(Reuters)
ANKARA/DUBAI, July 8- The U.S. military said on Wednesday it launched fresh strikes on Iran to keep the Strait of Hormuz open to shipping, triggering Iranian attacks on Kuwait and Bahrain in the latest escalation to derail efforts to end the war.
The latest round of attacks, which the U.S. said was carried out in response to Tuesday’s assault on three cargo ships transiting the strait, came hours after President Donald Trump said he believed an interim ceasefire with Iran to be “over.”
“U.S. Central Command forces have started conducting additional strikes against Iran to further degrade their ability to threaten freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz,” CENTCOM, the U.S. military’s Middle East command, wrote on X.
“The United States is holding Iran accountable for recent unjustified aggression against commercial shipping and civilian crews freely navigating a vital international waterway.”
The U.S. strikes rattled several cities along Iran’s southern coast and left some areas without power. Iran responded with a second day of attacks on Kuwait and Bahrain, both home to U.S. military bases.
Kuwait’s Defense Ministry said it was intercepting missiles and drones, while Qatar briefly issued an “elevated security threat” alert before later giving the all-clear.
The U.S. strikes against Iran on Wednesday will be greater in number than the ones carried out on Tuesday, a U.S. official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“This is in retribution for yesterday’s bombing of ships by Iran. If it happens again, it will get much worse!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Control of the strait, through which a fifth of global oil supplies passed before the war, has given Tehran immense leverage, effectively allowing it to force a stalemate with the world’s most powerful military. While Iran has not claimed responsibility for the ship attacks, analysts say Tehran uses such actions to gain leverage in negotiations.
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