US Begins Bombing Iran After Multiple Tankers Struck in Strait of Hormuz

US Central Command announced on Tuesday that its forces began bombing Iran, strikes it’s framing as a response to Iranian attacks on commercial shipping.

CENTCOM described the new strikes as “powerful,” and Iranian media have reported blasts in several coastal areas, including Qeshm Island and the port cities of Bandar Abbas and Sirik. US officials claimed the strikes targeted military sites while Iran’s IRIB broadcaster reported that “most of the attacks” hit “civilian areas.”

A US official told CNN that the US strikes were not “proportional” and described them as “punishment,” adding that the attacks “won’t be over for a bit.” A US official told Axios that the strikes were four or five times bigger than the previous US bombing of Iran’s coast that happened about 10 days ago.

The Axios report said that President Trump approved the strikes during a meeting with his top-level officials on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Ankara.

Earlier, the US Treasury Department revoked Iran’s oil sanctions waivers granted under the US-Iran Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), which appears to be collapsing.

The strikes and reversal of the sanctions waiver came after at least three tankers were hit by drones in the Strait of Hormuz, and while Iran hasn’t taken credit for the attacks, they came after Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) warned that it would take action against ships that attempted to transit the waterway without coordinating with Iranian authorities

Iranian officials have maintained that under the MoU, Iran is solely responsible for traffic going through the strait and that any arrangements outside of its approved channels violate the agreement. The US has previously bombed Iran for attacking tankers that attempted to cross the waterway along a route that wasn’t approved by Iran.

After the oil waivers were reversed, a US official told Al Arabiya that Iran will only “reap the benefits” of the MoU if “they exhibit good behavior.” The official added that Iran’s actions were “wholly unacceptable” and “will be met with consequences.”

One of the vessels that was struck on Tuesday was the Al-Rekayyat, a Qatari LNG tanker, prompting Doha to strongly condemn the attack and blame Iran.

“We demand that the Islamic Republic of Iran immediately cease all practices that undermine regional security or threaten the safety of international maritime navigation, & refrain from endangering global energy supplies & the resources of the countries of the region in pursuit of narrow interests,” Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed Al Ansari wrote on X.

Saudi Arabia also accused Iran of attacking a Saudi tanker, with the Saudi Foreign Ministry calling on Tehran to cease “practices that threaten international maritime navigation and global energy supplies,” according to Al Jazeera.

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