By JON GAMBRELL and WILL WEISSERTSunday July 12, 2026
Early Sunday, U.S. forces struck Iran in response to an Iranian attack that set a Cyprus-flagged container ship ablaze in the Strait of Hormuz, forcing its crew to abandon ship and leaving one civilian mariner missing.
The narrow waterway has become the central obstacle to negotiating a lasting end to the war that began Feb. 28. Before the conflict, roughly one-fifth of global oil and natural gas flowed through the strait; Iran’s wartime control over the route helped trigger an energy crunch, though prices have eased sharply from peaks near $120 a barrel.
The U.S. Central Command said the operation targeted about 140 sites — far more than in prior rounds — striking missile and drone launch positions, ammunition stores, communications gear and other facilities.
“The strikes degrade Iran’s ability to attack civilian mariners and commercial vessels freely transiting the strait,” Central Command said.
The renewed exchange in the Persian Gulf came days after U.S. President Donald Trump declared an interim deal in the Iran war “over.”
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wrote online: “Iran made a poor choice. Now they pay.”
Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and UAE all attacked
The United Arab Emirates warned residents Sunday of incoming missile and drone fire as explosions were heard in nearby Qatar. Authorities in Qatar sounded a missile alert shortly after the blasts; the Qatari military said it intercepted the incoming strikes.
Missile alerts also rang out in Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, while Kuwait’s military reported it was intercepting incoming fire.
It was not immediately clear which sites in the UAE were struck; the country — which includes Abu Dhabi and Dubai — had last been hit in May when a drone caused a fire at the edge of its only nuclear power plant.
Iran issued a number of additional attack claims that had not been independently confirmed.
In the Strait of Hormuz incident, U.S. Central Command said the Cyprus-flagged container ship suffered “significant engineroom damage” and that one crew member was missing after the vessel was abandoned while burning.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center, run by the British military, said the ship had been following a route close to Oman’s shoreline — a path vessels have favored to avoid Iranian territorial waters while entering and exiting the Persian Gulf. The center confirmed the crew abandoned the burning ship.
Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said several vessels had “disregarded our warnings and instructions to correct their course and proceed along the approved route.” One ship, it said, “was struck by a warning shot and brought to a stop.”
Tehran announced the strait would remain closed “until further notice” and warned it might target “additional enemy bases in the region” if further attacks occurred.
Iranian state media reported U.S. strikes hit Bandar Abbas and Sirik and other areas along the strait’s shores; Iran provided no immediate casualty or damage toll.
Attacks followed more diplomatic talks about the strait
The flare-up followed a meeting Saturday between the foreign ministers of Iran and Oman focused on the strait, coming after days of Iranian attacks on ships and U.S. retaliatory strikes that have undermined efforts at an interim deal to end the war. The strait lies within the territorial waters of both Iran and Oman but has long been treated as an international maritime passage.
Oman said it and Iran agreed to continue discussions about the Strait of Hormuz “at the technical and political levels.” Iran, however, made no public pledge to keep the waterway open to all — a key U.S. demand.
Iran’s new supreme leader, who has not been seen publicly since the war began, vowed in his first statement since his father Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s funeral that Iranians would avenge his killing in the strikes that opened the conflict on Feb. 28.
“Such revenge is the will of our nation and must certainly be carried out,” Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei said in remarks broadcast on state television.
US questions who is in charge in Iran
U.S. officials, speaking Friday on condition of anonymity, said the resumption of strikes prior to this latest exchange appeared driven by a rogue faction of hard-liners in Iran seeking to derail the cease-fire.
Iran has insisted its theocratic leadership remains unified under the new supreme leader.
After U.S. strikes on Thursday, additional attacks reportedly struck inside Iran, prompting questions about who else may be attacking the Islamic Republic.
Israel did not claim those strikes, raising the possibility that Gulf Arab states carried them out to deter further Iranian assaults. Iran on Thursday had retaliated for U.S. strikes by targeting Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait and Qatar.
The twin rounds of U.S. strikes on Iran last week killed at least 17 people and wounded 115, Iranian Health Ministry spokesperson Hossein Kermanpour said.
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Weissert reported from Washington.
