Iran strikes neighbors after new US attacks
Tehran, IRAN—Tehran announced it was closing the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday and launched missiles and drones at its Gulf neighbors, in retaliation for new US strikes following an attack by Iranian forces on a merchant vessel that was abandoned in flames by its crew.
Sirens and explosions were heard in Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, Agence France-Presse (AFP) journalists and local authorities reported, the latest escalation to undermine an interim agreement between Washington and Tehran aimed at ending the Middle East war.
The Pentagon said it had struck Iran early Sunday after the Revolutionary Guards fired on a Cyprus-registered container ship they said was sailing an “unauthorized route” through the Strait of Hormuz.
Iranian media reported explosions in Bandar Abbas, Sirik, Jask and on Qeshm Island as well as in Khuzestan province, which borders Iraq, with no immediate reports of casualties.
Hours later, air raid sirens sounded over Bahrain, while the United Arab Emirates and Qatar said they intercepted missile attacks.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards had earlier said they struck and stopped a vessel ignoring repeated instructions to use an approved shipping corridor, according to state news agency IRNA.
“Following this incident … the Strait of Hormuz will be closed until further notice and until the end of American interventions in this region,” the Guards said.
‘Warning shots’
Although Iran called the strike on the ship “warning shots,” the US military said Tehran “blatantly attacked” a Cyprus-flagged container ship transiting the Strait of Hormuz.
A crew member was missing and the vessel had been disabled by fire and damage to its engine room, US Central Command (Centcom) said.
The crew abandoned the vessel and were on a lifeboat, British maritime agency UKMTO reported, adding the incident occurred around 17 kilometers east of Oman.
“In response, the United States is imposing a heavy cost by continuing to degrade Iran’s ability to attack civilian mariners and commercial ships freely transiting the strait,” it said on X.
‘Poor choice’
Centcom said later the military had hit approximately 140 Iranian military targets as it finished the third round of strikes this week, carried out at the direction of US President Donald Trump.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said simply: “Iran made a poor choice. Now they pay.”
Iran’s Guards later announced through state media that they had retaliated by striking US bases and radar sites in Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar with ballistic missiles and drones.
Earlier strikes by Tehran on vessels in the strait had also triggered exchanges of fire between Iran and the United States, sparking heated rhetoric between the adversaries.
The tensions threatened an interim agreement aimed at ending the Middle East war, which broke out in late February with massive US-Israeli strikes that killed former supreme leader Ali Khamenei.
A key roadblock to a final agreement is the future of the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran closed to commercial shipping during the war.
******
Get real-time news updates: inqnews.net/inqviber
