SRINAGAR: The United States launched a fresh round of retaliatory strikes against Iran early on Sunday after Tehran signalled it could reimpose the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, escalating tensions and raising fresh concerns over the fragile ceasefire between the two countries.
According to a statement posted on X by the US Central Command (CENTCOM), the strikes began at 7:15 pm ET on Saturday and were launched in response to an attack by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on the M/V GFS Galaxy, a Cyprus-flagged commercial container vessel transiting the Strait of Hormuz.
In its statement on X, CENTCOM said, “At 7:15 pm ET today, US Central Command forces began launching the third round of strikes this week against Iran after Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces blatantly attacked M/V GFS Galaxy, a Cyprus-flagged container ship transiting the Strait of Hormuz.”
According to CENTCOM, the attack left one civilian crew member missing, while the vessel caught fire and sustained extensive damage to its engine room, rendering it incapable of continuing its voyage. CENTCOM further said Iran had been given “yet another opportunity” to demonstrate its commitment to the Memorandum of Understanding following previous attacks on commercial shipping but had failed to do so.
The US military said the latest strikes were intended to degrade Iran’s capability to target civilian vessels navigating the Strait of Hormuz and to protect freedom of navigation through the strategic waterway.
Before the US strikes, Iran’s IRGC Navy said in a post on X, “As we stated earlier — any foreign interference or illegal determination of shipping routes in the Strait of Hormuz will be met with a decisive response and will disrupt the normalisation of traffic in the strait.”
Meanwhile, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards announced that the Strait of Hormuz would remain closed “until further notice”. They also said they had earlier fired warning shots at a vessel allegedly using an unauthorised route through the strategic shipping lane.
The latest escalation came after Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met his Omani counterpart on Saturday to discuss the future of the Strait of Hormuz following days of attacks on commercial vessels and US retaliatory strikes that have placed the interim ceasefire under renewed strain.
