The US attacked Iran early on Sunday over an Iranian strike on a container ship in the Strait of Hormuz that set it ablaze and left one crew member missing.
Iran responded with attacks on several countries in the Middle East, including Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Jordan and Oman — the country on the other side of the strait, which Tehran wants to join it in managing traffic there.
Later on Sunday, Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency cited the governor of Qeshm island, located near the strait, as saying that under a dozen projectiles had been fired at military targets there, with no casualties.
There was no immediate comment by the US military.
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The largest island in the Persian Gulf is home to about 150,000 people.
The fighting raised new questions about the interim deal Iran and the US reached on June 17, beginning a 60-day period aimed at reaching a permanent end to the war. The midway point of that period comes within the week.
The strait, a key route for the global supply of oil and natural gas, has become the key sticking point in negotiations, and fighting over the past week has left negotiations in danger of collapse.
The US military’s central command said it hit some 140 targets, including missile and drone launch sites, ammunition dumps, communication equipment and other sites.
It said the attacks, heavier than in recent days, would weaken Iran’s ability to threaten shipping.
“We bombed the hell out of them last night,” US President Donald Trump told NBC’s Meet The Press.
Semi-official Iranian news agencies reported that a navy officer was killed.
Iran retaliated by attacking nations in the region hosting US military forces, while insisting it alone must control the strait and potentially charge vessels for travelling through it.
“The era of one-sided deals is OVER,” Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, the speaker of Iran’s parliament and a main negotiator, wrote.
“We told you: keep your word or pay the price. Reality is knocking.”
The US has launched three rounds of airstrikes targeting Iran in the last week over Iranian attacks on ships heading through the strait using a route off Oman, seeking to avoid the Islamic Republic’s territorial waters.
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The US military and Mr Trump asserted that the strait remained open on Sunday.
Iran said the strait was closed until calm is restored, and it would consider targeting “additional enemy bases in the region” if it faced more attacks.
The US military said more than 140 ships had transited the strait over the past week.
A multinational body overseen by the US navy said traffic continued “at reduced levels” off both Oman and Iran.
It said nearly 140 vessels transited daily before the war.
About a fifth of all traded oil and natural gas passed through the strait before the war began.
Iran’s grip on it led to a global energy crisis, although oil prices have sharply dropped since wartime highs of 120 US dollars a barrel.
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Missile alerts sounded across several Gulf Arab countries early on Sunday.
Qatar’s military said it intercepted incoming Iranian fire, with explosions heard in the neighbouring United Arab Emirates.
Three people, including a child, were wounded as a result of shrapnel from the interception of Iranian attacks, Qatar’s interior ministry said, giving no further details on their condition.
Missile alerts sounded in Bahrain, an island kingdom in the Persian Gulf home to the US navy’s 5th Fleet.
Kuwait’s military also said it was intercepting incoming fire.
The Omani state news agency said drones struck sites in an area that sits on the Strait of Hormuz and issued a shelter-in-place warning for residents in the region.
The attack came a day after Oman and Iran held talks on the strait.
Oman summoned the Iranian ambassador to protest against the strikes, the first such move since the war began, calling Iran’s acts “irresponsible”.
Three Iranian missiles struck areas across Jordan, causing minor damage but no injuries, Jordan’s state news agency reported.
Sirens also sounded in the UAE, but the government said missiles did not cross into its territory.
A Cyprus-flagged container ship was hit by Iran and suffered “significant engine-room damage”, the US central command said.
Oman’s maritime authority said it rescued 23 crew members but one was missing.
India’s ministry of external affairs said the missing man is an Indian national and it was working with Oman to locate him.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations centre, overseen by the military, said the ship had been hugging Oman’s shoreline.
Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said multiple vessels “disregarded our warnings” and ignored instructions to follow what it called an approved route. One “was struck by a warning shot and brought to a stop”.
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Iranian state media later reported US strikes across the country, including southern Iran in the province closest to the strait and military sites in a province near Tehran.
The strait sits in both Iran and Oman’s territorial waters but has long been considered an international waterway.
Oman said on Saturday that it and Iran had agreed to continue discussing the strait “at the technical and political levels”.
Iran offered no statement about the strait being open to all, something sought by the Trump administration.
Mr Trump suggested last week that the interim deal in the war was “over”.
But mediators, including Pakistan, Qatar and Egypt, have continued efforts to reach an agreement.
A regional official involved in the mediation said efforts to shore up the ceasefire continued on Sunday.