US strikes Iran after Tehran says it closed Strait of Hormuz
U.S. forces launched another round of strikes against Iran on Saturday after the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps attacked a ship in the Strait of Hormuz.
U.S. Central Command said the U.S. strikes happened around 7:15 p.m. ET, marking the third round this week.
When they concluded, CENTCOM said, U.S. forces hit about 140 military targets with land- and sea-based fighter aircraft, drones and naval vessels.
“Targets included Iranian missile and drone sites, naval capabilities, ammunition storage facilities, communication networks, and coastal surveillance locations,” CENTCOM said.
CENTOM said the U.S. strikes followed Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces attacking the M/V GFS Galaxy, a Cyprus-flagged container ship transiting the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran said it hit the vessel because it traveled on an unapproved route. The American strikes, Iran said, will be met with a “severe response.”
“A vessel that had jeopardized maritime security by switching off its systems was struck and brought to a halt,” the Navy of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said in a statement, Reuters reported.
The statement added that several ships tried going through the Strait on an “unauthorized route” and disregarded warnings to correct their course.
Now, the IGRC said in its statement, the Strait is closed until “further notice” and “the end of U.S. interference in this region.”
CENTCOM, though, maintained that “commercial vessel transits through the vital international maritime corridor continue.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on X that “Iran made a poor choice.”
“Now they pay,” he said.
U.S. and Iran signed a tenous ceasefire agreement on June 14.
However, both sides have launched attacks in recent days.
On Truth Social Friday morning, Trump said the U.S. had agreed to Iran’s request to continue talks to end the war.
But, he wrote, the ceasefire is “OVER!”
He later posted that the U.S. will “completely decimate and destroy” Iran if it tries to assassinate him in retaliation for the death of the Islamic Republic’s supreme leader.
Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
