The US military launched fresh strikes on Iran after the latter struck a container ship on Sunday while Tehran said it had again closed the Strait of Hormuz and escalated attacks on US facilities in states across the Gulf.
A series of attacks between the US and Iran over the past several days led President Donald Trump to declare the end of a ceasefire meant to halt the war on Iran that the US and Israel began on February 28, though Trump has left the door open to continued negotiations.
Iran said it closed the strait after firing a warning shot that struck a vessel travelling on an unapproved route. It warned that any retaliation over the incident would be met with a “severe response.”
The US Central Command, however, claimed commercial vessels continue to transit through the waterway that carried one-fifth of the world’s oil and LNG shipments before the war.
The Central Command said US forces hit 140 Iranian military targets on Saturday, out of more than 300 during three nights of strikes “to degrade Iran’s ability to attack civilian mariners and commercial vessels freely transiting the strait”.
