U.S. strikes Iranian military sites after a drone hits a cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz

The U.S. military struck missile, drone, and radar sites in Iran on Friday, June 26, in response to a drone attack a day earlier on a cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz, U.S. Central Command said. They are the first reported U.S. strikes on Iran since the two countries agreed earlier in June to extend a fragile ceasefire and work toward reopening the waterway.

What the U.S. said it hit

CENTCOM said U.S. aircraft "struck Iranian missile and drone storage locations and coastal radar sites." It said the strikes followed an Iranian one-way attack drone that hit the M/V Ever Lovely, a Singapore-flagged cargo ship, on June 25 as the vessel exited the strait along the Omani coast.

"The unwarranted aggression against commercial shipping by Iranian forces clearly violated the ceasefire," CENTCOM said in its statement. It added that its forces "continue to provide safe passage coordination and support to commercial vessels transiting the strait."

A U.S. official told The Associated Press that the strikes were still underway when CENTCOM released the statement. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing operation. CENTCOM did not report casualty figures.

What prompted the strikes

The British military said Thursday that a container ship was hit by a projectile off the coast of Oman. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said no injuries were reported.

President Trump said the drone attack violated the ceasefire. Speaking at the White House shortly before the U.S. struck, he said, "I don't like the fact that they took a shot yesterday, actually four of them." Asked why there would be strikes when he had said talks with Tehran were going well, Trump said of Iran, "They're a little bit different," then cut off questions. Earlier, asked whether the U.S. would respond, he had told reporters, "You'll find out."

How Iran responded

Ebrahim Azizi, who heads the Iranian parliament's national security commission, wrote on social media Friday that "the Strait of Hormuz is governed by Iran," telling the U.S. to "Respect the rules" and "not mistake control for escalation." "This is not a violation of the ceasefire; it is ceasefire management," Azizi wrote.

Bahrain's foreign affairs ministry said early Saturday that Iranian drones had struck its territory, calling it "a flagrant violation of Bahrain's sovereignty." Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it had targeted U.S. military positions in the Gulf. The U.S. military had not confirmed being hit.

The ceasefire and what is unresolved

The strikes test an interim deal the two sides reached earlier in June. Under that agreement, the U.S. and Iran have 60 days to negotiate a permanent end to a months-long war and to settle how the strait will operate, according to the AP. Among the open questions are how vessels move through the waterway and the future of Iran's stockpile of highly enriched uranium.

The strait and shipping

A United Nations maritime agency, the International Maritime Organization, had begun moving stranded ships out of the strait this week along an alternate route that hugs the Omani coast rather than running through the central channel. The IMO halted those evacuations after the attack and said Friday they would not resume without guarantees that other ships would not be hit. About 115 ships had moved out in recent days, leaving roughly 500 in the area, IMO secretary-general Arsenio Dominguez said.

Marine data firm Windward said on X that the strait "remains operationally open," with 43 transits recorded after the incident, but that "the pace of normalization has slowed." It said 78 vessels transited on Wednesday, the highest daily count since the war began and still below prewar averages of 130 or more. Lloyd's List Intelligence said at least two tankers reversed course Friday after Iran insisted vessels use only Tehran-approved routes, while more than two dozen ships stayed on the strait's southern route.

Iranian state media reported that Iran had closed the strait over what it described as ceasefire violations, according to NBC News. Shipping-tracking data showed vessels still moving through the waterway.