Wednesday July 8, 2026
The Strait of Hormuz remains a chokepoint for global energy supplies, with disruptions impacting fuel costs, trade and economic planning across Africa [File: Amirhosein Khorgooi/ISNA via AP]
A dangerous new round of US-Iran fighting has erupted around the Strait of Hormuz, jolting one of the world’s most important energy corridors and putting a fragile ceasefire between Washington and Tehran under renewed strain.
The US Central Command (CENTCOM) said American strikes against Iran began on Tuesday after what it described as Iranian attacks on three commercial ships moving through the Strait of Hormuz.
CENTCOM said it hit “over 80 targets with precision munitions” before concluding the strikes approximately four hours after they had begun.
Iran’s military leadership vowed a “crushing response”, saying Tehran would not permit outside powers to interfere with how the Strait of Hormuz is managed.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) later announced that it had struck 85 US military sites in Bahrain and Kuwait in retaliation. Iran’s army also said a drone attack was launched against US forces at Bahrain’s Sheikh Isa airbase.
The confrontation unfolded while US President Donald Trump was in Turkiye for this year’s NATO summit. The escalation threatens to upend an agreement reached last month between the US and Iran to prolong their ceasefire and begin negotiations aimed at ending the war, though neither side immediately indicated it was walking away from talks.
On Wednesday morning, NATO chief Mark Rutte defended the latest US strikes on Iran as “absolutely necessary”, saying Washington had to “forcefully react” to what he described as Tehran’s violation of the ceasefire deal.
‘Highly escalated situation’
Iranian outlets reported multiple explosions in the southern port city of Sirik, where projectiles were said to have struck commercial and fishing piers. Blasts were also reported on Qeshm Island and near Bandar Abbas.
Hours after the first US attacks on Iran, sirens were heard in Kuwait and Bahrain. Kuwait’s military said its air defence systems were responding to “hostile” missile and drone attacks.
An unnamed US official told the Reuters news agency that the American strikes hit Iranian air defence systems, coastal surveillance systems, surface-to-air missiles, antiship cruise missiles and drone launch sites. Iranian state media said several people at Sirik’s commercial pier were wounded by shrapnel.
The IRGC later said it had downed a US MQ9 drone in southern Iran.
“According to state TV, six explosions have been heard on the island of Qeshm, which is the largest island in the vicinity of the Strait of Hormuz, with very geostrategic significance when it comes to Iran’s control and authority over the strait,” Al Jazeera’s Tohid Asadi reported from Tehran.
“The state TV also says that at least seven explosions have been heard in the areas close to Sirik port, which is very important because it oversees the Strait of Hormuz, another strategic point from which Iran imposes its control and authority over the strait,” Asadi said.
“Starting from the time after the signing of the memorandum of understanding, we have been witnessing limited confrontation and escalation in this highly escalated situation at the Strait of Hormuz,” he added.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, who had been in Iraq for the funeral procession of Iran’s slain Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, returned after the attacks.
Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs blamed Washington for the consequences of breaching the MoU reached by the two countries in June. That agreement extended an April ceasefire and opened talks intended to end the US-Israel war on Iran, which began in late February. Under the MoU, the US naval blockade on Iran was to be lifted in exchange for Tehran reopening the crucial Strait of Hormuz.
At the end of June, the US also agreed to waive sanctions on Iranian oil for 60 days.
But on Tuesday, the US Department of the Treasury moved to end the temporary suspension of sanctions on Iranian oil, less than 20 days after the MoU was signed. The department revoked a licence announced in June that had allowed Iran to produce, sell and deliver crude oil and related products through August 21.
Mohammad Ghalibaf, Iran’s chief negotiator, described the restoration of oil sanctions as “major MoU violations” by the US, also pointing to “attacks on southern Iran” as further breaches.
The Treasury Department’s decision followed attacks on tankers in the Strait of Hormuz. On Monday, a Qatari tanker caught fire off Oman’s coast after being hit by an “unknown projectile”, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO).
Iranian TV reports said the liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker was attacked after disregarding warnings, though Tehran did not directly claim responsibility. Neither CENTCOM nor the IRGC issued comments on that incident.
A second vessel, a Saudi-flagged crude oil tanker, was also damaged in the Strait of Hormuz after the IRGC fired missiles, sources told Reuters.
“We’ve been there before,” Al Jazeera’s Mike Hanna said from the White House, referring to the back-and-forth attacks between the US and Iran in late June. “The response by the US is in retaliation for what it says is Iran breaking the MoU, which provides a basis for the ceasefire.”
“But to understand the background to this, Iran, since the signing of the MoU, has insisted that shipping transiting the Strait of Hormuz do so by a northern route, which is closer to Iran and which it effectively controls,” Hanna said. “The US has been urging ships to go through what it says is a US Navy southern protected route.”
