US launches fresh wave of strikes targeting Iran's Greater Tunb Island

The US military’s Central Command said on Wednesday it launched airstrikes on Greater Tunb Island in the Strait of Hormuz, targeting Iranian defence and missile sites.

The island is viewed as a strategic point in the strait. The strikes mark the latest escalation of ​attacks and counterattacks launched by the ⁠two sides as they vie for control of the Strait of Hormuz, which carried about a fifth of global oil and gas ‌shipments before the war.

Central Command said it launched a 90-minute attack targeting the island. "The strikes further degraded Iran’s ability to attack commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz,” it said.

"At 6 a.m. ET today, ‌US Central Command forces began launching a wave of strikes against Iran," the US military said.

"The strikes are designed to further degrade military capabilities Iranian forces have used to attack commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz."

There were no immediate reports of attacks in Iranian media.

US Central Command said in a statement the military had targeted coastal defence systems and cruise missile storage and launch ‌sites on Iran's Greater Tunb Island, and had completed the wave of strikes within around 90 minutes.

The US reimposed a naval blockade on Iran and intensified its airstrike campaign Wednesday in retaliation for Tehran’s attacks on ships trying to pass through the Strait of Hormuz. The American strikes hit an Iranian army barracks, killed at least seven troops and wounded more than 260 people across the country, Iranian officials said.

Days of back-and-forth strikes by the US and Iran across the Middle East - and renewed threats to the waterway crucial to global energy supplies - have shredded the interim deal to end the conflict and the region could tip back into all-out war.

The US first imposed a blockade in April and then lifted it last month after signing the interim deal that paused the fighting and set a 60-day period for negotiations over issues like Iran’s nuclear program. Those talks have stalled as fighting over the Strait of Hormuz has intensified.

When the US and Israel launched the war on Iran on Feb. 28, Tehran effectively closed the waterway to shipping traffic - a move that sent the price of oil, fertiliser and many other goods soaring far beyond the region and gave Iran major leverage in negotiations.

Those rising prices pose a particular challenge to U.S. President Donald Trump and his Republican Party, which hopes to retain control of Congress in elections in November - but Washington has struggled to successfully reopen the waterway.

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard threatened Wednesday to halt all energy exports from the Middle East over the blockade.
"The export of oil and gas from the region will be either for everyone or for no one,” it said.

The US carried out a wave of strikes, hitting dozens of targets over seven hours overnight, the military’s Central Command said Wednesday. Later, it resumed striking Iran during daylight - an unusual move that further signaled the increasing tempo in attacks.

One strike targeted a barracks for Iran’s 388th Mechanized Infantry Brigade, which operates tanks and armored vehicles, in Sistan and Baluchestan province, Iranian state television reported. The report said the Americans fired at least 13 missiles in the attack and that the seven dead included conscripts and career soldiers. A number of troops were wounded.

Including those at the barracks, more than 30 people have been killed in recent days, Iranian government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani said, without elaborating.

Hossein Kermanpour, a spokesperson for the Health Ministry, meanwhile, said over 260 people were wounded in overnight strikes alone — a figure far larger than for any other round of recent violence between Iran and the US. He did not say how many people were killed overnight.

Agencies