US strikes 140 Iran targets after Hormuz ship attack sparks Gulf retaliation

Dubai,UPDATED: Jul 12, 2026 12:58 IST

The United States attacked Iran early on Sunday after an Iranian strike on a vessel in the Strait of Hormuz set a container ship ablaze and forced its crew to abandon it. Iran then appeared to hit Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman, widening the latest round of fighting in the war that began on February 28.

The fresh exchange has put the Strait of Hormuz at the centre of any further talks between Tehran and Washington on a permanent end to the war. Before the conflict, about a fifth of all traded oil and natural gas passed through the strait. Iran's control over it during the war triggered a global energy crisis, though oil prices have since fallen sharply from wartime highs of USD 120 a barrel. The violence also came days after US President Donald Trump said an interim deal in the Iran war was "over".

The US military's Central Command said it struck about 140 targets in Iran, far more than in the previous two rounds, hitting missile and drone launch sites, ammunition dumps, communication equipment and other locations. It said the attacks "degrade Iran's ability to attack civilian mariners and commercial vessels freely transiting the strait". US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth wrote online: "Iran made a poor choice. Now they pay." Iran's Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, who is also a main negotiator, replied on X: "The era of one-sided deals is OVER. We told you: keep your word or pay the price. Reality is knocking."

According to US Central Command, the vessel targeted in the Strait of Hormuz was a Cyprus-flagged container ship that suffered "significant engineroom damage" and had one civilian crew member missing. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations centre, run by the British military, said the ship had been following a route close to Oman's shoreline, a path ships have used to enter and leave the Persian Gulf while avoiding Iranian territorial waters. The crew abandoned the ship as it burned, the centre said. Iran's Revolutionary Guard said several vessels had "disregarded our warnings and instructions to correct their course and proceed along the approved route", adding that one of them "was struck by a warning shot and brought to a stop". Iran also said the strait would remain closed "until further notice" and warned it could target "additional enemy bases in the region" if more attacks followed.

Missile alerts sounded across several Gulf Arab countries. Qatar's military said it intercepted incoming Iranian fire, while explosions were heard in the neighbouring UAE. Qatar's Interior Ministry said three people, including a child, were wounded by falling shrapnel from the interceptions. In Bahrain, home to the US Navy's 5th Fleet, missile alerts sounded for the third time on Sunday, while Kuwait's military said it was also intercepting incoming fire. Oman's state news agency said drones struck sites in the country's north-east after Oman and Iran held talks on Saturday. It was not immediately clear which locations were under attack in the UAE, which had not been targeted in the latest round until now. The last reported attack on the Emirates was in May, when a drone caused a fire on the edge of the country's only nuclear power plant. Iran also made claims of attacks elsewhere that were not immediately confirmed.

The latest fighting followed three rounds of US airstrikes in the past week over Iranian attacks on ships using a route through the Strait of Hormuz that avoided Iranian territorial waters. Tehran had retaliated by targeting countries hosting US military forces in the region, while insisting it alone should control the strait and could charge vessels for travelling through it. Iranian state media reported US strikes across large parts of the country, including in southern Iran near the Strait of Hormuz and at military sites in a province near Tehran. On Saturday, the foreign ministers of Iran and Oman discussed the strait after days of attacks at sea and US retaliation that damaged the interim deal. Oman said both sides agreed to continue discussions on the Strait of Hormuz "at the technical and political levels", but Iran did not say the waterway would remain open to all, which the Trump administration has been seeking.

Iran's new supreme leader, who has not been seen in public since the war began, also vowed revenge in his first statement since the funeral of his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. "Such revenge is the will of our nation and must certainly be carried out," Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei said in a statement broadcast on state television. US officials, speaking anonymously on Friday, said the resumption of strikes even before the latest round was driven by what they described as a rogue faction of Iranian hard-liners trying to sabotage the ceasefire. Iran has said its ruling system remains united under the new supreme leader. After the US ended strikes on Thursday, further attacks reportedly hit Iran, raising questions over who else may have targeted it. Israel did not claim those attacks, and the report said Gulf Arab states may have carried them out to deter Iran from striking them again. Iran had on Thursday retaliated for US strikes by targeting Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait and Qatar. Iran's Health Ministry spokesperson Hossein Kermanpour said two rounds of strikes last week killed at least 17 people and wounded 115 others.

In effect, Sunday's fighting saw a sharp escalation around the Strait of Hormuz, with US strikes across Iran, retaliatory Iranian attacks across the Gulf, fresh disruption to shipping and renewed uncertainty over whether any talks can keep the waterway open and move the war towards an end.

With PTI Inputs

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