US launches more strikes on Iran as Bahrain, Jordan and UAE targeted in response

A Dutch shipping firm has said one of its tankers came under attack off Oman in the Arabian Sea as Iran targeted vessels in the region after the US launched strikes on the country.

Stolt Tankers said in a statement on Tuesday that the Stolt Magnesium came under attack early on Tuesday morning, around the time that two tankers associated with the United Arab Emirates were hit by Iranian cruise missiles.

Stolt Tankers said all the mariners aboard its vessel were safe and accounted for after the attack. The attack sparked a fire in the ship’s engine room, the company said.

The US launched strikes on Iran early on Tuesday morning, hours after President Donald Trump said Washington is “reinstating” a blockade on the Strait of Hormuz.

Mr Trump separately suggested the United States will charge other ships for safe passage, upending hundreds of years of American policy supporting freedom of navigation across the globe.

Iran responded with attacks targeting Bahrain, Jordan and two tankers associated with the United Arab Emirates travelling through the strait, killing one mariner and wounding eight others. The Emirates threatened to retaliate against Iran, potentially drawing the nation that is home to Abu Dhabi and Dubai back into fighting with Tehran.

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency warned airlines against operating in the airspace of Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and the UAE, as well as over the Gulf of Oman.

It said in a bulletin that “unpredictable military developments, combined with the possible use of missiles, drones, combat aircraft and air-defence systems, create a high risk to civil flights”.

The attacks come as Iran and the US vie for control of the strait through which a fifth of all traded crude oil and natural gas once passed in peacetime.

The price of benchmark Brent crude oil rose to a one-month high of more than 84 dollars (£63) in trading early on Tuesday, still well below the nearly 120 dollars (£90) reached at the height of the war but threatening to make costs everywhere higher.

The US military’s Central Command said it struck areas around Abu Musa, Bandar Abbas, Bushehr, Chahbahar, Jask and Konarak, targeting Iranian “coastal defence systems, missile and drone sites and maritime capabilities”. Iran acknowledged strikes around those areas, but provided no immediate casualty or damage assessments.

“These strikes will continue imposing a heavy cost on Iranian forces and degrade their ability to attack innocent civilians and commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz,” the US military said.

Moments after the military announced the new strikes, Mr Trump called it “another major attack”.

“We’re hitting them very hard. And it’ll continue, and we’ll see what happens,” he told reporters in the Oval Office. “We’re knocking out all of their offensive capability and we’re controlling the straits. We’re putting the blockade back.”

Mr Trump also provided new details on his suggestion that the US will charge tolls for ships going through the strait, an about-face after previously saying that it would not.

“We’re protecting a very rich portion of the world,” he said. “We’re spending money. And so, what we’ve done is, we are going to be reimbursed for protection.”

The president said the US would impose a fee for protecting other ships: 20% of the value of cargo to help cover “any and all costs necessary to do the job of providing safety and security”.

That is a change to longstanding US policy. The US Navy has fought for freedom of navigation on the seas since the Barbary Wars in the early 19th century and the War of 1812. It is also a departure from recent US promises that the strait would remain open to all without tolls – recently offered by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on a trip to the region.

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 afterwards. Iran asserts it has the right to manage traffic through the strait and potentially charge fees. The US has disputed that.

The strait was open to all without tolls before the US and Israel attacked Iran on February 28.

Any attempt by the US or Iran to charge fees would violate global norms on freedom of navigation and raise tensions, likely causing further economic disruption far beyond the region.

The United Arab Emirates’ Defence Ministry said early on Tuesday that Iran attacked two tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, killing one mariner and wounding eight others.

The Emirati Defence Ministry said Iran launched two cruise missiles at the tankers Mombasa and Al Bahiyah.

The attacks set both tankers ablaze, though the fires were extinguished.

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard claimed the attack on the tankers, saying the vessels “ignored repeated warnings”.

“They chose to pass through a minefield and were subsequently targeted and disabled,” the Guard said.

Bahrain also came under renewed attack early on Tuesday morning as Iran retaliated over the latest round of US airstrikes. Bahrain sounded its missile alert sirens three times, urging the public to seek shelter. There was no word on any damage or casualties from the attack.

Jordan’s military said it intercepted four missiles from Iran, according to a statement carried by the kingdom’s state-run Petra news agency.

Exchanges of fire in recent days had already cast further doubt on the interim peace deal. Washington had lifted a blockade it imposed in mid-April as part of that deal, which also called for the strait to be fully reopened.

“We are reinstating the THE IRANIAN BLOCKADE,” Mr Trump said on social media. “All other countries will have fair and open use of the Strait.”

The US military said it will resume its blockade of Iranian ports at midnight on Wednesday local time in Dubai (9pm BST).

Regional mediators are still trying to get the US and Iran back to the negotiating table, according to two regional officials.

The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Pakistan-led mediation was working around the clock to reactivate the ceasefire.

Meanwhile, Lebanese and Israeli delegations were expected to meet in Rome on Tuesday to continue US-mediated negotiations. Shortly after the US and Israel launched the war on February 28, the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah joined the conflict in support of its ally, Iran, and began attacking Israel. Israel responded with a ground invasion of Lebanon.

Last month, Lebanon and Israel announced a “framework agreement” outlining the withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon in exchange for the disarmament of Hezbollah. On the ground, however, the agreement has stalled.

Before the fighting around the strait intensified, Israel’s war against Hezbollah in Lebanon repeatedly threatened to derail the interim deal. A truce now exists in Lebanon, but it remains unclear whether it will hold if the US and Iran return to full-scale war.