US strikes Iran for ninth day; Iran says two oil tankers in Strait of Hormuz exploded, immobilised
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A bridge which was hit by a US strike along the road connecting Roudan and Bandar Abbas in southern Iran on July 18.
PHOTO: AFP
- US forces launched strikes on Iran for the ninth day, targeting military sites to degrade Iran's ability to attack commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz.
- Iran reported two oil tankers exploded and were immobilised in the Strait of Hormuz, blaming US encouragement to use unsafe routes and warning the waterway remains unsafe.
- The escalating conflict has caused casualties on both sides, disrupted energy supplies, raised oil prices above US$90 a barrel, and increased fears over global inflation and regional stability.
AI generated
DUBAI/CAIRO – US forces hit Iran for a ninth consecutive day on July 20 as concerns grew over shipping through the Strait of Hormuz after Iran said two oil tankers had exploded and been immobilised.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said on July 20 that they had targeted US aircraft at Jordan’s Aqaba airport with ballistic missiles, as well as US military assets and equipment at Kuwait’s Al-Adiri camp and Ali Al Salem Air Base, and in Syria.
Sirens sounded in Bahrain on the morning of July 20, the country’s interior ministry said, while the Kuwaiti army said it was intercepting hostile drones in an Iranian attack.
The strikes are part of an escalating cycle of attacks between the US and Iran after an interim ceasefire agreement signed in June unravelled, deepening a struggle for control over the Strait of Hormuz that has disrupted energy supplies and stoked fears of global inflation.
In a statement, US Central Command said it had begun “a new wave of strikes” aimed at “degrading” Iran’s ability to attack commercial vessels in the strait’s vital shipping lanes. It gave no further details.
Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency, citing its own reporters, said US missiles struck several Iranian cities early on July 20.
Explosions were heard in Tabriz, Chabahar, Konarak, Bandar Mahshahr and Bandar Imam Khomeini, according to Tasnim.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the US would continue to target Iran while it attacked global commercial shipping.
“The Strait of Hormuz is an international waterway, and they continue to launch against the ships in that international waterway,” Rubio said.
“As long as Iran insists on controlling an international waterway, we’re gonna have to respond to that. The United States always remains open to a diplomatic solution.”
Iran says oil tankers damaged
Kuwait’s government said a desalination plant had been attacked for the second day running, causing a fire, in what it called a direct strike on vital civilian infrastructure.
Concerns about the flow of energy supplies through the Strait of Hormuz have persisted since the US and Iran resumed open hostilities after accusing each other of repeatedly violating a ceasefire deal.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Centre said late on July 20 that a vessel was on fire not far from the Omani coast, although it had not verified a cause.
The Revolutionary Guards said on July 20 that two oil tankers had exploded and been immobilised after attempting to transit what it described as an unsafe southern route through Hormuz, alleging the vessels had been encouraged by the US military to use the passage.
Reuters could not immediately verify the incident.
The statement gave no details on the vessels’ names, flags, crews or any casualties.
The Guards said the waterway would remain unsafe as long as what it called US “aggression” in the region continued, warning that “this passage will not be safe for the transit of petrochemical products, nor even a single drop of oil and gas”.
Four vessels made the transit through Hormuz on July 19, down from eight the previous day, LSEG data showed. At least three oil tankers and one very large crude carrier have entered the strait since July 17 to load oil, the data showed.
Oil prices rose 2 per cent to more than US$90 a barrel on July 20.
In the latest American casualty reported in the war, the US military said on July 19 that a service member was killed on July 18 in northern Iraq, where the US has military bases, during a controlled detonation of what Central Command called unexploded ordnance on a downed Iranian attack drone.
The US military said earlier that two service personnel had died in Jordan and a third was missing in action. On July 19, Central Command said “unidentified remains” had been found at the site of the attack on July 17 and “an examination process to verify the remains is ongoing”.
The latest casualty announcements brought the total number of US military personnel killed since the war began to 17, with more than 420 wounded.
The conflict, which began when the US and Israel attacked Iran on Feb 28, seeking to disable Tehran’s nuclear and missile programmes and weaken its regional proxies, has killed thousands of people, mostly in Iran and Lebanon. REUTERS
