Iran launches attacks on ships in Strait of Hormuz after US strikes as fears mount over war spiraling into chaos

Iranian forces continued to attack commercial ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz as the United States launched additional attacks on the country.

US Central Command spokesman Capt. Tim Hawkins said Sunday night that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps “opened fire on commercial ships” in the vital waterway. he told the New York Times.

“US aircraft have so far successfully shot down an Iranian cruise missile and a single-directional attack aircraft,” he said, just after CENTCOM announced that American forces had begun mobilizing. Launching additional attacks against Iran ‘to continue disrupting their ability to attack civilian sailors and merchant ships freely passing through the Strait of Hormuz’.

CENTCOM noted that it directed the attacks to “hold Iranian forces responsible” after President Donald Trump announced on national television that the strait was open.

A US official told The Associated Press that some of the attacks were carried out on missile and air defense systems and paramilitary Revolutionary Guard boats at several points in an attempt to further weaken Iran’s ability to attack commercial ships.

Another unidentified US official told The Times that a ‘larger’ wave of attacks on Iranian military targets was expected on Sunday night.

The governor of Qeshm Island near the strait told Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency that the bullets were fired at military targets and there were no casualties. Explosions were also heard in the coastal city of Bandar Abbas and the northern city of Hajiabad.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry has since condemned the attacks and accused the United States of violating international law.

Transport ships are seen in the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday

“Just 25 days after the signing of the agreement to end the war, the United States has clearly violated almost all parts of that agreement,” the ministry said in a statement. he said. According to CNN.

‘The United States has committed some of the most heinous war crimes by attacking Iran’s transportation infrastructure, fishing boats, cargo barges, meteorological facilities, and buildings.’

The ministry also claimed that the US military had allies in the Persian Gulf to launch attacks on Iran and warned that it would launch ‘defensive strikes’ against any country believed to be assisting US forces.

The ministry then called on the United Nations and the Security Council to ‘hold the aggressor parties and those who aided and facilitated them accountable’.

The latest attacks came after Iranian forces attacked a container ship in the strait on Saturday and set it on fire, leaving a crew member missing.

Iranian forces claimed that the Cyprus-flagged container ship, which was targeted on Saturday and named by American officials as M/V GFS Galaxy, was trying to cross the strait through an unauthorized route.

The US military said the ship suffered ‘significant engine room damage’.

Oman’s maritime authority later announced that 23 crew members were rescued but one was missing. India’s foreign ministry said the missing crew member was an Indian citizen.

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth vowed revenge and said: ‘Iran made a bad choice. They’re paying now.’

U.S. Central Command released dramatic video early Sunday of retaliatory strikes against Tehran after the Middle Eastern country opened fire on a ship in the Strait of Hormuz.

US says munitions that hit Iranian targets on Saturday were launched by planes, drones and ships

The U.S. military retaliated by striking about 140 targets, including missile and drone launch sites, ammunition depots, communications equipment and other areas, the military said in a statement early Sunday.

‘We bombed them last night’ Embers It was added to NBC’s Meet the Press.

Iran then responded with attacks on Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Jordan and Oman (a country across the Strait that Tehran has been pressing to cooperate in managing shipping traffic).

But Iranian officials insist they have sole control of the strait and have the authority to potentially impose fees on ships passing through the strait.

“The era of unilateral agreements is over,” Mohammad Bagher Galibaf, the speaker of Iran’s parliament and chief negotiator, wrote on social media.

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

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) also declared the strait closed until further notice following the attacks over the weekend and promised to attack “additional enemy bases in the region” if it faced further attacks.

The speaker of the Iranian parliament and the country’s chief negotiator, Mohammad Bagir Qalibaf, declared that Iran should retain control of the Strait of Hormuz

The strait, long considered an international waterway, had already become a sticking point in ceasefire negotiations, although the US military said last week that more than 140 ships had passed through the waterway.

A multinational agency overseen by the US Navy also said traffic off the coasts of Oman and Iran continued at ‘low levels’, with about 140 ships passing per day before the war.

While the attacks continued on Saturday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met with his Omani counterpart to discuss the strait issue.

Araghchi announced that the meeting in Muscat, Oman, was held to discuss ‘appropriate mechanisms to ensure the safe passage of ships’, according to the Associated Press.

A regional official involved in the mediation told The Associated Press that efforts to support the ceasefire continued Sunday. Pakistani officials also said the foreign minister spoke by phone with Iran’s top diplomat and called on both sides to “de-escalate tensions.”

However, on Friday, President Trump said on Truth Social that he has agreed to continue negotiations with Iran but that ‘The Ceasefire is Over’.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei made a written statement the next day, promising that ‘the blood of the martyred leader and those martyred in these two wars will avenge the criminals and infamous murderers’. Reuters.

Khamenei’s statement said, “Whether we are there or not, this will be achieved and soon every free person in the world will fulfill a part of this divine mission.”

There has been no news from Khamenei since his appointment as the Religious Leader after his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in US-Israeli air strikes on February 28, when the war began.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei made a written statement and promised that “the blood of the martyr leader and all the martyrs in these two wars will be avenged on the guilty and disgraced murderers.”

Last week, Iranian forces hit three ships in the Strait of Hormuz.

The ships included a Qatari liquefied natural gas tanker as well as a Saudi crude oil tanker. Al Jazeera.

US forces subsequently responded to approximately 90 military targets, including at least 60 IRGC boats. This week’s three attacks hit more than 300 targets in total.

Central Command: ‘US forces are alert, lethal and ready to conduct operations directed by the Commander in Chief’ expression he said at the time.

As the attacks continued on Sunday, missile alerts were heard in many Gulf Arab countries.

Qatar’s military said it intercepted fire from Iran as explosions were heard in neighboring United Arab Emirates. Qatar Ministry of Internal Affairs said that three people, including a child, were injured by shrapnel during the attacks.

Missile alerts were also issued in Bahrain, which hosts the US Navy’s 5th Fleet.

This video, taken from UGC footage posted on social media on July 12, 2026, shows heavy smoke rising in Abdali, on Kuwait’s northern border

Meanwhile, the Kuwaiti Ministry of Defense said that three ‘land border points’ in the north and the Kuwait Oil Company’s offshore drilling platform were damaged and one worker was injured.

All three Iranian missiles hit areas across Jordan, causing minor damage but no injuries, Jordan’s state news agency reported.

Oman’s state news agency also said drones struck sites in a region along the waterway, a day after Oman and Iran held talks on the strait and agreed to continue negotiations. The Strait is located in the territorial waters of Iran and Oman.

Oman summoned the Iranian ambassador to protest the attacks, the first such move since the start of the war, and described Iran’s actions as ‘irresponsible’.