US launches new strikes against Iran after three ships were hit in Strait of Hormuz

The U.S. mil­i­tary launched new strikes against Iran ear­ly Wednes­day, hours af­ter three mer­chant ships were struck in the Strait of Hor­muz, in the lat­est ex­change of fire to threat­en the in­ter­im deal to end the fight­ing be­tween the two coun­tries.

The re­newed at­tacks were sure to add to the dif­fi­cul­ty of the ne­go­ti­a­tions aimed at ful­ly re­open­ing the strait, rolling back Tehran’s dis­put­ed nu­clear pro­gram and reach­ing a per­ma­nent end to the war launched Feb. 28.

In a state­ment post­ed to so­cial me­dia, U.S. Cen­tral Com­mand said Amer­i­can forces launched the strikes “to im­pose heavy costs for tar­get­ing and at­tack­ing com­mer­cial ship­ping crewed by in­no­cent civil­ians in an in­ter­na­tion­al wa­ter­way.”

“Iran’s demon­strat­ed ag­gres­sion was un­war­rant­ed, dan­ger­ous, and a clear vi­o­la­tion of the cease­fire,” the com­mand said in their state­ment.

A sim­i­lar spate of Iran­ian at­tacks on ship­ping and U.S. re­tal­i­a­tion oc­curred late last month.

Hours af­ter the three tankers were struck by pro­jec­tiles, and the Unit­ed States re­voked a li­cense that had au­tho­rized the sale of Iran­ian oil as part of the in­ter­im deal to end the fight­ing be­tween the U.S. and Iran.

The new as­saults in the fu­el-ship­ping wa­ter­way were the most in a sin­gle day since late April, ac­cord­ing to the U.N. In­ter­na­tion­al Mar­itime Or­ga­ni­za­tion. The fresh at­tacks threat­ened to choke off the flow of traf­fic in the strait just as coun­tries hoped to re­store nor­mal ship­ping prac­tices and ease the glob­al eco­nom­ic strain of the war.

A U.S. of­fi­cial said the li­cense was re­voked be­cause Iran’s ac­tions in the strait were un­ac­cept­able and need­ed to be met with con­se­quences. The of­fi­cial spoke with The As­so­ci­at­ed Press on the con­di­tion of anonymi­ty to share in­sight in­to the rea­son­ing be­hind the move.

The Iran­ian For­eign Min­istry con­demned the U.S. move to re­voke the li­cense, say­ing in a state­ment that it vi­o­lates the in­ter­im deal and that “the U.S. gov­ern­ment bears re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for the con­se­quences of this breach of com­mit­ment.”

Iran’s deputy for­eign min­is­ter, Kazem Gharib­aba­di, al­so said in a post on X that the new at­tacks by the U.S. are a vi­o­la­tion of that agree­ment.

One tanker caught fire af­ter get­ting hit

One tanker was trav­el­ing off the coast of Oman when it was hit and caught fire, the Unit­ed King­dom Mar­itime Trade Op­er­a­tions cen­ter said. Iran­ian state tele­vi­sion said the liq­ue­fied nat­ur­al gas tanker came un­der at­tack af­ter ig­nor­ing warn­ings but did not di­rect­ly claim the as­sault.

The oth­er two ships sus­tained some dam­age, but no one was in­jured, and both con­tin­ued on their way, the U.K. mar­itime agency said.

Tehran, which has re­peat­ed­ly de­clared that on­ly its ap­proved route through the strait is safe, is sus­pect­ed of at­tack­ing oth­er ships that have used an­oth­er route close to the Omani shore.

Lo­ca­tion de­tails pro­vid­ed by the U.K. agency showed that all three at­tacks oc­curred off the coast of Oman or the neigh­bor­ing Unit­ed Arab Emi­rates, mak­ing it like­ly that the ships were us­ing the route near Oman.

In peace­time, a fifth of all trad­ed oil and nat­ur­al gas passed through the chan­nel.

The li­cense is­sued by the U.S. au­tho­rized the pro­duc­tion, de­liv­ery and sale of Iran­ian oil through Aug. 21. U.S. Vice Pres­i­dent JD Vance said at the time that lengthy talks with se­nior Iran­ian of­fi­cials in Switzer­land cre­at­ed a “good foun­da­tion for a suc­cess­ful fi­nal deal” to end the war.

U.S. sanc­tions on the pur­chase of Iran­ian oil had been in place since the 1979 Iran­ian Rev­o­lu­tion. Af­ter the U.S. and Is­rael launched the war, and af­ter the clo­sure of the strait, the U.S. had au­tho­rized the tem­po­rary sale of Iran­ian oil at least twice as an in­cen­tive to­ward a deal.

Mean­while, talks be­tween Iran and the U.S. ap­peared to be on hold un­til af­ter the bur­ial of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ay­a­tol­lah Ali Khamenei, who was killed at the be­gin­ning of the war.

Qatar calls at­tack a vi­o­la­tion of in­ter­na­tion­al law

One tanker was car­ry­ing liq­uid nat­ur­al gas south through the strait near Limah, Oman, when a pro­jec­tile hit the left-side en­gine room and sparked a fire, the U.K. Mar­itime Trade Op­er­a­tions cen­ter said.

Ma­jed Al-Ansari, a spokesper­son for the Qatari For­eign Min­istry, said the Qatari tanker Al Rekayy­at was tar­get­ed in an “un­ac­cept­able at­tack” on in­ter­na­tion­al nav­i­ga­tion and glob­al en­er­gy se­cu­ri­ty. He called it a “se­ri­ous and ex­plic­it vi­o­la­tion” of in­ter­na­tion­al law.

In a post on X, he said Qatar holds Iran “ful­ly legal­ly re­spon­si­ble.”

Lat­er Tues­day, the U.K. mar­itime agency re­port­ed that an oil tanker was hit on its left side as it ex­it­ed the strait near the Omani-Emi­rati bor­der. A third tanker was struck by a drone off Oman, the agency said.

The Joint Mar­itime In­for­ma­tion Cen­ter, a multi­na­tion­al body over­seen by the U.S. Navy, told ship­pers Mon­day that the route around Oman “has been ex­pand­ed and re­mains avail­able for all traf­fic.”

Ships go­ing to the north on the Iran­ian route must reg­is­ter with Tehran. Those go­ing south work with Oman and the U.S.

Iran and the Unit­ed States agreed as part of an in­ter­im deal to al­low ships to pass with­out pay­ing charges for 60 days. But Tehran in­sist­ed it must con­trol the ves­sels’ routes and lat­er charge fees for pas­sage, which would up­end decades of prac­tice in the wa­ter­way.

The U.S. and many Gulf Arab states say they will not agree to Iran charg­ing for pas­sage through the strait.

The da­ta firm Kpler re­port­ed that at least 108 ships crossed through the strait last week­end us­ing var­i­ous routes.

Mourn­ers gath­er in Qom for Khamenei’s fu­ner­al

Au­thor­i­ties flew Khamenei’s body to the Shi­ite sem­i­nary city of Qom, where mourn­ers hon­ored him Tues­day.

Iran­ian state tele­vi­sion aired live im­ages of hun­dreds of thou­sands of peo­ple walk­ing to­ward Jamkaran Mosque, just south of Qom, for the fu­ner­al ser­vice. Shi­ites be­lieve the mosque once host­ed Muham­mad al-Mah­di, the 12th and last Shi­ite imam, who dis­ap­peared in the 9th cen­tu­ry and is sup­posed to one day reap­pear to bring jus­tice to the world.

Khamenei’s son, Iran’s new Supreme Leader Ay­a­tol­lah Mo­jta­ba Khamenei, has yet to make an ap­pear­ance at the cer­e­monies, which be­gan Sat­ur­day in Tehran. He is be­lieved to be in hid­ing af­ter re­port­ed­ly be­ing wound­ed in the airstrike that killed his fa­ther.

Khamenei’s body ar­rived late Tues­day in Na­jaf, Iraq, where it was re­ceived by se­nior of­fi­cials from both coun­tries. Pro­ces­sions are planned for Wednes­day in Na­jaf and Kar­bala, the two holy cities of Iraqi Shi­ism. Iraq has a siz­able Shi­ite pop­u­la­tion and is home to ma­jor Shi­ite re­li­gious sites and cen­ters of learn­ing.

Khamenei, who was 86, will then be re­turned to Iran to be buried Thurs­day at the Imam Reza shrine in Mash­had, his birth­place. —DUBAI, Unit­ed Arab Emi­rates (AP)

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Sto­ry by JON GAM­BRELL, FA­TI­MA HUS­SEIN and KON­STAN­TIN TOROPIN

Fa­ti­ma Hus­sein and Kon­stan­tin Toropin re­port­ed from Wash­ing­ton. As­so­ci­at­ed Press Writer Qas­sim Ab­dul-Zahra in Na­jaf, Iraq, con­tributed to this re­port.