US Central Command (CENTCOM) says the US this week completed a third round of strikes against Iran at the direction of US President Donald Trump in response to an attack on a civilian ship transiting the Strait of Hormuz.
The US struck 140 Iranian military installations, including missile and drone sites, naval forces, ammunition stockpiles, communications networks and coastal surveillance sites, it said.
“Iran made a bad choice. Now they are paying,” US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on social media.
Iranian state media reported US strikes on its southern provinces, including Bushehr, Hormozgan, Khuzestan and Sistan and Baluchistan.
In response, Iran attacked several US bases in the region and said it had closed the Strait of Hormuz before CENTCOM said it was open and that US forces were positioned to ensure freedom of navigation.
Iran said it would consider attacking “additional enemy bases in the region” if it faces more attacks.
Iran’s chief negotiator and speaker of parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said that “the era of unilateral deals is over.”
“We told you: keep your word or pay the price. Reality is knocking,” he wrote in a post on X.
Iran has declared the Strait of Hormuz closed again after a Cyprus-flagged ship used an “unauthorized route.” (Reuters)
A crew member of the Cyprus-flagged container ship M/V GFS Galaxy is missing and the vessel is stuck in the strait due to a fire on board and extensive damage to the engine room, according to CENTCOM.
The UK Maritime Trade Operations Office (UKMTO) said authorities were investigating after the crew abandoned the ship and ended up in a lifeboat.
“Iran was given another opportunity to demonstrate commitment to the Memorandum of Understanding after it was held accountable for previous attacks on commercial shipping, but it failed again,” CENTCOM said in a statement.
“The United States is responding by imposing a high price by continuing to reduce Iran’s ability to attack civilian sailors and commercial vessels passing freely through the strait.”
Iran says strait is closed, US bases attacked
According to Iranian media, explosions were heard in the Iranian port cities of Bandar Abbas, Sirik and Chabahar, as well as on Qeshm Island, the largest island in the Persian Gulf, where an underground Iranian missile base is located.
Iran previously acknowledged the attack on the GFS Galaxy, saying it now considered the Strait of Hormuz closed “until further notice” after the ship followed an unapproved route, prompting Iran’s Revolutionary Guards to fire a “warning shot.”
“The vessel, which compromised maritime security by disabling its systems, was attacked and stopped,” the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps navy said in a statement, adding that any retaliation itself would be met with a “brutal response.”
CENTCOM later said that the Strait of Hormuz is open to all ships wishing to transit legally and that the US military is “positioned and prepared” to ensure freedom of navigation.
“Iran does not control the strait. Traffic on it is carried out,” the statement says.
The US Navy-led Joint Maritime Information Center has confirmed that despite the serious security threat, the “expanded” southern route near Oman is available for two-way traffic.
Hours after the US attacks in Iran, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had attacked a second ship in the strait.
It also carried out ballistic missile attacks on US military bases in the Omani port of Duqm, Kuwait and Jordan, including Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, saying they destroyed command and control centers and drone refueling facilities, the statement said.
Kuwait’s military reported intercepting air targets in its airspace, and the UAE responded to “missiles and drones from Iran.”
Qatar said it intercepted the missile attack as explosions were heard in Doha and sirens in Bahrain.
The United States wants Iran to publicly declare it will stop attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz and commit to opening all shipping lanes through the waterway without any tolls, senior U.S. officials said Friday.
Iranian Foreign Minister met with his Omani counterpart
Efforts are being made on both sides to quell the renewed violence. A senior Iranian source told Reuters that Iran, the US, Qatar and Pakistan had agreed to negotiate.
The talks were to take place during a telephone call that the mediators were trying to arrange for Saturday, while Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was in Oman.
It was not immediately clear whether those efforts were successful.
Abbas Araghchi was in Oman on Saturday. (AP: Urs Flueler)
Mr. Araqchi did meet with Oman’s Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr Albusaidi to exchange “views on appropriate mechanisms for the safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz,” according to a statement from his office.
However, Oman’s state news agency later said Omani and Iranian negotiators would continue talks “at technical and political levels” and no further announcements were made.
Oman is helping to end a war that has destabilized the Persian Gulf and driven up prices around the world after the United States and Israel launched airstrikes on Iran in February.
Before the war, about one-fifth of the world’s oil supplies passed through the Strait of Hormuz, and Iran’s effective blockade of the waterway led to rising energy prices, fueling global inflation.
US cable news channel CNN reported on Saturday that Oman had proposed a draft proposal for the strait, including free navigation through its southern corridor within Oman’s territorial waters.
The plan called for ships transiting the northern corridor through Iranian territorial waters to obtain prior permission from Iran, although no fees would be charged, CNN reported.
The White House and State Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the CNN report.
The new supreme leader vowed to avenge his father’s death.
Mourners attend the funeral ceremony for late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on July 9. (AP: Office of the Supreme Leader of Iran)
Iran’s new supreme leader, who has not been seen since the war began, also vowed in his first statement since the funeral of his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, that the Iranians would avenge his killing in the opening blows of the war.
Such revenge “is the will of our nation and must certainly be carried out,” Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said in a statement broadcast on state television.
The statement came just hours after Trump threatened to “totally devastate and destroy every area of Iran” if there was an assassination attempt on him.
US President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. (Reuters: Jonathan Ernst)
“1,000 missiles are loaded and aimed at the Islamic Republic of Iran, with thousands more to immediately follow if the Iranian government acts on its threat, voiced in many corners of the globe, to kill or attempt to kill the sitting President of the United States of America, in this case ME!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“The orders have already been given, and the US military is ready, willing and able, within one year, with the possibility of extension, to completely devastate and destroy all areas of Iran.”
He ended his post with “Praise be to Allah,” a phrase he previously included in a post that also threatened Iran earlier this year.
ABC/Wires