The United States Central Command announced late on Saturday that its forces had begun a third round of strikes on Iran this week, hours after Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) naval units attacked a Cyprus-flagged container ship transiting the Strait of Hormuz. The strike on the MV GFS Galaxy set the vessel ablaze and caused severe engine-room damage, leaving it adrift, and one civilian crew member remains unaccounted for, CENTCOM said. The US strikes, ordered by President Donald Trump, targeted missile and drone launch sites, air-defence radars and weapons storage facilities, according to a US official cited by the Axios news site, in what the Pentagon described as an effort to degrade Iran’s ability to threaten civilian shipping and impose a “heavy cost” for breaching a fragile bilateral understanding.

Viewed from Tehran, the closure of the strait and the ship attack were framed as responses to “illegal foreign interference” in regulating shipping lanes. IRGC naval forces declared that the Strait of Hormuz would remain shut “until further notice” and the end of “American interventions,” warning that any US reprisal would be met with a “severe response” and strikes on “new enemy bases in the region.” Iranian state media said the vessel was warned and tried to use an “unauthorised route” with its identification systems switched off. This narrative presents the IRGC’s action as enforcement of Iranian sovereignty over a waterway it has long sought to control, directly contradicting Washington’s insistence on freedom of navigation.

Diplomatic efforts to avert the crisis appeared to founder earlier in the day. US officials told Axios that Washington had demanded Tehran issue a formal declaration confirming the strait was open and pledging to halt attacks on merchant ships. Instead, the IRGC launched the attack. Oman, which has mediated between the two sides, proposed a plan to reopen both the northern and southern shipping lanes without requiring prior Iranian approval, but the Iranian delegation at talks in Muscat could not obtain immediate authorisation from Tehran, according to a diplomat familiar with the negotiations. US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth wrote on social media that Iran “made a poor choice” and was now “paying the price.”

Iranian media reported multiple explosions in southern provinces, including Qeshm Island, Bushehr, Asaluyeh and Jask, consistent with the US target list. The UK Maritime Trade Operations received a report of an incident nine nautical miles east of Oman, where the container ship suffered damage and fire. The third strike wave in seven days marks an escalation that directly threatens the tentative ceasefire brokered after earlier exchanges, and the closure of a chokepoint through which one-fifth of global oil consumption passes injects new volatility into energy markets. Diplomatic channels remain open but face what regional analysts view as the deepest impasse since the outbreak of hostilities, with no immediate path to restoring safe passage.