The US military and Iranian forces exchanged waves of retaliatory fire late Tuesday and early Wednesday, striking over 160 combined targets following drone attacks on three commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz. The sudden escalation shatters a fragile, month-old ceasefire agreement intended to reopen the vital shipping corridor amid the ongoing 2026 Iran War.
US Central Command launched operations against 80 Iranian installations, targeting air defense systems, anti-ship missile sites, and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) small boat facilities on Qeshm Island, Sirik, and Bandar Abbas. Iran’s IRGC immediately fired drones and missiles at 85 US-linked military outposts situated in Bahrain and Kuwait. Both Gulf nations reported incoming hostile fire overnight, activating air defenses to intercept the Iranian projectiles before dawn.
The initial trigger for the exchange was a series of attacks on commercial traffic navigating a newly proposed US shipping corridor. Iran maintains the US established the routes without Tehran’s coordination, insisting it retains the right to charge security fees for passage. The strikes damaged three vessels, including the Saudi-flagged crude tanker Wedyan and the Qatari LNG carrier Al Rekayyat.
Qatar and Saudi Arabia quickly issued diplomatic condemnations regarding the vessel strikes, with Doha summoning the Iranian deputy ambassador, according to The Guardian.
The military exchange marks a sharp return to the intense hostilities seen during the initial March blockades of the strait, reversing a brief period of normalized international traffic. Following the commercial ship attacks, the US Treasury Department revoked a June 22 general license that temporarily permitted Iran to sell crude oil and petrochemical products on the international market. The policy update gives Tehran a July 17 deadline to wind down transactions related to the canceled waiver.