Kochi: The US launched a fresh attack on Iranian forces hitting a ship passing through the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said the waterway was closed until further notice and launched attacks on US bases and allies in the region in response to the American strikes.The IRGC said it had hit a US base in Jordan, while the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain all responded to missiles and drones from Iran, BBC reported. A few days back three commercial tankers were attacked by Iran prompting an exchange of strikes between the US and Iran. It also warned that any US “aggression” as a result of the closure would be responded to with “severity” and new bases in the region would be targeted.Meanwhile, US Central Command (Centcom) said on X that US strikes hit 140 Iranian military targets, including missile and drone sites, communication networks, and coastal surveillance locations. A series of US strikes killed 17 people and injured 115 according to Iranian officials. Iran responded with strikes on US allies in the Gulf.The exchange raised tensions, with US President Donald Trump declaring the Iranian attacks mean the ceasefire is over. Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has accused the US of violating the deal. US media has reported that Iran told American officials the attacks on tankers were a mistake and blamed a rogue internal group. The closure of Hormuz strait follows a call for revenge from Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, in his first public statement since his father’s funeral.His father Ali Khamenei, who was Iran’s Supreme Leader, was killed in an air strike on 28 February, on the first day of the US-Israeli war against Iran. “We pledge to avenge the blood of the martyred leader and all the martyrs of these two wars from the criminal and disgraced killers,” Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei was quoted as saying. Wall Street Journal reported this week that Israel had shared intelligence with Washington that Iran had recently devised a plan to assassinate the US president.
Photo: X
