Jörg Luyken
Last updated12 July 2026 8:44am BST
Iran has carried out a wave of strikes across the Gulf, including on Qatar and Jordan, in a round of attacks that threaten to unravel the ceasefire deal further.
Qatar reported three injuries following Iranian drone attacks on Sunday morning as Kuwait said it was fending off “ongoing” strikes.
Iran claimed it had targeted US military facilities in several countries, including a refueling platform for aircraft carriers in Oman.
Tehran also targeted two more ships attempting to pass through the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday night, with the country’s chief negotiator warning that “the era of one-sided deals is OVER”.
Washington said it had struck around 140 targets across Iran in response, including drone and missile facilities as well as naval assets.
The latest round of fighting was triggered earlier this week by Iranian strikes on tankers attempting to transit the shipping lane. Tehran has argued that all commercial shipping must use routes approved by its authorities.
The White House has demanded that Iran publicly declare no further attacks on commercial shipping, with Donald Trump saying the ceasefire between the two countries was “over”.
US strikes Iran after regime shuts Strait of Hormuz
US military accuses Tehran of ‘blatantly attacking’ Cyprus-flagged container ship
Emily Blumenthal.
Jörg Luyken
Published 12 July 2026
6:19am BST
The US has launched its third round of strikes in a week on Iran after the regime said it had closed the Strait of Hormuz “until further notice and until the end of US interference” in the region.
US Central Command (Centcom) said it had begun a new wave of strikes hours after Iran’s navy “blatantly attacked” M/V GFS Galaxy, a Cyprus-flagged container ship travelling through the waterway.
The attack caused a fire and “significant damage” to the vessel’s engine room, forcing the ship to halt in the waterway, Centcom said.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Centre (UKMTO) said the crew had abandoned ship and was currently in a lifeboat. Centcom had earlier claimed a civilian crew member was missing.
Centcom wrote on X: “Iran was provided yet another opportunity to demonstrate adherence to the Memorandum of Understanding after being held accountable for earlier attacks on commercial vessels but has again failed.
“In response, the United States is imposing a heavy cost by continuing to degrade Iran’s ability to attack civilian mariners and commercial ships freely transiting the strait.”
A few hours later, there were explosions in Bahrain, Qatar and the UAE amid reports of Iran launching retaliatory attacks. The IRGC claimed it had targeted US bases and radar sites in Kuwait, Qatar and Jordan, and destroyed command and control centres and drone hangars.
Centcom said its barrage by land and sea-based fighter planes, drones and ships had hit approximately 140 Iranian military targets, including missile and drone sites, naval capabilities, ammunition storage facilities, communication networks and coastal surveillance locations.
Saturday’s strikes marked the largest US bombardment of Iranian assets in weeks.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) had claimed earlier that it hit the Cyprus-flagged container ship with a “warning shot”, declaring that “no vessel will be permitted to transit” and warning against retaliation.
“If the enemy uses this incident as a pretext and makes any misstep, it will be met with a severe response,” the navy said in state media.
UKMTO said it had received a report of damage to the rear of a container ship that had caused a fire on board, nine nautical miles east of Oman.
The IRGC claimed on Sunday morning that its forces had struck a second vessel in the strait, though this has not been confirmed.
Just after the latest strikes, Pete Hegseth, the US defence secretary, wrote on X: “Iran made a poor choice. Now they pay.”
The strikes come as negotiations to reach a lasting peace deal and resolve the dispute over traffic through the Strait of Hormuz hang by a thread.
While the IRGC insists that ships travel through an approved route past the shores of Iran, striking ships that fail to adhere, the US maintains that vessels must be free to transit anywhere in the narrow waterway.
The friction over that disagreement has threatened to plunge the US and Iran back into full-scale war, with the two sides trading strikes three times in the past week.
After Iran struck three ships using a US-approved route near the coast of Oman, the US responded with two nights of heavy bombardment. According to Iran’s health ministry, US strikes on six cities across Iran on Wednesday and Thursday killed at least 17 people and injured a further 115.
Iran then targeted US bases in Kuwait and Bahrain with missiles and drones.
Just before the US launched strikes, a deadline passed for an ultimatum issued by the US to Tehran to reopen the strait and apologise for all attacks on commercial ships by the end of Saturday.
US officials claimed Iran had told them the strikes on civilian vessels were carried out by rogue hardliners seeking to undermine the interim peace agreement signed just over three weeks ago, which Donald Trump has since declared was “over”.
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