Trump orders new strikes on Iran over attacks on shipping in Hormuz

Update

Smoke rises from a port, near Strait of Hormuz, following a U.S. strike in Kuhestak, Hormozgan Province, Iran, July 8, 2026. (Reuters)

Smoke rises from a port, near the Strait of Hormuz, following a US strike in Kuhestak, Hormozgan Province, Iran, early on Wednesday. (Reuters)

Short Url

https://arab.news/msfqd

Updated 09 July 2026 06:31

Agencies

July 09, 2026 01:19

ANKARA/DUBAI/TEHRAN: The US military said on Wednesday that it was launching fresh strikes on Iran aimed at keeping the critical Strait of Hormuz open to traffic, hours after President Donald Trump declared that an interim agreement to end the war with Iran was “over.”

Trump ordered new strikes on Iran and warned of “much worse” if Tehran continues to attack vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, the vital oil shipping channel.

Iran state media reported explosions in multiple locations along the southern Iranian coast after US Central Command announced a new wave of strikes.

Warplanes were heard over Kish Island and explosions rocked the port cities of Bandar Abbas, Konarak and Chabahar, part of which lost electricity, Iran’s official news agency IRNA reported.

“This is in retribution for yesterday’s bombing of ships by Iran,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “If it happens again, it will get much worse!“

Thursday’s attacks appeared bigger all around, with sirens sounding at least twice in Bahrain, home to the US Navy’s 5th Fleet headquarters.

Military officials said in a social media post that the latest strikes were intended to “further degrade” Iran’s ability “to threaten freedom of navigation” in the strait, through which a fifth of the world’s traded oil and natural gas passed before the war began with US and Israeli attacks on Feb. 28.

Iranian state media reported explosions in several locations, including Bushehr, home to Iran’s nuclear power plant complex, and the southern port cities of Chabahar, Konarak, Bandar Abbas and Sirik. In Iranshahr, authorities said a strike killed a firefighter at an airport.

For the first time since April, it also appeared the US strikes targeted Iranian bridges. State media reported a strike on a railway bridge in Iran’s northeastern Golestan province. The Guard said two bridges had been attacked on the way to Mashhad, where officials plan to bury the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Thursday. It wasn’t clear if the Golestan attack was the same one mentioned by the Guard.

Trump had said earlier in the day that the latest back-and-forth fighting would not result in “long-term” military action.

“Anything that happens is going to happen very fast,” Trump said, though he also suggested the US military might “just finish the job.”

Trump also renewed his past threats to hit Iran’s civilian infrastructure, including electric plants and desalinization plants, and to seize the oil-production hub of Kharg Island.

After three tankers were hit Tuesday, the US launched strikes on Iran, and Iranian forces retaliated by targeting American military sites in the Arabian Gulf.

Iran has asserted that the interim ceasefire deal gives it the right to manage traffic through the strait. After daybreak Thursday, CENTCOM announced that it had ended its latest round of airstrikes. In a statement, CENTCOM said US forces struck approximately 90 Iranian military targets including air defense systems, coastal surveillance assets, missile and drone storage sites, naval capabilities, and military logistics infrastructure along Iran’s coastline.

On July 7, US forces hit approximately 80 Iranian military targets, including more than 60 Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps small boats, to impose heavy costs for Iran violating the ceasefire by attacking three commercial vessels navigating the Strait of Hormuz, CENTCOM added.

While ordering retaliation against Tehran, the US president said earlier Wednesday that he expected the latest military flare-up to end quickly and left the door open to more talks.

CENTCOM said the strikes were carried out to degrade the ability of Iranian forces “to threaten freedom of navigation” in the strait, through which a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas normally flows.

“The United States is holding Iran accountable for recent unjustified aggression against commercial shipping,” CENTCOM said on X.

‘If you strike, you will be struck’

In Tehran, Iran’s chief negotiator said Thursday that the Strait of Hormuz would be opened only under “Iranian arrangements.”

Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, a key negotiator in talks seeking a permanent end to the war, was defiant in a post on X on Thursday morning:

“America still hasn’t learned that bullying and breaking promises are no longer cost-free. Let me put it plainly: if you strike, you’ll get hit,” he said.

Also on X, Mohsen Rezaei, a military adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, said, “The aggressor enemy and its accomplices will be severely punished.”

Before ordering the latest strikes, Trump said the ceasefire with Iran was over, prompting mediators Pakistan and Qatar and the United Nations to call for de-escalation.

The latest round of attacks, which the United States said was launched in response to Tuesday’s assault on three cargo ships transiting the strait, rattled several cities along Iran’s southern coast and left some areas without power.

“US ‌Central Command forces ‌have started conducting additional strikes against Iran to ​further ‌degrade ⁠their ability ​to threaten ⁠freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz,” CENTCOM, the US military’s Middle East command, wrote on X.

Iran wanted “to make a deal so badly”, says Trump

Late on Wednesday while speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump claimed that the Iranian side had “called a little while ago,” and that they wanted “to make a deal so badly.”

He did not provide further details of the call — including who was on the line — but went on to cast doubt over the value of any deal, calling the Iranians “sort of crazy.”

The latest strikes come just ahead of the Thursday burial of Ali Khamenei, Iran’s former supreme leader, who was killed at the outbreak of the war on February 28.

Since the attacks, Tehran has insisted on controlling the strait, saying it will charge fees for passage and threatening to hit vessels that deviate from its authorized route.

Its military struck at least three ships in recent days, prompting extensive US strikes against Iranian targets on Tuesday, followed by retaliatory attacks from Iran on Gulf countries.

“We’re gonna hit ‘em hard tonight,” Trump said at a NATO summit in Ankara. “They violate the agreement every day.”

He added later, however, that “anything that happens is going to be over very quickly.”

Oil prices jumped eight percent after Trump’s earlier comments that the ceasefire was “over.”

‘Maximum restraint’

UN chief Antonio Guterres called meanwhile “on all parties to exercise maximum restraint” — as did Pakistan, a key mediator in the US-Iran talks. Iran said Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Qatar’s prime minister had spoken over the phone on Wednesday and “underscored the importance of using diplomatic means to resolve regional issues.” Both the United States and Iran said they had hit dozens of targets in the initial wave of attacks, which Iranian state television said had killed eight Iranian military personnel. CENTCOM said its forces struck more than 80 targets on Tuesday, including Iranian air-defense systems, coastal radar sites and 60 Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps small boats. The Guards said they hit dozens of US military facilities in Kuwait and Bahrain. Kuwait said it had intercepted two ballistic missiles and 13 drones, while the Iranian army said it had also attacked US forces at Sheikh Isa air base in Bahrain. The latest attacks launched by Iran did not result in any American casualties or cause major damage to facilities, a US military official said on Wednesday. “All missiles and drones fired by Iran were intercepted or failed to cause major damage,” the official told AFP. Nawal Saad, a Bahraini civil servant, lamented that “the spectre of war is looming once more,” saying “I do not want to go through that experience of fear and anxiety again.”

Seafarers stranded

Oman, which sits on the other side of Hormuz from Iran, condemned the targeting of Bahrain and Kuwait as well as the strikes on ships, but without blaming Iran. The former mediator has not blamed Iran for attacks throughout the war, in an effort to maintain its neutrality, which is being tested by talks with Tehran over the administration of Hormuz. Washington wants free passage for ships while Iran is insisting on fees and has refused to allow vessels to pass through Omani waters. All three vessels recently struck were sailing close to Oman, which had proposed a temporary transit corridor hugging its coastline. Maritime traffic had tentatively resumed after Washington and Tehran signed the deal to end hostilities last month. But almost 6,000 seafarers remain stranded in the area, International Maritime Organization chief Arsenio Dominguez said Wednesday.

• With Reuters, AFP and AP

Topics:War in Iran