TEHRAN (AFP): The United States has launched a fresh wave of strikes on Iran on Tuesday (July 14) after President Donald Trump vowed to reimpose a naval blockade, prompting Tehran to respond with strikes on targets in countries around the region.
Trump said a negotiated deal was still possible, but fighting surged to a scale unseen since an April ceasefire. Iran hit two ships in the Strait of Hormuz, killing a crew member, according to the United Arab Emirates.
A Norwegian tanker was also hit by an explosion caused by an unidentified device off the Omani coast early Tuesday, the crisis response company MTI Network said.
The US military said it had hit targets across Iran including in the port cities of Bushehr and Bandar Abbas to "degrade Iran's ability to attack commercial shipping".
Local authorities said the US struck "four points" in Bushehr – which hosts Iran's only civilian nuclear power plant – as well as an Iranian border area near Iraq and Kuwait.
Since last week, renewed US attacks have killed at least 28 people in Iran, according to an AFP tally based on Iranian media and official announcements.
After the strikes, Iran's Revolutionary Guards announced they had in turn fired missiles and drones on Bahrain, targeting a residential building for US forces and other facilities.
Bahrain said it had intercepted "several treacherous aerial attacks launched by Iran" and accused Tehran of targeting civilians, after explosions and sirens were heard in Manama.
Trump's declaration on the Hormuz blockade and the scale of the renewed fighting have called into question efforts to bring a permanent end to the war.
Iran started blocking the strait after US-Israel attacks in February, which prompted Washington's blockade on Tehran's ports – but restrictions eased after the sides agreed a preliminary deal in June.
'Act of war'
Monday was the quietest day for crossings of Hormuz by commodity vessels since June 13, before the preliminary deal briefly boosted traffic through the strait.
Maritime tracker Kpler said only seven commodity vessels used the waterway – though the data did not include any vessels using the non-Iran approved route hugging the Omani coast.
Trump said on Monday that the United States was "taking over" the strait and would slap a levy of 20% on all cargo shipped through it, drawing mockery from Iran and prompting Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to warn Washington against adopting a policy of "piracy".
US Central Command said Iran's ports on the waterway would be blockaded from 2000 GMT on Tuesday.
Oil prices shot up more than five% on Tuesday after the fresh US strikes, having already surged the day before.
Tehran launched attacks on other US allies in the region, including Jordan, which said it had shot down four missiles from Iran.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards said their strikes targeted US forces at an air base and urged Jordanians to issue a "serious demand for the removal of the occupying American bases from the region".
Iran insists it only targets US interests in the Gulf, but its military command spokesman said any collaboration by Gulf countries with the United States would be considered "an act of war".
Trump formally notified Congress last week that the US had resumed military conflict against Iran, the White House confirmed to AFP, giving the Pentagon an additional 60 days to operate in the region without congressional approval.
International law
Trump also threatened to destroy Pickaxe Mountain, a deeply buried nuclear site near Natanz where Western intelligence suspects Iran is building an undeclared enrichment facility.
"Tell the Iranians to be ready. Let them know we're coming (and) there's not a damn thing they can do about it," he told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt.
Trump declared on Truth Social that the United States would be "known as 'THE GUARDIAN OF THE HORMUZ STRAIT'" and levy a 20% fee on all cargo shipped through the waterway.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi responded mockingly on X that Trump was "absolutely right" that whoever guarantees safe passage should be compensated, but that Tehran would charge less for this service, noting that "20% is of course too much".
Washington has vehemently opposed Tehran's desire to charge tolls in the strait, which international law generally forbids.
Despite all signs to the contrary, Trump said Monday that a deal with Tehran to end the war was still possible. - AFP
