By Vaughn Cockayne and Kerry Picket (The Washington Times)
The U.S. military launched a round of strikes against Iran on Sunday evening as Washington sought to disrupt the Islamist regime’s control over the Strait of Hormuz.
U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East, wrote in a social media post that the latest round of strikes began at 5 p.m. EDT and were intended to degrade Iran’s capacity to “attack civilian mariners and commercial ships freely transiting the Strait of Hormuz.”
The command said President Trump had directed the strikes to “hold Iranian forces accountable.”
CENTCOM did not reveal what or how many targets were attacked in the latest round of strikes.
The attacks were the second round of the day.
Earlier Sunday, announced a round of approximately 140 strikes against targets along Iran’s coastal region — conducted overnight from Saturday into Sunday — in retaliation for Iranian attacks on commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz. The Sunday evening strikes marked a subsequent round.
The U.S. and Iran offered starkly different perspectives on the status of the strait after the first round of strikes.
In a whirlwind series of media interviews Sunday, Mr. Trump declared that the U.S. military had hit Iran “very hard” overnight and, as a result, the Strait of Hormuz was now open for business.
Mr. Trump told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that Tehran agreed to a peace deal after the strikes that included “no nuclear, no this, no that, no nothing,” but quickly reneged.
“Then, all of a sudden, two hours after that, they hit a ship with a drone. And I said, ’These people, there’s something wrong with them,’” he told CNN’s “State of the Union” when asked about the drone strike.
CENTCOM said in an earlier statement that its “forces are positioned and prepared to ensure that freedom of navigation remains available despite unwarranted Iranian aggression.”
“Iran does not control the strait. Traffic is flowing,” CENTCOM posted on X.
Iran’s Persian Gulf Strait Authority, which Tehran established during the war with the U.S., reported earlier in the day that the strait was closed until further notice, citing “illegal movements” by CENTCOM over the past week.
“As soon as the stability and calm are restored, all requests will be reviewed based on the schedule and the necessary permits will be issued,” the agency wrote on social media.
Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz had picked up significantly after the signing of the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding last month. The agreement required Iran to use its best efforts to ensure no tolls on commercial shipping for at least 60 days while negotiators hammered out a comprehensive peace agreement, a separate ceasefire clause addressed halting hostilities.
However, successful passages through the strait have declined since tensions over control of the waterway flared up last week.
Early last week, Iranian forces struck several tankers in Omani waters while the vessels were transiting the Strait of Hormuz. Since the signing of the memorandum, Iranian officials have insisted that ships must travel along preapproved routes and work with Iran’s military if they wish to transit safely.
The U.S. said the strikes by Tehran constituted a clear violation of the ceasefire outlined in the memorandum and launched retaliatory attacks on more than 80 targets in Iran’s coastal provinces on Tuesday, followed by approximately 90 additional targets in a second wave on Wednesday and Thursday.
Some reports have alleged that senior Iranian officials admitted to U.S. advisers that the attacks on the tankers were a mistake and blamed the incidents on extremist factions within the military.
U.S. officials do not appear entirely convinced that the Iranian attempt at an explanation matters.
“I don’t buy it,” U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz told ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday. “I don’t think we buy it. And at the end of the day, where’s the discipline and the public apology if that’s the case? And that’s simply what the president and his team asked for.”
CENTCOM launched its first round of attacks on Iran on Sunday after a strike on a Cypriot-flagged vessel Saturday, which the U.S. blamed on Iran.
Iran confirmed that its forces struck a vessel in the waterway, which it said was transiting “illegally,” and said it launched attacks on U.S. military installations in the Persian Gulf in response.
Iran’s attacks over the past week have targeted U.S. military assets in Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan and Qatar, as well as Oman and the United Arab Emirates, according to multiple reports.
The United Nations condemned the escalating strikes from both nations. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that a return to full-scale hostilities would be “catastrophic” for the region and the world.
Iranian state-affiliated media reported Sunday afternoon that several explosions were heard in coastal towns, just hours after Iran announced retaliatory strikes against U.S. military installations in Persian Gulf states.
The Fars news agency, which is affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, reported that explosions rocked the coastal city of Bandar Abbas and the area of Qeshm, another city on Iran’s coast.
The semiofficial Mehr news agency also reported attacks on Iran’s Farur Island, located southwest of Bandar Abbas. The report added that one telecommunications worker had been killed and two others injured in the strike.
At least 10 projectiles also reportedly struck Iran’s Qeshm Island, located in the Strait of Hormuz.
Hossein Amir Teymouri, the island’s governor, said all the targets were military installations and no casualties were reported.
After the strikes, Fars reported that the IRGC launched a drone attack on U.S. rocket launcher systems in Kuwait.
This article was made available to WMAL via The Washington Times.
