The United States carried out a third round of strikes on Iran within the past week Saturday night, after Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) attacked a commercial vessel transiting the Strait of Hormuz and then declared the strategic waterway closed until further notice. Axios reported, citing an unnamed US official, that the strikes hit targets near the strait.
CENTCOM said the strikes began at 7:15 p.m. Eastern time, hours after the IRGC targeted the M/V GFS Galaxy, a Cyprus-flagged container ship. The attack caused significant damage to the vessel and ignited an onboard fire, with one crew member reported missing. Britain’s UKMTO maritime security agency reported damage to the rear of the ship.
CENTCOM said Iran had been given another chance to abide by the memorandum of understanding governing the fragile ceasefire but again failed to do so, and that the US was imposing a heavy cost by continuing to degrade Tehran’s ability to threaten commercial shipping. The strikes were ordered directly by President Donald Trump, the command said. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was blunter in a post on X: “Iran made a poor choice. Now they pay.”
Iranian state media reported hearing explosions across a string of coastal areas near the strait, among them Bushehr — the site of an Iranian nuclear power plant — as well as Asaluyeh and Chabahar. Three blasts were reportedly heard in Bandar Abbas, which faces the strait directly, and two in Sirik, with explosions also reported on Qeshm Island.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards navy said earlier Saturday that it had fired a warning shot at a vessel attempting to use what it called an unapproved route, and that the ship subsequently halted. In response, the IRGC declared the strait closed to all traffic until Washington ends what it termed its regional interference, warning that any attempt by the US to use the closure as a pretext for further action would draw a severe response.
The exchange marks the latest collapse of the ceasefire framework that has governed the Iran war since a memorandum of understanding was reached in June. That truce extended an earlier April ceasefire and set the stage for talks aimed at ending the US-Israel war on Iran that began in late February, with Washington lifting a naval blockade in exchange for Tehran reopening Hormuz. The arrangement has unraveled repeatedly in recent days: after three commercial vessels were struck in the strait on July 6-7, the US carried out a major wave of strikes on more than eighty Iranian targets, including dozens of IRGC boats, and Washington moved to reimpose oil sanctions it had waived weeks earlier.
Even as the latest strikes were underway, diplomatic efforts had reportedly been continuing. Oman had drafted a tentative proposal for managing traffic through Hormuz, with a southern route open to free passage and a northern route near Iran’s coast requiring Tehran’s permits but no fees, according to CNN. Iran’s Foreign Minister discussed the proposal with his Omani and Turkish counterparts even as the ministry separately condemned the American strikes as a violation of the truce.
Neither side has signaled a near-term path back to negotiations. Iran’s chief negotiator has said in recent days that the strait will only remain open on Tehran’s terms, not under what he called American threats, while Trump has warned Iran it will face escalating consequences for any further attacks on shipping.