US carries out strikes in Iran after vessel attack
US forces struck Iranian coastal targets after Tehran was accused of attacking a commercial cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz.
WASHINGTON — American warplanes bombed targets along Iran's southern coast on Friday after President Donald Trump accused Tehran of violating a ceasefire agreement between the two sides by launching drones at commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz a day before.
"US aircraft struck Iranian missile and drone storage locations and coastal radar sites after Iran hit M/V Ever Lovely on June 25 with a one-way attack drone," the Pentagon's headquarters for the Middle East, US Central Command, confirmed.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps after midnight local time confirmed that US strikes targeted Sirik, east of the Hormuz strait.
The IRGC vowed to retaliate “at a time and place of our choosing.”
Earlier on Friday, Trump accused Iran of firing four drones at commercial ships in the strait a day earlier, three of which he said were intercepted by the US military. Iranian officials have not explicitly claimed responsibility for the attack, but have warned that they cannot guarantee the safety of ships that do not comply with its demands to coordinate their crossings of the strait with Iranian authorities.
"The Singapore-flagged cargo ship was exiting the Strait of Hormuz along the Omani coast at the time of Iran’s attack," CENTCOM said.
The attack on the Ever Lovely damaged the ship's bridge, but its crew did not report any injuries, the UK's Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) reported Thursday. The incident forced the UN’s maritime agency to pause and reassess its mission to guide more than 11,000 stranded ships through Hormuz, which kicked off just two days before.
The drone strike on the cargo ship came after Oman said it had opened a new maritime route in coordination with the UN’s maritime agency to assist commercial vessels stranded in the Gulf by the war. Iran’s IRGC responded by warning it could not guarantee the safety of ships that do not coordinate their transit with Iranian authorities.
Following the attack on the Ever Lovely, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs Kazem Gharibabadi posted on X on Friday that the safety of ships transiting Hormuz “cannot be guaranteed under ambiguous arrangements, parallel routes, or decision-making processes that disregard Iran’s considerations as the coastal state.”
The Ever Lovely was hit roughly 7.5 nautical miles off Oman’s coast after exiting the strait on Thursday, the UKMTO reported.
It was the first reported attack on shipping in the waterway since the United States and Iran reached an agreement to extend the ceasefire by 60 days, while taking mutual steps to alleviate their respective maritime blockades.
A US official speaking not for attribution downplayed the US strikes in Iran on Friday, saying they did not rise to the level of resuming the conflict.
"CENTCOM forces continue to provide safe passage coordination and support to commercial vessels transiting the strait," the command said Friday. "The US military remains present and vigilant to ensure all aspects of the agreement with Iran are adhered to, obeyed, and in full force and effect."
This developing story has been updated.
