US and Iran exchange strikes again as supertanker hits mines in Hormuz
After a month of relative calm, the US and Iran traded attacks again, with American strikes on Iranian rocket sites followed by Iranian missile strikes on US bases in Jordan and the UAE, while a supertanker was set ablaze by mines in the Strait of Hormuz.
Hostilities between the United States and Iran escalated again on Monday for the first time in a month. Iranian state television, citing the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), reported that a supertanker caught fire and came to a complete halt after striking two naval mines in the southern Strait of Hormuz. The IRGC said the vessel had been trying to pass through the waterway illegally, without identifying the ship or its crew, and warned that any other vessel violating its security rules would meet the same fate, calling compliance with its passage regulations mandatory.
The escalation followed a US announcement on Sunday that it had carried out airstrikes on Iranian rocket launchers on Larak Island in the strait. An American official said the IRGC had been preparing to fire rockets carrying sea mines into the narrow waterway. On Monday the IRGC said it had struck two US military airbases in allied Jordan with ballistic missiles, causing what state media called "heavy damage." Jordan's army said it intercepted eight missiles but did not state their origin. Iran later said it had also targeted US military personnel at an airbase in the United Arab Emirates.
US President Donald Trump claimed on social media, alongside an AI-generated video, that Iran's energy hub of Kharg Island was being "blown to smithereens," offering no evidence. Hamid Bovard, head of the National Iranian Oil Company, dismissed the claim, saying oil operations on the island were continuing normally despite past bombardments. Kharg Island handles about 90% of Iran's crude oil exports.
Elsewhere, Iran's supreme leader described the US and Israel as enemies of all Islamic nations. Israel's Shin Bet security agency said it had urgently evacuated Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's eldest son from the US following a threat against him. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is set to push for tighter economic isolation of Iran while hosting G20 counterparts this week, as Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian attends a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit where Russia's Vladimir Putin is expected to hold separate talks with him and China's Xi Jinping.
