US Hits Iran After Ship Attack, Gulf Nations Come Under Fire
- Jul 12
- 3 min read
The Slate Bureau
New Delhi, July 12: The United States launched strikes on Iran early on Sunday after Iran attacked a vessel in the Strait of Hormuz. The Iranian strike set the container ship on fire, forcing the crew to abandon it. In response to the US action, Iran carried out missile and drone attacks targeting several Gulf countries, including Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Oman.
The latest escalation has raised fresh concerns about efforts to bring the conflict to a permanent end. The war, which began on February 28, has continued despite several attempts to negotiate a lasting ceasefire.
The Strait of Hormuz remains the biggest obstacle in the peace talks. The narrow waterway is one of the world's most important routes for transporting oil and natural gas, making it strategically vital for global energy supplies. Repeated clashes in and around the strait over the past week have increased tensions and pushed negotiations closer to collapse, raising fears of a wider regional conflict.
The US military's Central Command said it hit some 140 targets in Sunday's strikes, far more than in the two previous rounds of attacks, and went after missile and drone launch sites, ammunition dumps, communication equipment and other sites. It said the attacks would weaken Iran's ability to threaten civilian shipping.
“Iran made a poor choice. Now they pay,” US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth wrote online.
The US has launched three rounds of airstrikes targeting Iran in the last week over Iranian attacks on ships heading through the strait using a route seeking to avoid the Islamic Republic's territorial waters.
Iran retaliated by attacking nations in the region hosting US military forces, while insisting it alone must control the strait and potentially charge vessels for travelling through it.
“The era of one-sided deals is OVER,” Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of Iran's parliament and a main negotiator, wrote Sunday. “We told you: keep your word or pay the price. Reality is knocking.”
About a fifth of all traded oil and natural gas passed through the strait before the war began. Iran's grip on it during the war led to a global energy crisis, though oil prices have sharply dropped since wartime highs of USD 120 a barrel.
Missile alerts sounded across several Gulf Arab nations early Sunday morning.
Qatar's military said it intercepted incoming Iranian fire, with explosions heard in the
neighbouring United Arab Emirates. Three people, including a child, were wounded as a result of falling shrapnel from the interception of Iranian attacks, Qatar's Interior Ministry said, giving no further details on their conditions.
Meanwhile, missile alerts sounded for the third time on Sunday in Bahrain, an island kingdom in the Persian Gulf home to the US Navy's 5th Fleet. Kuwait's military also said it was intercepting incoming fire.
The Omani state news agency said drones struck sites in northeastern Oman, in the area that sits on the Strait of Hormuz. Iran had previously claimed attacks on Oman. The attack came after the two countries held talks on Saturday.
Sirens also sounded in the United Arab Emirates, but the government said missiles did not cross into UAE borders. The UAE so far hasn't been targeted in the most recent round of Iranian attacks.
The last attack on the Emirates, home to Abu Dhabi and Dubai, came in May when a drone sparked a fire on the edge of the country's sole nuclear power plant.
Iran also made a series of claims about attacks elsewhere that were not immediately confirmed.
In the Strait of Hormuz attack, a Cyprus-flagged container ship was hit by Iran and suffered “significant engineroom damage” and a civilian crew member was missing, US Central Command said early Sunday morning.
All of the crew, including the missing member, were Indian nationals, according to India's Ministry of External Affairs.
