Trump Orders Iran Strikes to Secure Strategic Strait of Hormuz

The United States has carried out a new round of strikes against Iran as part of an effort to protect the strategically crucial Strait of Hormuz.

US Central Command said Sunday that American forces began the operation at 5 p.m. EDT, targeting Iran in order to “continue degrading” its capacity to attack civilian sailors and commercial vessels moving through the Strait of Hormuz.

CENTCOM said the strikes were ordered by President Donald Trump to “hold Iranian forces accountable,” after he stated in a national television address that the waterway remained open.

The governor of Qeshm Island, located near the strait, told Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency that projectiles had struck military targets but reported no casualties. Explosions were also heard in the coastal city of Bandar Abbas and in Hajiabad, farther north.

A US official, speaking to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said several strikes hit missile and air defense systems as well as paramilitary Revolutionary Guard boats at multiple sites, with the aim of further limiting Iran’s ability to threaten commercial shipping.

A US Central Command spokesperson also told CNN that Iranian forces had carried out additional attacks on commercial vessels traveling through the Strait of Hormuz, a critical passageway for roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil supply.

The strait, which has long considered an international waterway, has become a sticking point in ceasefire negotiations.

As tensions remained, Iranian forces attacked a container ship in the strait, setting it ablaze and leaving one crew member missing on Saturday.

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth vowed revenge, saying: ‘Iran made a poor choice. Now they pay.’ 

The US military then retaliated by hitting some 140 targets, including missile and drone launch sites, ammunition dumps, communication equipment and other sites, the military said earlier on Sunday.

‘We bombed the hell out of them last night,’ Trump added to NBC’s Meet the Press.

Iran then responded with attacks on Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Jordan and Oman – the nation on the other side of the strait that Tehran has pressed to collaborate in managing shipping traffic.

But Iranian officials insist they alone must control the strait – and have the authority to potentially charge vessels for traveling through it. 

‘The era of one-sided deals is OVER,’ Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, the speaker of Iran’s parliament and a main negotiator, wrote on social media. 

‘We told you: keep your word or pay the price. Reality is knocking.’ 

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) also declared the strait closed until further notice after the attack, vowing to attack ‘additional enemy bases in the region’ if it faced more attacks.

Iranian forces had claimed the Cyprus–flagged container ship that was targeted on Saturday, which American authorities named as the M/V GFS Galaxy, was attempting to use an unauthorized route to cross the strait. 

Its attack on the ship came as Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met with his Omani counterpart on Saturday to discuss the strait.

Araghchi explained that the meeting in Muscat, Oman, was meant to discuss ‘appropriate mechanisms for ensuring the safe passage of ships,’ according to the Associated Press.

Omani and Iranian negotiators were set to continue talks ‘at the technical and political levels,’ Reuters reported, citing Oman’s state news agency.

Despite the renewed strikes, the US military said more than 140 ships had transited the strait over the past week. 

A multinational body overseen by the US Navy also said traffic continued ‘at reduced levels’ off both Oman and Iran, and that nearly 140 vessels transited daily before the war.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated.