The United States and Iran exchanged military strikes over the weekend in the most serious flare-up of their six-month war since late July, with American forces attacking Iranian positions on Larak Island in the Strait of Hormuz and Iran responding with missiles and drones targeting US military bases across the region.
US Central Command (Centcom) said American forces took "limited, precise action" on Sunday against Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) units it said were preparing to lay sea mines in the Strait of Hormuz — a narrow waterway between Iran and Oman through which roughly 20% of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas normally flows. The strikes hit rocket launchers on Larak Island, a small strip of land just offshore from the key Iranian port of Bandar Abbas, sitting at the mouth of the strait. Iran acknowledged casualties among its forces and civilians, and vowed retaliation. In the hours that followed, the IRGC launched what it called "Punishment of the Aggressor" — a combined missile and drone operation targeting US military bases in Jordan, including the King Hussein and Al Azraq air bases, as well as Al Minhad Air Base in the United Arab Emirates and, according to Iranian sources, Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar. Jordan's military said its air defences intercepted eight missiles that breached its airspace, and reported no injuries. The IRGC also announced it had shot down a US MQ-9 Reaper surveillance drone over the Strait of Hormuz, a claim consistent with a report from Iran's Fars and Mehr news agencies.
The exchange marks the first direct military confrontation between the two sides since a US strike on July 29, and comes at a particularly sensitive moment. Washington had in recent weeks been shifting emphasis away from military action and toward "economic warfare", announcing a fresh sanctions campaign on 24 August targeting banks and other entities doing business with Tehran. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent signalled that new secondary sanctions would be unveiled on a near-weekly basis. That strategic pivot followed months of intense fighting that began when the US and Israel launched wide-ranging strikes on Iran on 28 February, triggering Iranian retaliation that effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz to commercial shipping. A ceasefire agreed in April and a memorandum of understanding signed in June had failed to produce a lasting peace deal.
Despite the return to hostilities, both sides struck a cautious public tone. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, speaking as he departed for a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, said Tehran was "not looking for war" but would "never sit still in the face of any aggression". Centcom denied the Larak strike was an act of aggression, insisting it was defensive action to protect commercial navigation. The IRGC's spokesman, however, called it a "strategic and fatal mistake" that would cost Washington both economically and militarily. Adding to the tension, President Donald Trump posted what appeared to be AI-generated footage on his Truth Social platform purportedly showing Iran's Kharg Island — a major oil export hub — being bombed, captioned "Kharg Island being blown to smithereens!!!" No independent evidence emerged that such a strike had taken place.
The renewed fighting underscores the fragility of any de-escalation while core disputes remain unresolved. Commercial traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has fallen to a fraction of pre-war levels — shipping data suggest as few as five trackable cargo vessels transited per day over the recent weekend, compared with roughly 130 daily before the conflict began, with some ships switching off their automated identification systems to avoid attack. Oil prices rose sharply on news of the strikes, with Brent crude climbing back above $90 a barrel. In the United States, petrol prices remain above $4 per gallon, up from under $3 before the war began — an economic strain that, with midterm elections approaching in November, carries growing political weight for Trump's Republican Party.