The U.S. Military conducted fresh strikes on southern Iran, targeting missile launch sites and naval boats attempting to lay mines in the Strait of Hormuz.
While the ceasefire remains in place, the strikes were carried out in self-defense to “protect our troops from threats posed by Iranian forces,” Central Command said in a statement on Monday evening.
Iranian sources confirmed multiple strikes in the south of the country. “Explosions were heard in Iran’s Bandar Abbas city and coastal areas near the Strait of Hormuz,” Reuters reported Tuesday morning, citing Iranian regime media. “The Tasnim news agency said three explosions were heard in Bandar Abbas, while the Fars news agency said similar sounds were heard close to Sirik and Jask near the strategic waterway,” the news agency added.
The strikes come as the U.S. and Iran are inching towards an agreement. President Donald Trump on Monday said that a deal with Iran “will either be a great or meaningful one, or there will be no deal.”
Central Command confirmed strikes on hostile Iranian targets, NBC News reports:
The U.S. military struck targets in Iran near the Strait of Hormuz in what a spokesman for the military said Monday were acts of self-defense.Navy Capt. Tim Hawkins, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, said the attacks were “self-defense strikes” and included “missile launch sites and Iranian boats attempting to emplace mines.”The strikes were in Bandar Abbas, in southern Iran, near the Strait of Hormuz, a defense official said. (…)“U.S. Central Command continues to defend our forces while using restraint during the ongoing ceasefire,” Hawkins said.
Following the U.S. strike, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that an agreement with Iran was still on the table and could “take a few days.”
He dismissed the Iranian proposal to set up a “tolling system” in the Strait of Hormuz to extort money from ships and tankers passing through one of the world’s busiest waterways. He told reporters Tuesday morning that the “straits have to be open, they’re going to be open one way or the other.”
According to Secretary Rubio, the Trump administration was prepared to walk away from the negotiations if Iran did not agree to the key demands, adding that “it’s either going to be a good deal or there isn’t going to be one.”
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