Vessels are anchored off Iran's Bandar Abbas along the Strait of Hormuz on June 18, 2026. Photo: AFP
Iran said on Wednesday, July 15, that more than 30 civilians had been killed in US strikes targeting the country’s south over recent days, as the United States reimposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports, marking the 28th day since Washington and Tehran signed their memorandum of understanding and 137 days since the outbreak of war.
The move came after both the United States and Iran launched fresh attacks across the Middle East, with Washington carrying out another wave of airstrikes as it reinstated the blockade and Tehran firing missiles and drones at neighbouring Gulf states, raising fears of a wider regional conflict.
Days of retaliatory strikes — and both countries’ attempts to assert control over the strategic waterway through which around one-fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas trade passes during peacetime — threaten to push the region back towards all-out war.
Bushehr Governor Mohammad Mozafari said US projectiles that struck the city on Tuesday caused no casualties, according to Iran’s official IRNA news agency.
Mozafari said four locations in the western port city were hit by the US military. “Rescue agencies are currently alert, and calm is prevailing in the city,” he told IRNA.
A limited number of vessels passed through the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday after the United States reinstated its naval blockade on Iran, Bloomberg reported, citing ship-tracking data.
The report said an Iranian oil tanker under US sanctions and a Greek-owned tanker carrying Saudi crude were among the vessels moving through the area, while two fuel tankers and two cargo ships also crossed the strategic waterway.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced sanctions on multiple cryptocurrency wallets linked to the Central Bank of Iran, resulting in the freeze of more than USD 130 million in assets.
Bessent said the United States remains committed to disrupting and degrading Iran’s illicit financial activities, including what he described as the regime’s misuse of digital assets to evade sanctions and finance its operations.
The latest wave of overnight US airstrikes on Iran wounded more than 260 people, a Health Ministry official said on Wednesday, marking the highest reported number of injuries in a single round of fighting since the conflict intensified.
Hossein Kermanpour, spokesperson for Iran’s Health Ministry, said the overnight attacks injured more than 260 people but did not provide an updated death toll.
Jordan’s Armed Forces announced early on Wednesday that it intercepted and shot down three ballistic missiles which were launched from Iranian territory.
“Our air defenses thwarted an attempted breach of Jordanian airspace,” it said.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said the Strait of Hormuz would remain closed until the United States ends what it called its “acts of aggression”, warning that other regional oil and gas export routes could also become targets if the conflict escalates.
“The enemy should know that now that its maritime raiders have blocked the Indian Ocean route for oil and gas exports to the world—thereby endangering the interests of America’s economic rivals—it should also expect the closure of other oil and gas export routes that serve the interests of the United States and its allies,” the Guards said in a statement.
The US carried out another wave of strikes as it reimposed the blockade, striking dozens of targets over seven hours, the US military’s Central Command said Wednesday.
Missile alert warnings went out in Bahrain and Kuwait early Wednesday morning as they faced incoming Iranian fire, something that’s been a daily occurrence, further straining a ceasefire in the war. Jordan also said it shot down three incoming Iranian missiles. Iran claimed attacks on the three nations.
US Navy Adm. Brad Cooper, who leads Central Command, said in a statement that Iran had launched dozens of missiles and drones at neighbouring Gulf Arab countries.
“US forces are holding Iran accountable for unwarranted aggression that continues to endanger innocent lives,” Cooper said.
There are at least 20 US warships in the Arabian Sea, including two aircraft carriers and an amphibious assault ship with more than 1,000 Marines aboard. Central Command also said in a social media post that there are “hundreds of military aircraft operating across the Middle East.”
When the US and Israel launched the war on Iran on February 28, Tehran effectively shut the passage by attacking and threatening ships. That sent the price of oil, fertiliser and other goods soaring.
Iran has more recently attacked ships moving through the strait on a route near Oman overseen by the US military that is outside Tehran’s control, setting off the recent violence. The US has threatened to reopen the strait by force — but experts say that would require a much bigger armada if not tens of thousands of ground troops.
Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, Amir Saeid Iravani, criticised America’s ongoing attacks targeting his country.
“The US is the aggressor, not the victim,” he wrote to the world body’s leader, according to the state-run IRNA news agency.
Trump said Tuesday that he was called by the region’s “kings and emirs,” who suggested an alternate arrangement to charging ships fees to pass through the strait like the president proposed a day earlier.
“They said we’d love to do it a different way. We’d love to invest in the United States with billions and billions of dollars,” Trump told reporters Tuesday in the Oval Office.
Trump said he preferred that arrangement to charging tolls “because I don’t think anybody should be able to charge a fee for the strait.”
It was unclear if the investment deals would be new commitments relative to what Trump announced after a visit last year to the Middle East.
Trump’s plan to charge fees would have been a change to longstanding American policy and a departure from US promises that the strait would remain open to all without tolls.
Trump told Fox News Channel on Tuesday night that more US strikes against Iran were coming over the next two days and that bridges and power plants could be targets by next week unless negotiations resume. Already, the US has struck at least one bridge.
“You better make a deal, or you’re not going to have anything left,” Trump warned.
Under the interim deal, Iran agreed that passage through the strait would remain free of charge for 60 days — but the agreement left open what would happen after. Iran asserts it has the right to manage traffic and potentially charge fees. The US has disputed that.
The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil, the international standard, briefly topped USD 87 early Tuesday, still well below the nearly USD 120 reached at the height of the war. The price dipped to USD 78 in the aftermath of Trump’s announcement that he had changed course.
Regional mediators meanwhile are still trying to get the United States and Iran back to the negotiating table.
With inputs from Associated Press
This post was last modified on July 15, 2026 2:36 pm