After a few weeks of relative calm around the Strait of Hormuz, attacks both against and from Iran have resumed with a vengeance. On Tuesday evening, the US began a new wave of attacks against, among other places, the cities of Bandar Abbas and Sirik in Iran.
Iran, in turn, has responded with attacks on several countries around the Middle East where there are American military bases: Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Kuwait and Kurdish areas in northern Iraq.
Two Filipino sailors have been killed in an attack on a Saudi oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, the state-owned Saudi shipping giant Bahri announced.
According to Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, two oil tankers hit mines as they attempted to pass through the strait through "an illegal route, urged by the US military." The ships are on fire, according to the Guard's difficult-to-verify statement.
“I don't care”
The war took on new momentum on Sunday, when the US struck the island of Larak, where Iranian forces were said to have laid naval mines in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran responded with drones and missiles at US targets in Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, but all the projectiles were said to have been shot down.
Last night, an hour or so after the US announced that the wave of attacks had ended, President Donald Trump came out and downplayed the idea that the attacks were an attempt to force Iran back to the negotiating table.
“I like our current position much better, with almost total control of the Strait of Hormuz and their economy in complete collapse,” the president wrote on Truth Social, in light of the many rounds of negotiations held between the countries.
Mohsen Rezaei, military advisor to Iran's Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, warns the US:
“You will soon see that Iran’s new strategy on the battlefield, in diplomacy, and in confronting the economic blockade will shatter your foundations,” he writes on X.
Crashed a wedding?
Five people were killed and around 60 injured when one of the US strikes hit a wedding in a village in the Sirik area, the Iranian Red Crescent reports. The information has not been confirmed elsewhere and the US military says it only attacked military targets.
A total of at least eleven people in Iran have been killed, according to the country's state-run media.
In Kuwait, authorities say an apartment building was hit in an attack and caught fire, but there are no reports of deaths there.
