The US military carried out strikes on Iranian military installations around the Strait of Hormuz on Friday in response to Tehran’s attack on Thursday on a commercial vessel near the key waterway, according to US Central Command.
โUS aircraft struck Iranian missile and drone storage sites and coastal radar sites,โ CENTCOM said. โThe unjustified aggression against commercial shipping by Iranian forces has clearly violated the ceasefire.โ
CENTCOM released video of one of the strikes on Iranian targets on Friday evening.
Friday’s US strikes do not reflect a return to major combat operations, at least for now, a US official told CNN.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it had struck US military positions in the region in response to the strikes, Iranian state media Press TV reported. The US military has not confirmed such strikes.
Bahrain reported Iranian drone attacks on its territory early Saturday morning. The country’s Foreign Ministry condemned the strikes as a “flagrant violation of Bahrain’s sovereignty.” The target was unclear and there was no initial comment from Tehran.
A tanker in the Strait of Hormuz was hit by an “unidentified projectile” on Saturday, according to the UK Maritime Trade Office (UKMTO). The vessel was damaged but all crew members were uninjured, the UKMTO said and advised ships to pass through the area with caution.
The Joint Maritime Information Center (JMIC), which is controlled by the US Navy, raised the threat level in the strait to “substantial”, a step it said it took after attacks on merchant ships. Meanwhile, the route through the Strait of Hormuz near Oman has been expanded to accommodate more simultaneous shipping traffic in both directions, JMIC said.
Vice President J.D. Vance, who took the lead in negotiating the Iran deal announced last week, said Friday night that “violence will be met with violence.”
“Iran has signed a ceasefire. We are abiding by it. If they have a disagreement about how the memorandum of understanding is applied, they can pick up the phone,” he wrote on X, along with a CENTCOM statement. โBut violence will be met with violence.โ
The US strikes came after President Donald Trump on Friday called an Iranian drone strike on a ship a “stupid violation” of an agreement to end the war with Iran, but gave no indication whether the episode would lead to a resumption of wider fighting.
Asked Friday afternoon whether Iran would face any consequences, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office only: “You will find out.”
The president first responded to the Iranian strike on Friday morning, hours after it occurred.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran fired at least four one-way strike drones at ships crossing the Strait of Hormuz. One of the drones seriously crashed into the upper deck of a large and very expensive cargo ship,” he wrote on Truth Social.
โThe damage was done, but the ship was able to continue its journey,โ he wrote. “We have shot down three more drones. Clearly this is a stupid violation of our Ceasefire Agreement.”
Hours later, Trump said the incident showed Iran retained some of its military capabilities despite its months-long war with the United States.
“We still have a fight. They have some capabilities, not great ones. They’re not winning or anything, but they have some capabilities; they can still shoot,” he told a crowd of conservative Christians in Washington, DC.
“Nobody saw it coming,” he said of the Iranian strike, “and it hit the ship and did some damage. It’s impossible to do that.”
Later, during an Oval Office event, Trump did not say how or whether the United States might respond to the incident that occurred a day earlier and emphasized the ongoing difficulties in restoring traffic to pre-war levels in the critical waterway.
โI donโt like the fact that they shot yesterday,โ Trump said when asked if he thought the ceasefire was still in effect. “Not an allied ship, but a ship. A very expensive ship, and it was fine, but it took a bit of a beating. They shouldn’t do that.”
When asked again if the US would respond, he said: “You’ll find out for yourself.” The president then abruptly fired the journalists.
US Central Command, which oversees US military operations in the region, referred to Trump’s statement when initially asked about the attack. Department of Defense account X posted three American flag emojis over a screenshot of Trump’s Truth Social post.
It was the first such incident since the US and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding to open the strait and begin more in-depth negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program. Trump has given no indication he is willing to resume the war, which he acknowledged last week could lead to “economic disaster” if it continued.
Iran views control of the waterway as a key lever in negotiations. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps warned on Thursday that only ships traveling on routes declared to Iran would be given safe passage.
The U.S.-Iran agreement stipulated that traffic in the strait would return to the same volume as before the war began, but did not provide detailed conditions for compliance.
Both sides expressed different understandings about whether Iran would be able to charge fees for passing ships. Trump has insisted that passage through the strait will remain free, but Tehran says it will have the right to charge passing ships a toll.
Thursday’s attack came hours after Iran’s influential Revolutionary Guards warned that ships would only be given safe passage along Iranian routes in the strait, defying the Trump administration’s claim that the waterway was free and open again. After the agreement was signed, the United States ended the blockade of Iranian ports.
According to the United Kingdom’s Maritime Trade Authority, which monitors maritime traffic in the region, the cargo ship was struck on its starboard side by an unknown projectile, damaging the bridge. No casualties or environmental impacts were reported.
This headline and story have been updated to reflect additional developments.