“We bombed the hell out of them last night,” Donald Trump told NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday, as the US and Iran traded blows over control of the Strait of Hormuz, leaving a fragile ceasefire at the point of collapse.
The US military’s Central Command said it hit roughly 140 Iranian military targets overnight on Saturday and Sunday – including missile and drone sites, naval facilities, ammunition depots, communication networks and surveillance locations – in retaliation for Tehran’s attack on a Cyprus-flagged container ship in the strategic waterway. A civilian crew member from the MV GFS Galaxy is missing; all crew, including the missing person, are Indian nationals, according to India’s Ministry of External Affairs. India condemned the attack and said it was working with Oman on a search-and-rescue operation.
“Trump boasts as US strikes 140 Iranian targets, Iran closes Strait of Hormuz, ceasefire collapses.”
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) responded with a wave of drone and missile strikes across the Gulf, claiming to have hit a US base in Jordan, a radar site in Kuwait, an offshore drilling platform in Kuwait that injured an employee, a refuelling station at the port of Duqm in Oman, and command and control centres in Qatar. The IRGC also said it had destroyed a jet maintenance centre and command facility in Qatar. Five states were targeted: Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Jordan, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, with Qatar describing the attacks as a “dangerous escalation” and Oman condemning strikes that came just hours after talks with Iran.
Iran declared the Strait of Hormuz closed “until further notice”, but US Central Command insisted: “Iran does not control the strait. Traffic is flowing.” Trump echoed that, saying: “It’s open. We bombed the hell out of them last night.” The US-run Joint Maritime Information Center said traffic was transiting at “reduced levels”.
The renewed hostilities threaten an interim ceasefire agreement signed on 17 June, which extended a 60-day pause to allow the reopening of the strait and talks on Iran’s nuclear programme and sanctions relief. Trump said earlier this week the ceasefire was over, while Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi accused the US of violating the deal. However, Trump said talks would still continue.
Iran’s lead negotiator, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, struck a defiant tone on X: “The era of one-sided deals is OVER. We told you: keep your word or pay the price. Reality is knocking.” Labour minister Sir Chris Bryant said: “It’s a bit daft to go into a war if you don’t know how you’re going to get out of it… we want everybody to de-escalate.”
About a fifth of the world’s traded oil and natural gas passed through the Strait of Hormuz before the US and Israel launched attacks on Iran in late February. With the ceasefire in tatters and both sides still firing, the question of who controls the world’s most vital oil chokepoint – and what comes next – remains dangerously unresolved.
