This image from video released by U.S. Central Command, shows an explosion at Bandar Abbas Naval Base, Iran, as three Corsair unmanned surface vessels, also called one-way attack surface drones, fired by the U.S. military, hit the port July 12. AP-Yonhap
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The U.S. launched strikes on Iran early Tuesday morning, hours after President Donald Trump said Washington is “reinstating” a blockade on Iran in the Strait of Hormuz. Trump separately suggested the United States will charge other ships for safe passage, upending hundreds of years of American policy supporting freedom of navigation across the globe.
Iran responded with attacks targeting Bahrain and two tankers associated with the United Arab Emirates traveling through the strait, killing one mariner and wounding eight others. The Emirates threatened to retaliate against Iran, potentially drawing the nation home to Abu Dhabi and Dubai back into fighting with Tehran.
The attacks come as Iran and the U.S. both vie for control of the strait through which a fifth of all crude oil and natural gas once passed in peacetime. The price of benchmark Brent crude oil rose 7.8 percent to $81.92 a barrel, still well below the nearly $120 reached at the height of the war but threatening to make costs everywhere higher.
