US and Iran trade Strait of Hormuz control claims after fresh attacks

The US and Iran exchanged fresh strikes while both claimed control of the Strait of Hormuz. The confrontation has deepened fears of a wider regional war and stalled diplomacy.

In Short

• US forces hit dozens of Iranian military sites after weekend escalation
• Iran struck a container ship and expanded attacks across Gulf states
• Bahrain and Kuwait reported alerts and interceptions amid regional spillover

The United States and Iran both said on Monday that they controlled the Strait of Hormuz after a weekend of attacks across the wider Middle East, sharply raising tensions and further straining efforts to end the war through diplomacy.

The latest violence followed Iran's strike on a container ship on Sunday in the strait off the coast of Oman and fresh US strikes on Iranian targets. The clash has again put the focus on the narrow waterway, through which a fifth of the world's traded crude oil and natural gas once passed, even as Iran and the US approach the midway point of a 60-day interim deal that was meant to pave the way for permanent talks.

Instead of moving towards a settlement, the deal has given way to repeated attacks over the strait and its future, raising fears that the war could fully resume. “A return to full-scale hostilities would have catastrophic consequences,” United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said in a statement.

The US military's Central Command said its forces struck dozens of sites on Monday, including air defence systems, radar sites, missile and drone equipment, and small boats. “The Strait of Hormuz is a vital maritime corridor for global trade,” Central Command said. “Iran does not control it.”

Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard rejected that claim. “The Strait of Hormuz is our territory, and we will not allow a rogue and child-killing army from the other side of the world to continue its illegal interference in it,” the Guard said.

Missile alert sirens sounded twice in Bahrain, home to the US Navy's 5th Fleet, while Kuwait said it was intercepting hostile fire. There was no immediate word on damage in either country. Iranian state media also reported explosions in several locations early Monday and said at least one person had been killed.

Iranian attacks on Sunday extended to Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Jordan and Oman, whose territorial waters with Iran make up the strait. Oman, which has long acted as an interlocutor between Tehran and the West, summoned an Iranian diplomat to criticise the attack. On Monday, a base of the armed wing of the Kurdistan Freedom Party, an Iranian Kurdish opposition group based in Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan region, also came under drone attack. Rebaz Sharifi, commander of the Kurdistan Militia Corps, said the strikes targeted the group's Chamshar base, without giving details on casualties or damage.

Earlier on Sunday, the US military said it had struck about 140 targets, including missile and drone launch sites, ammunition dumps, communication equipment and other locations, in a far heavier round of attacks than the two earlier sets of strikes last week. “We bombed the hell out of them last night,” US President Donald Trump told NBC's “Meet the Press”.

Iran responded by attacking countries in the region that host US military forces, while insisting that it alone must control the strait and could potentially charge ships for passing through it. The Revolutionary Guard said early Monday that it had started a new round of strikes across the Middle East. “The era of one-sided deals is OVER,” Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, speaker of Iran's Parliament and a main negotiator, wrote. “We told you: keep your word or pay the price. Reality is knocking.” Iran said the strait was closed, while the US military and Trump said it remained open.

Since the war began on February 28 with the killing of the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran has used attacks on vessels in the region to intimidate shippers from using the waterway. That chokehold has weakened as the US military backed ships moving along a southern route close to Oman's coastline. Iran has repeatedly attacked ships using that route. Iran's grip on the strait had triggered a global energy crisis, though oil prices have fallen sharply from wartime highs of USD 120 a barrel.

Diplomatic efforts, however, have continued. Trump said last week that the interim deal in the war was “over”, but mediators including Pakistan, Qatar and Egypt have kept trying to reach a final agreement. A regional official involved in mediation, speaking on condition of anonymity, said efforts to shore up the ceasefire continued on Sunday. Pakistan said its foreign minister spoke by phone with Iran's top diplomat and urged “de-escalation” on both sides. Iran's new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not been seen since the war began, said on Saturday in his first statement since his father's funeral that Iranians would avenge the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

As the US and Iran traded strikes and rival claims over the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway remained at the centre of both the fighting and the stalled diplomacy, with regional tensions continuing to spread.

With PTI Inputs

- Ends