War returns to Iran with Israel, US strikes

The number of vessels transiting through the Strait of Hormuz ticked up the day before, with most of them linked to Iranian trade, before a US blockade took effect, shipping data showed, Reuters reports.

Nine of the 11 vessels that passed through the strait on Tuesday sailed via the Iranian route, ship-tracking data on Kpler showed. Of these, three empty oil tankers one Aframax-sized vessel and two Very Large Crude Carriers entered the strait, the data showed.

Vessels that exited the strait with Iranian exports included one VLCC carrying 2 million barrels of crude, a medium-range tanker with refined products, and two tankers carrying liquefied petroleum gas, according to the data.

Abu Mujahid al-Assaf, an official of Kataib Hezbollah has said that the launch of “a new war against Iran would trigger an immediate response from the Iraqi resistance”, Al Jazeera reports.

“If a war is launched against the Islamic Republic of Iran, the participation of the resistance forces will be immediate and certain. This decision is rooted in our ideology and is not open to negotiation,” al-Assaf said in a statement, quoted by Iran’s Fars news agency.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it had targeted what it described as command-and-control, logistics, fuel and military equipment facilities belonging to the US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain, Reuters reports.

This was in response to what it said were US actions in the Indian Ocean and efforts to control the Strait of Hormuz and restrict shipping routes.

The Guards warned that if Washington sought to block the region’s oil and gas exports by controlling maritime routes, other export routes serving US and allied interests could also be closed, saying regional energy exports would be “for everyone or for no one”.

Earlier, Bahrain’s Interior Ministry said air raid sirens had sounded and urged residents to remain calm and seek shelter.

Oil rises as President Donald Trump reimposed a naval blockade on all Iranian ports and Iran launched retaliatory strikes on US infrastructure in the region, according to Reuters.

Brent rises $1.46, or 1.72 per cent, to $86.19 a barrel by 0029 GMT while WTI was up $1.11, or 1.4pc, to $80.40 a barrel.

“The chances of oil moving back toward $100 in the reasonably near term are still meaningful if hostilities intensify which damages energy infrastructure around the Gulf,” Tim Waterer, chief market analyst at KCM Trade says, noting Brent prices could remain at $75-$80 a barrel if diplomatic efforts helped reopen the strait.

Iranian state television reported that Iran’s army and the Revolutionary Guards carried out separate attacks on US targets in Jordan and Kuwait after US forces struck the country, AFP reports.

The army said it targeted the Al-Azraq base in Jordan with drones, state TV IRIB reported.

Separately, the Guards said they fired cruise missiles at a US military logistics centre at Mina Abdullah in Kuwait, stressing that the Hormuz strait would remain closed “until the United States ends its acts of aggression”.

The US Central Command has said on X that it completed an “additional round of strikes against Iran” at 10pm ET, hitting “dozens of military targets near the Strait of Hormuz and Iranian coastal areas”.

“US fighter aircraft, drones, and naval vessels launched precision munitions against Iranian missile and drone sites, naval capabilities, and coastal defense systems during the seven-hour wave to further degrade Iran’s ability to threaten commercial shipping and civilian crews,” it said.

“The strikes took place the same day US forces resumed the naval blockade against vessels transiting to or from Iranian ports and coastal areas,” it said, adding that the blockade went into effect at 4pm ET.

The US has imposed new sanctions on Iran aimed at boosting efforts to disrupt an Iranian shipping network that Washington says helps to evade previous sanctions on oil sales and other activities, Reuters reports.

The measures imposed on the network of Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani represent the US Treasury’s latest effort to ramp up economic pressure on Tehran, the department says.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says his department is “shutting down the financial infrastructure that allows the regime to continue its threats to US national security and global shipping”.

The measures build on sanctions the US issued in April and last year, and the US has now sanctioned more than 200 individuals, entities, and vessels operating under Shamkhani, Treasury says.

The sanctions target individuals, entities and vessels, while Treasury also allowed wind-down activities, limited safety and environmental transactions, and the offloading of cargo involving certain persons or vessels blocked, the department says.

The head of US Central Command claims that Iran had intentionally attacked seven commercial ships over the past seven days resulting in “nearly a dozen” civilian crew members being killed, injured or going missing, according to Reuters.

“Iranian forces have also launched dozens of missiles and drones toward neighboring Gulf countries,” Admiral Brad Cooper said in a statement posted on social media.

Kuwait’s military said it was intercepting Iranian attack drones, while Bahrain activated air raid sirens after the United States carried out more strikes against Iran, AFP reports.

“Kuwaiti air defenses are currently engaging hostile drone attacks following the nefarious Iranian aggression,” the Kuwaiti army said. Bahrain’s interior ministry urged citizens and residents to remain calm and head to the nearest safe place.

Israel’s military is facing shortages of reserve personnel and combat-ready tanks, with some reserve formations nearing “effective collapse,” Anadolu reports citing Israeli Army Radio.

Under the headline ‘The Army’s Warning of the Collapse of the Reserve Forces’, the broadcaster says reserve brigades and battalions are operating below strength, with insufficient tanks available for combat.

It adds that a reserve armoured brigade was recently deployed to a key operational sector in Lebanon, but accounts from commanders and soldiers painted a different picture from the one presented by decision-makers.

“These are not full brigades,” the report says. “They are far from it.”

According to the broadcaster, the military no longer has enough combat-ready tanks after many were damaged in fighting and taken out of service, forcing reserve armoured companies to operate with fewer tanks than required.

Jordan’s foreign minister has discussed Iran’s latest escalation in the region with his Kuwaiti counterpart over the phone, Al Jazeera reports citing a statement released on X.

The two diplomats have called for the necessity of returning to negotiations to reach a comprehensive solution and implement the ceasefire agreement between the US and Iran.

Today’s talks between Israel and Lebanon in Rome were productive, Al Jazeera reports citing an unnamed official from the US State Department, adding that the talks will continue tomorrow.

The death toll from strikes on commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz has risen to two, according to the International Maritime Organisation, after Iran was accused of hitting two ships in Omani waters, AFP reports.

“We are gravely concerned by the latest attacks on shipping in and around the Strait of Hormuz reported since last night, which have claimed the lives of at least two seafarers and injured several others,” the IMO says, as New Delhi summoned an Iranian diplomat over the death of an Indian crew member.

Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Gharibabadi has accused the US of “threatening” ICC member states in an effort to undermine the global tribunal before it investigates the US and Israel for their attack on Iran, Al Jazeera reports.

Gharibabadi said the US was using “sanctions, visa cancellations, and political pressure to halt their cooperation with the court”.

The comments come a day after the US government said it would work to “systematically disable” the Hague-based court. Eleven ICC officials, including the chief prosecutor, have so far been placed under US sanctions and travel bans.

US forces have launched projectiles targeting Iran’s Qeshm Island, according to state news agency IRNA.

“Moments ago, an area on Qeshm Island came under fire from American hostile projectiles,” it reports, adding that further information will be released following preliminary assessments.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has responded to Donald Trump’s recent comments, in which the US president claims to have taken out the majority of Iran’s military capabilities, Al Jazeera reports.

“Their rhetoric continues, but the question is, have they reached their goals on the battlefield?”, Pezeshkian says in televised remarks.

“The people who decided to try and tear apart our country — what have their actions ultimately achieved?”, he adds. “We will defend every inch of our homeland with our actions.”

Kuwaiti citizens have been instructed by the military to refrain from photographing the sites of hostile drone and missile attacks.

“The Armed Forces urge brotherly citizens and residents not to approach, touch, or photograph any debris, parts, or remnants resulting from the fall of missiles or drones, and not to publish or circulate any photos or video clips of affected sites or shrapnel drop sites and remnants of interception operations via social media, and to report them immediately by calling the emergency number (112), to preserve public security and safety,” a statement from defence ministry spokesperson Brigadier General Saud Abdulaziz Al-Otaibi reads.

Air raid sirens were sounded in Bahrain, the interior ministry says, after Manama announced it had intercepted several Iranian attacks earlier in the day, AFP reports.

“The siren has been sounded … Citizens and residents are urged to remain calm and head to the nearest safe place,” the interior ministry says in a statement posted on social media.

Axios, citing US and Israeli officials, reports that US President Donald Trump told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a phone call last Thursday that Israel should redeploy its forces out of Syria and Lebanon, according to Reuters.

Explosions previously reported in Andimeshk were the result of “controlled explosions” and there is “no enemy attack”, Al Jazeera reports citing Iranian state media.

Oman says it has evacuated crews from two Liberia-flagged oil tankers targeted off its Musandam and Ash Sharqiyah South governorates, Al Jazeera reports.

In a separate statement, Oman’s Maritime Security Centre says it rescued eight crew members from the oil tanker Al Bahyah after it was targeted near the country’s coast.

Three crew members remain missing, it says.