The Lead
U.S.-Iran Escalation in Strait of Hormuz Continues
by Carl Osgood (EIRNS) — Jun. 28, 2026
Overnight, the US retaliated once again for an Iranian drone on a ship in the Strait of Hormuz some hours earlier. “After yesterday’s U.S. strikes in response to the Iranian attack on M/V Ever Lovely, Iran was given a chance to honor the ceasefire agreement but elected not to when its forces launched a one-way attack drone that hit M/T Kiku this morning at 4:30 a.m. ET. The Panama-flagged tanker was transiting near the Strait of Hormuz with more than two-million barrels of crude oil,” US Central Command said in a statement. “CENTCOM forces launched strikes today in direct response to continued Iranian aggression against commercial shipping. U.S. military aircraft targeted Iranian military surveillance infrastructure, communication systems, air defense sites, drone storage facilities, and minelayer capabilities.”
It added in a separate statement on X that US fighter jets hit 10 Iranian military targets at multiple locations in and near the Strait of Hormuz for Iran’s drone attack on M/T Kiku.
Immediately afterwards, Trump threatened he may abandon the MOU altogether and resume the war. “United States aircraft just struck Iranian missile and drone storage locations, and coastal radar sites, for violating the Cease Fire Agreement, AGAIN!” he said. “It is very possible that they will never learn! There may come a point when we are no longer able to be reasonable, and will be forced to militarily complete the job that we very successfully started. If that happens, the Islamic Republic of Iran will no longer exist!”
About an hour after Trump’s post, the Kuwaiti army said its air defenses were responding to “hostile” missile and drone attacks, while sirens sounded in Bahrain, according to that country’s interior ministry, reported Reuters.
Not long afterwards, the IRGC announced that its naval and aerospace forces carried out a joint missile and drone operation in the early hours of Sunday, describing the action as a response to recent US military aggression, reported IRNA. The statement added that ballistic missiles and drones targeted eight military infrastructure sites associated with the United States, including facilities at Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait and the US Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain. The IRGC said the strikes were intended to retaliate against recent US attacks.
The IRGC further stated that, under the Islamabad memorandum of understanding (MoU), Iran is responsible for regulating transit through the Strait of Hormuz. It warned that vessels found violating these arrangements would face stronger enforcement measures in the future.
The immediate context for these back-and-forth strikes is a US effort to get ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz to use an Omani route that Iran has not agreed to. The Joint Maritime Information Center, a body that includes the US Navy, said Saturday that a route through the Strait of Hormuz near Oman’s shores is expanding to allow for both inbound and outbound traffic, The New Arab reported yesterday.
The Iranians contend that the MOU gives them the right to manage the waterway while the US is obviously attempting to prevent them from doing that. Paragraph 5 of the MOU says that Iran “will make arrangements using its best efforts for the safe passage of commercial vessels, with no charge for 60 days only, from the Persian Gulf to the Sea of Oman, and vice versa.” That’s also contingent on Paragraph 1 which says that the two sides “undertake from now on not to initiate any war or any military operation against each other, and to refrain from the threat or use of force against each other...”
Contents
Strategic War Danger
- Israel to Lebanon: ‘You Cease, We Fire’ (↓)
- Chinese Military Spokesman: "Japan Seeks Nuclear Weapons" (↓)
- Massive Multinational, Multi-Phase War Maneuvers in the Pacific (↓)
- Russia's FSB Claims Responsibility for Assassination of Ukrainian Col. Fakhriyev (↓)
- Sare: Americans Must Wrestle with Great Ideas, Not Each Other (↓)
Collapsing Imperial System
- Putin Addresses the Congress of the United Russia Party (↓)
- Death Toll Rises in Venezuela, As Rescue Operations Intensify (↓)
Science and Technology
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