U.S. Strikes Iran After Drone Attack on Cargo Ship in Strait of Hormuz

The U.S. struck Iran on Friday in response to a drone attack a day earlier on a cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz, as President Donald Trump said the attack violated the ceasefire.

“Trump said Iran shot at least four drones at ships in the waterway”

ABC News

The U.S. military struck missile and drone locations and coastal radar sites in Iran, according to U.S. Central Command, and the strikes concluded about an hour after CENTCOM announced the action on social media, a U.S. official told The Associated Press.

ABC News

Trump told reporters “You’ll find out” whether the U.S. would respond shortly before the strikes, and he said at the White House, “I don’t like the fact that they took a shot yesterday, actually four of them.”

The attack on the cargo ship happened while a United Nations maritime agency was beginning an operation to move stranded ships out of the strait this week, hugging the shores of Oman rather than sailing through the central part of the strait.

Arsenio Dominguez, the International Maritime Organization’s secretary-general, said about 115 ships were able to move out of the strait in recent days, leaving about 500 still in the area.

Vice President JD Vance warned Iran on social media that “Violence will be met with violence,” writing that “Iran signed a ceasefire agreement. We have honored it.”

Ebrahim Azizi, who heads the Iranian parliament’s national security commission, responded to Trump on social media earlier Friday, saying, “the Strait of Hormuz is governed by Iran, so: Respect the rules” and to “not mistake control for escalation.”

Al Jazeera

The Guardian reported that the U.S. strikes targeted “Iranian missile and drone storage locations” and coastal radar sites near the strait and on Qeshm Island, while CENTCOM said the action was “a powerful response.”

CBS News said the U.S. strikes were over and quoted CENTCOM describing “The unwarranted aggression against commercial shipping by Iranian forces clearly violated the ceasefire,” while a U.S. official told CBS that American aircraft hit multiple targets along the Strait of Hormuz and on Iran’s Qeshm Island.

The Guardian also said Iran’s Revolutionary Guards blamed the U.S. and Israel, and it quoted Azizi’s line that “This is not a violation of the ceasefire; it is ceasefire management.”

The International Maritime Organization halted the evacuations after the attack and said on Friday they won’t resume until there are guarantees that the other ships won’t be attacked, as the U.S. and Iran continued negotiating terms of the interim deal.

“The United States has renewed its attacks against Iran in response to an incident a day earlier when a cargo vessel was struck by an Iranian drone”

Al Jazeera

CBS News said the U.S. strikes posed a challenge to the ceasefire and noted that Iran must arrange for safe, toll-free passage through the Strait of Hormuz “using its best efforts” for 60 days.

The BBC reported that no casualties were reported when the ship was struck by a one-way attack drone on Thursday, and it said the incident prompted a planned evacuation of thousands of sailors stuck in the region.

The New York Times said the preliminary deal left the future of the strait unresolved, with U.S. officials declaring the critical waterway would once again be a free point of transit and Iran asserting its control there.

The BBC also said the U.S. and Iran agreed on 17 June to end hostilities under a 14-point memorandum of understanding that called for Iran to use its “best efforts for the safe passage of commercial vessels with no charge for 60 days.”