DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) 鈥� early Sunday morning over an Iranian strike on a vessel in the Strait of Hormuz that set the container ship ablaze and forced its crew to abandon it. Iran apparently responded with attacks targeting Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
The strait has become the key sticking point in any further negotiations between Iran and the United States to find a permanent end to the war that began back on Feb. 28. About a fifth of all traded oil and natural gas passed through the strait before the war began. Iran鈥檚 grip on it during the war led to a global energy crisis, though since wartime highs of $120 a barrel.
The U.S. military’s Central Command said it hit some 140 targets in the strikes, far more than the last two round, and went after missile and drone launch sites, ammunition dumps, communication equipment and other sites.
The attacks 鈥渄egrade Iran鈥檚 ability to attack civilian mariners and commercial vessels freely transiting the strait,” it said.
The new crossfire in the Persian Gulf comes days after suggested an interim deal in the Iran war was 鈥渙ver.鈥�
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wrote online: 鈥淚ran made a poor choice. Now they pay.鈥�
Bahrain, Qatar and UAE all attacked
The United Arab Emirates warned the public Sunday of an incoming missile and drone attack as explosions could be heard in nearby Qatar. A missile alert sounded in Qatar shortly after the blasts. Qatar’s military said in a statement it intercepted the incoming Iranian fire.
Meanwhile, missile alerts sounded in Bahrain, an island kingdom in the Persian Gulf home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet.
It wasn鈥檛 immediately clear what locations were under attack in the UAE, which so far hadn鈥檛 been targeted in the latest round of attacks by Iran. The latest attack on the Emirates, home to Abu Dhabi and Dubai, came in May when .
In the Strait of Hormuz attack, a Cyprus-flagged container ship was hit by Iran and suffered 鈥渟ignificant engineroom damage鈥� and a civilian crew member is missing, U.S. Central Command said.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center, overseen by the British military, said the ship had been traveling in a route hugging the shoreline of Oman. That’s been the way ships have gotten in and out of the Persian Gulf while avoiding Iranian territorial waters. The ship’s crew abandoned the vessel as it was ablaze, the center said.
Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said multiple vessels 鈥渄isregarded our warnings and instructions to correct their course and proceed along the approved route.鈥� One of them 鈥渨as struck by a warning shot and brought to a stop.鈥�
Iran said that the strait would remain closed 鈥渦ntil further notice鈥� and said it would consider targeting 鈥渁dditional enemy bases in the region鈥� if it faced more attacks.
The U.S. attacks on Iran apparently targeted Bandar Abbas and Sirik, as well as other areas, along the shores of the strait, Iran state media reported. Iran offered no immediate information about casualties or damage.
Attacks followed more diplomatic talks about the strait
The latest violence followed Iran and Oman鈥檚 foreign ministers meeting on Saturday to discuss the strait, after days of and that dealt a blow to the interim deal to end the war. The narrow strait sits in both Iran and Oman’s territorial waters, but long has been considered an international waterway.
Oman said it and Iran agreed to keep talking about the Strait of Hormuz 鈥渁t the technical and political levels.鈥� However, Iran offered no statement about the strait being open to all 鈥� something sought by the Trump administration.
Iran鈥檚 new supreme leader, still unseen since the war began, also vowed in his first statement since the , that Iranians would avenge his killing in the war鈥檚 opening strikes on Feb. 28.
Such revenge 鈥渋s the will of our nation and must certainly be carried out,鈥� said in a statement carried on state televisions.
US questions who is in charge in Iran
U.S. officials, speaking Friday on condition of anonymity about the , said the resumption of strikes even before the latest round came as a result of what they described as a rogue faction of Iranian hard-liners who were trying to sabotage the ceasefire.
Iran has insisted its theocracy is unified under the new supreme leader.
After the U.S. wrapped up strikes on Thursday, more attacks reportedly hit Iran, raising questions about who else may be targeting the Islamic Republic.
Israel didn鈥檛 claim them, meaning the Gulf Arab states may have launched them, likely as a means to deter Iran from attacking them again. Iran on Thursday retaliated for U.S. strikes by targeting Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait and Qatar.
The strikes in Iran over two rounds of strikes last week killed at least 17 people and wounded 115 others, Iranian Health Ministry spokesperson Hossein Kermanpour said.
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Weissert reported from Washington.
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