Iran strikes Gulf states after fresh US attacks in Hormuz crisis

Iran fired missiles and drones at Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates after U.S. forces launched another round of strikes on Iran’s southern coast, widening the fight across the Gulf. U.S. Central Command said the latest attacks hit about 140 military targets, including missile and drone launch sites, naval assets and ammunition storage facilities. In Bahrain and Kuwait, both of which host U.S. military bases, sirens and interceptions turned the dispute over the Strait of Hormuz into a direct threat to allied territory.

The U.S. military launched fresh strikes on Iran on July 8 after attacks on three cargo ships moving through the Strait of Hormuz. Those strikes were larger than the previous day’s, after Donald Trump said an interim ceasefire with Iran was over. CENTCOM’s aim was to keep the strait open to shipping, and the strikes hit coastal and air-defense-related sites in southern Iran, leaving some areas without power.

The retaliation spread fast. Kuwait intercepted missiles and drones, and Qatar briefly raised a security threat alert before giving the all-clear. By July 12, Iranian missiles and drones had also targeted the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain. Three people, including one child, were injured by falling shrapnel in Qatar. Oman summoned Iran’s ambassador over drone attacks in Musandam and Al Wusta, while Bahrain’s Ministry of Interior activated sirens multiple times as the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet remained based there.

Iran attacked a Cyprus-flagged container ship before the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps closed the Strait of Hormuz until further notice. Shipping traffic through the passage has fallen to multi-week lows, and the strait still carries about one-fifth of global oil and gas supplies. Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said it would reopen only under Iranian arrangements, not U.S. threats, while Trump said the strait was “open” and Iran’s Persian Gulf Strait Authority said no travel would be allowed until “stability and calm are restored.”