US says strikes launched as explosions heard in southern Iran

The United States military says it has launched air strikes against Iran as explosions were reported in several locations in the south of the country.

The US Central Command (CENTCOM) said the strikes began on Tuesday and are being conducted “in response to Iranian attacks on three commercial vessels that were transiting the Strait of Hormuz”.

Iranian media reported several explosions in the southern port city of Sirik, where projectiles were said to have hit commercial and fishing piers, as well as Qeshm Island and areas near Bandar Abbas. Iranian state television has since reported that the situation has calmed in Bandar Abbas and Qeshm.

The US strikes targeted Iranian air defence systems, coastal surveillance systems, surface-to-air missiles, antiship cruise missiles and drone launch sites, an unnamed US official told the Reuters news agency. Iranian state media reported that several people were injured by shrapnel at the Sirik commercial pier.

“According to state TV, six explosions have been heard on the island of Qeshm, which is the largest island in the vicinity of the Strait of Hormuz, with very geostrategic significance when it comes to Iran’s control and authority over the Strait of Hormuz,” Al Jazeera’s Tohid Asadi reported from Tehran.

“The state TV also says that at least seven explosions have been heard in the areas close to Sirik Port, which is very important because it oversees the Strait of Hormuz, another strategic point from which Iran imposes its control and authority over the Strait of Hormuz,” Asadi said.

“Starting from the time after the signing of the [memorandum of understanding], we have been witnessing limited confrontation and escalation in this highly escalated situation at the Strait of Hormuz,” he added.

So far, there has been no response from Iran’s military, Asadi said. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, who was in Iraq for the funeral procession of Iran’s slain Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, headed back to Iran after the attacks.

Following the blasts, Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it held the US government responsible for the consequences of breaching the memorandum of understanding (MoU) agreed between the two countries in June, which was supposed to put an end to the war the US and Israel began against Iran in late February. The MoU mandated lifting the US naval blockade on Iran in exchange for Tehran reopening the vital Strait of Hormuz.

The US also agreed at the end of June to waive sanctions on Iranian oil for 60 days.

However, the US Department of the Treasury on Tuesday moved to revoke the temporary suspension of sanctions on Iranian oil, less than 20 days after the MoU was signed. The department cancelled a licence announced in June that had allowed Iran to produce, sell and deliver crude oil and related products through August 21.

The move by the Treasury Department comes after tankers in the Strait of Hormuz were attacked. A Qatari tanker caught fire off the coast of Oman Monday after being struck by an “unknown projectile” in the Strait of Hormuz, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO).

Iranian television reported claims that the liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker came under attack after ignoring warnings, but Tehran did not directly claim the assault. Neither CENTCOM nor Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commented on the incident.

A second ship, a Saudi-flagged crude oil tanker, was also damaged in the Strait of Hormuz when the IRGC fired missiles, sources told Reuters.

A US ⁠official warned that Iran’s attacks on vessels in the Strait ‌of Hormuz were “wholly unacceptable” and would ‌be ‌met with consequences, Reuters reported Tuesday.

“We’ve been there before,” Al Jazeera’s Mike Hanna reported from the White House, referring to the reciprocal attacks exchanged between the US and Iran in late June. “The response by the US is in retaliation for what it says is Iran breaking the MoU, which provides a basis for the ceasefire.”

“But to understand the background to this, Iran, since the signing of the MoU, has insisted that shipping transiting the Strait of Hormuz do so by a northern route, which is closer to Iran and which it effectively controls,” Hanna said. “The US has been urging ships to go through what it says is a US Navy southern protected route.”

In response to Tuesday’s missile attacks, Iran’s Foreign Ministry said it would take any measure it deemed necessary to safeguard the country’s interests and national security.

“The United States’ action in revoking the waiver for the exemption of sanctions on Iran’s oil sales constitutes a blatant violation of Article 10, and the subsequent military operations of this country against Iran also constitute a serious violation of Articles 1 and 2 of the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding,” Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran’s deputy foreign minister, said in a post on social media.

Gharibabadi said the US has “repeatedly” violated the MoU, citing Israeli attacks in Lebanon and threatening statements made against Iran.