US launches new wave of strikes on Iran as Hormuz standoff continues
The United States carried out a fresh round of strikes against Iran on July 12, hitting drone facilities, missile and ammunition stores, surveillance systems and naval assets. US Central Command said the aim was to keep “degrading” Iran’s ability to attack civilian mariners and commercial ships, the third such wave in a week after the earlier ceasefire collapsed on July 7.
The strikes deepen a standoff over the Strait of Hormuz, the chokepoint for roughly a fifth of the world’s seaborne oil. Iran maintains the waterway is closed and has fired drones at commercial vessels — a crew member went missing after an attack on the Cyprus-registered M/V GFS Galaxy — while Washington insists the strait remains open and disputes Tehran’s authority to close it. Iran’s foreign ministry called the US actions unlawful and urged Gulf states to stop supporting them.
No civilian casualties were reported in Iran’s Hormozgan province as of reporting. The pattern — US strikes on military infrastructure, Iranian drone attacks on shipping, and competing claims over the strait — points to a slow-burning maritime conflict rather than a single decisive exchange, with the practical risk falling on commercial traffic and neighboring Gulf states.