, speaking in televised remarks, said Islamabad remained in \u201ccontinuous contact with Iran and the United States, day and night, to stop the war and extend the ceasefire.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, direct talks between Israel and Lebanon<\/a> were scheduled to resume<\/a> next week in Washington, according to a U.S. official speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss plans for the closed-door meetings. The official said talks will be held May 14 and 15.<\/p>\n

Iran creates agency to control passage at Hormuz<\/p>\n

The report by shipping data firm Lloyd\u2019s List Intelligence that Iran has established a new government agency to approve transit and collect tolls from shipping in the strait raised concerns over the freedom of navigation on which global trade depends.<\/p>\n

The agency, called the Persian Gulf Strait Authority, is \u201cpositioning itself as the only valid authority to grant permission to ships transiting the strait,\u201d Lloyd\u2019s reported in an online briefing Thursday. Lloyd\u2019s said the authority had emailed it an application form for ships seeking passage.<\/p>\n

Iran has effectively closed the strait, a vital waterway for the shipment of oil, gas, fertilizer and other petroleum products<\/a>, while the U.S. is blockading Iranian ports. The disruptions have sent fuel prices skyrocketing and rattled the global economy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The new Iranian agency formalizes an existing, albeit murky, vetting lane that takes vessels through the strait\u2019s northern waters near the Iranian coastline. Iran controls which ships pass and, for at least some vessels, imposes a tax on their cargo.<\/p>\n

Maritime law experts say Iran\u2019s demands to vet or tax vessels violate international law. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea calls for countries to permit peaceful passage through their territorial waters.<\/p>\n

The U.S. and its Gulf allies are pushing for the U.N. Security Council<\/a> to support a resolution that condemns Iran\u2019s chokehold on the strait and threatens sanctions. A prior resolution calling for reopening the strait was vetoed by Iran allies Russia and China.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s president reports lengthy meeting with new supreme leader<\/p>\n

Top Iranian officials have said Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei<\/a> is playing a key role in overseeing negotiations with the U.S. But he remains in hiding and has not appeared in public since he was wounded early in the war.<\/p>\n

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said he met recently for more than two hours with Khamenei. In remarks aired Thursday on Iranian state television, Pezeshkian praised the supreme leader\u2019s \u201csincere\u201d behavior in what he said was a long in-person meeting.<\/p>\n

Khamenei has only released a series of written statements since being named supreme leader in March, replacing his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei<\/a>, who was killed during the war\u2019s initial strikes.<\/p>\n

Saudi official says kingdom did not support U.S. effort to reopen strait<\/p>\n

Trump did not consult with U.S. ally Saudi Arabia before launching the short-lived effort to force open a shipping passage through the strait, according to a Saudi official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe told them that we are not part of this and that they can\u2019t use our territories and bases for this,\u201d the official said Thursday.<\/p>\n

The official said Saudi Arabia sent a message to Iran that the kingdom would not be involved in U.S. attacks related to Trump\u2019s attempt to reopen the strait.<\/p>\n

Trump suspended the effort, dubbed Project Freedom, during its second day Tuesday. Only two American-flagged merchant ships are known to have passed through the U.S.-guarded route. The U.S. military said it sank six Iranian small boats threatening civilian ships.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

McHugh reported from Frankfurt, Germany, and Bynum reported from Savannah, Georgia. Associated Press journalists Sally Abou AlJoud, in Beirut; Elena Becatoros in Athens, Greece; Matthew Lee in Washington; Samy Magdy and Amir-Hussein Radjy in Cairo; Munir Ahmed in Islamabad, Pakistan; Farnoush Amiri in New York; Nicole Winfield in Vatican City and Audrey McAvoy in Honolulu contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The U.S. military said it intercepted Iranian attacks Thursday on three Navy ships in the Strait of Hormuz…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":630003,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-630002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=630002"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630002\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/630003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=630002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=630002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=630002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}