U.S. forces on Thursday launched a new round of military strikes on Iran in response to attacks on American warships, officials said, casting fresh doubt on efforts by Washington and Tehran to reach a negotiated settlement that would end hostilities.
The “self-defense strikes” came after the destroyers USS Truxton, USS Rafael Peralta and USS Mason were attacked with “multiple missiles, drones and small boats,” U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East, said in a statement.
No American vessels were hit, and U.S. forces responded by striking Iranian military facilities deemed responsible, officials said in the statement. They included missile and drone launch sites, command-and-control locations, and positions from which Iranian forces were surveilling U.S. forces and gathering intelligence, the statement said.
“Centcom does not seek escalation but remains positioned and ready to protect American forces,” the statement said.
Among the sites struck by U.S. forces were Qeshm Island and the port city of Bandar Abbas, according to Iranian state-run media. Qeshm is in the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway for the movement of Middle Eastern oil through the Persian Gulf, while Bandar Abbas is to its north on Iran’s mainland.
Another report from a state-run media outlet said later that “after the exchange of fire in the past few hours, the situation on the islands and coastal cities of the Strait of Hormuz is normal now,” indicating that the strikes appeared to be over.
The dueling attacks marked the latest in a whipsaw series of developments this week that has included the start of a new U.S. military operation on Monday to reopen the strait to commercial shipping, followed a short time later by President Donald Trump’s decision to abruptly pause the effort after Iran attacked several allies in the region.
Trump made fresh threats against Iran on Wednesday, promising to renew bombing “at a much higher level” if the country’s leaders did not accept his latest proposal to end the war.
U.S. and Iranian officials have been negotiating a potential end to the conflict since a conditional ceasefire took hold in April, with Trump calling for Iran to end its nuclear program and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has demanded that the administration halt a U.S. naval embargo of its ports.
The negotiations have appeared tenuous, with Pakistani moderators calling the situation “complicated.”
Susannah George and Alex Horton contributed to this report.
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