U.S. forces carried out a multiround strike against Iran on Tuesday after Iran targeted three commercial shipping vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz, with U.S. Central Command saying it hit over 80 targets total, including over 60 Iranian small boats.
“U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) forces completed a new round of offensive strikes against Iran, July 7, hitting over 80 targets with precision munitions as an immediate response to Iran’s latest attacks on commercial vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz,” CENTCOM said in a statement Tuesday night.
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“U.S. forces struck Iranian air defense systems, command and control networks, coastal radar sites, anti-ship missile capabilities, and more than 60 Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps small boats in and near the strait to degrade Iran’s ability to continue attacking international commerce flowing through the international trade corridor,” it added.
Iranian attacks followed by a U.S. military response have been a repetitive cycle since President Donald Trump announced a ceasefire on April 7, and it has persisted even after the two sides signed a memorandum of understanding last month for how they would move forward in negotiating a lasting agreement. Tuesday’s strikes began in an initial wave that CENTCOM confirmed was in response to Iran targeting commercial ships.
“U.S. Central Command forces have begun launching a series of powerful strikes against Iran to impose heavy costs for targeting and attacking commercial shipping crewed by innocent civilians in an international waterway,” CENTCOM said in a statement earlier in the day. “The U.S. strikes are in response to Iranian attacks on three commercial vessels that were transiting the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s demonstrated aggression was unwarranted, dangerous, and a clear violation of the ceasefire.”
The Treasury Department also rescinded temporary sanctions waivers that permitted Iran to export oil on Tuesday, before the U.S. strikes. The department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control’s decision ends a 60-day general license issued on June 21 that permitted the production, sale, delivery, and transport of Iranian crude oil and petroleum products.
A Qatari liquefied natural gas tanker and a Saudi crude oil tanker were struck on Monday, and an additional tanker was hit on Tuesday.
US RESCINDS OIL WAIVERS FOR IRAN AFTER SHIPS ATTACKED IN STRAIT OF HORMUZ
Iran has repeatedly threatened shipping vessels attempting to transit the waterway off Iran’s coast from other Gulf countries. Roughly 20% of the world’s oil passed through the Strait of Hormuz before the war, and traffic has slowly begun to increase since the signing of the MOU.
The MOU set out a 60-day period for the two countries to finalize a larger agreement that would include Iran’s nuclear program, a deadline that will expire in the middle of August.
