WASHINGTON -- The U.S. military hit targets in Iran on Tuesday after it said Tehran tried to attack commercial ships and American forces in the Middle East, as hostilities flare once again in an intermittent war that has lasted more than six months. The U.S. strikes, and others on Sunday, abruptly ended a month without military action and threaten to fully reprise a conflict that has spiked global oil prices and posed political problems for Republicans in November’s midterm congressional elections. The renewed fighting comes after U.S. President Donald Trump had appeared to pivot toward trying to bend Iran to his will through economic sanctions. “If the failed Nation of Iran retaliates for this very justified attack, they will be hit again at a much harder and higher level, but it will not be the biggest attack of them all, that is waiting in the wings,” Trump warned on social media after U.S. Central Command announced the latest strikes. Iran’s Armed Forces General Staff and its joint military command, however, said the armed forces would deliver what they described as “crushing and devastating blows” against the United States. Iranian state television said the U.S. struck a fishmeal factory on Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz as well as several civilian targets in Hormozgan province. It said a fishing pier and a Ports and Maritime Organization tower in Sirik were among the sites hit by U.S. forces. The U.S. and Iran are both seeking control over the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway off Iran’s coast through which 20 per cent of the world’s oil normally flows. Tehran effectively closed it after the war began. Oil prices have moved sharply higher this week with renewed clashes between Iran and the United States. Crude, already up about seven per cent this week, continued to rise following the strikes on Tuesday. The price of crude has jumped more than 50 per cent this year and it’s dragged the cost of gasoline upward with it. The cost for a gallon of regular gasoline in the U.S. ticked higher again overnight to US$4.10, according to AAA. Last year at this time, a gallon cost $3.19. Before military action began again this week, the Trump administration had argued that hitting the right economic target would get Tehran to its breaking point. Now, military strikes are renewing even as U.S. stockpiles of advanced interceptors have been diminishing and the war has been unpopular among many Americans. A return to open conflict would be dangerous for the region, where Iran has targeted U.S. military bases and infrastructure in Gulf countries since the war began. In the previous strikes on Sunday, U.S. Central Command said its forces struck Iranian rocket launchers that would sea mines into the strait. Iran responded to Sunday’s attacks by launching missiles at U.S. sites in Jordan, which were intercepted, while United Arab Emirates said it stopped an Iranian drone over its waters. The American military in recent days has cast the renewed fighting as limited, though Trump had acknowledged Monday that more strikes might be necessary. U.S. Central Command said Monday on X that its attacks on Iranian targets on Sunday were narrowly focused on preventing Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard forces from placing new mines in the Strait of Hormuz. “U.S. forces took limited, precise action against IRGC minelaying forces posing an imminent threat in the Strait of Hormuz,” U.S. Central Command said. “In essence, Iran created the threat and the U.S. military eliminated it to protect civilian mariners, commercial shipping, and the free flow of global commerce.” Central Command reiterated Tuesday that its attacks followed Iranian aggression against commercial vessels and American troops in the region. --- Ben Finley, The Associated Press
