July 15 (Reuters) – The U.S. military said it had begun a new wave of strikes against Iran at 6 a.m. ET (1000 GMT) on Wednesday.
“The strikes are designed to further degrade military capabilities Iranian forces have used to attack commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz,” the U.S. Central Command said in a post on X.
(Reporting by Shubham Kalia in BengaluruEditing by Tomasz Janowski)
MORE REPORTING ON IRAN
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) – The U.S. reimposed a naval blockade on Iran and intensified its airstrike campaign Wednesday in retaliation for Tehran’s attacks on ships trying to pass through the Strait of Hormuz. The American strikes hit an Iranian army barracks, killed at least seven troops and wounded more than 260 people across the country, Iranian officials said.
Days of back-and-forth strikes by the U.S. and Iran across the Middle East – and renewed threats to the waterway crucial to global energy supplies – have shredded the interim deal to end the conflict and the region could tip back into all-out war.
The U.S. first imposed a blockade in April and then lifted it last month after signing the interim deal that paused the fighting and set a 60-day period for negotiations over issues like Iran’s nuclear program. Those talks have stalled as fighting over the Strait of Hormuz has intensified.
When the U.S. and Israel launched the war on Iran on Feb. 28, Tehran effectively closed the waterway to shipping traffic – a move that sent the price of oil, fertilizer and many other goods soaring far beyond the region and gave Iran major leverage in negotiations.
Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard threatened Wednesday to halt all energy exports from the Middle East over the blockade.
“The export of oil and gas from the region will be either for everyone or for no one,” it said.
Both the US and Iran launch attacks as the blockade is reimposed
The U.S. carried out a wave of strikes, hitting dozens of targets overnight, the military’s Central Command said Wednesday, and then resumed striking Iran during daylight – an unusual move that further signaled the increasing tempo of the attacks.
Among the targets was Greater Tunb Island, which is viewed as a strategic point in the Strait of Hormuz. Central Command said the attack targeted Iranian defense and missile sites.
Iran took control of three islands – Abu Musa, Greater Tunb and Lesser Tunb – from what would become the United Arab Emirates in 1971. The UAE has sought to reclaim them.
Some analysts have suggested that if the U.S. seized the islands, they could allow it to control the strait.
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