US launches fresh strikes on Iran as peril in strait deepens

Kate Sullivan, Fiona MacDonald and Catherine Lucey, Bloomberg News on Jul 15, 2026

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The U.S. launched more airstrikes on Iran on Wednesday, after President Donald Trump pledged to intensify the bombardment until Tehran stops attacking ships in the Strait of Hormuz and agrees to open the waterway.

The American military hit missile storage and launch sites on Greater Tunb Island, situated in the Persian Gulf near the strait, in a 90-minute operation in the early afternoon Iran time. A second wave came at 3 p.m. U.S. Eastern time, U.S. Central Command said.

It marked the fifth straight day of U.S. attacks. On Tuesday night, American forces hit several military targets, prompting counterstrikes from Tehran on U.S. bases in Gulf Arab states, including Kuwait and Bahrain.

A U.S.-Iran interim peace deal signed around a month ago has all but collapsed over the past week as the two sides feud over control of the vital strait, through which Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and others send most of their energy exports. Oil rose for a third day on Wednesday, with Brent jumping above $85 a barrel and taking its gain this week to 13%.

Trump reiterated his claims that Iran is seeking more talks after U.S. strikes have degraded its missile and drone capabilities.

“We received a call just as I was coming here that they want to meet,” Trump said in an interview with Fox Business. “They always want to meet.”

Tehran hasn’t publicly confirmed a desire to resume negotiations, however.

As Iran threatened to attack ships seeking to transit the strait, the U.S. said it had assisted a double-digit number of vessels overnight. U.S. forces said they had resumed a blockade of Iranian shipments through Hormuz, turning back two ships.

The head of the International Maritime Organization, a United Nations body, on Wednesday told Bloomberg Radio the Strait of Hormuz remains too dangerous for commercial vessels to transit. That was its most significant warning to the shipping industry since the June agreement.

Each side blames the other for breaching the terms of the so-called memorandum of understanding, which was worded ambiguously on how quickly vessels would have free passage through Hormuz.

The latest wave of U.S. attacks has mostly targeted military sites in the south of the Islamic Republic such as radar, missile and drone facilities. The bombing campaign remains far less intense than during the height of the war in March and early April, when Tehran and other major cities were under constant fire.

Iran shows little sign of backing down. On Wednesday, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — whose navy is behind many of the threats against commercial vessels — said the strait will remain closed until the U.S. ends its strikes and the blockade of Iranian ports.

“The region’s oil and gas exports are either available to all or available to none,” the IRGC said, according to a report from Iran’s Press TV.

Parliament speaker and top negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said Iran has “no reason to remain committed” to the deal if Tehran is not benefiting from it but stopped short of formally withdrawing from it.

In Washington, Congressional Republicans are moving forward with a plan to ramp up spending on the war despite the political risks of backing an unpopular military campaign that has spiked consumer prices.

And Trump administration officials are advancing plans to extend a shipping waiver that’s made it easier to move oil, fuel and fertilizer around the U.S., as the renewed war in Iran raises the prospect of prolonged supply disruptions.

The European Union’s aviation safety regulator, meanwhile, raised its threat level for airlines flying through the Middle East. It cautioned carriers against going through the airspace of Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, the UAE and the Gulf of Oman.

U.S. strikes have killed more than 30 civilians in recent days, the Iranian government said. Tehran’s military, on Wednesday, said seven people were killed by a missile attack on a barracks in the town of Iranshahr in the southeast.

The U.S., however, stuck with the decision to resume the naval blockade, a move that has antagonized the Islamic Republic and may further weaken its beleaguered economy. The blockade was first imposed in April and lifted last month after the MOU was agreed.

—With assistance from Hadriana Lowenkron.