US Strikes Iranian Military Targets Including Greater Tunb Island as Strait of Hormuz Fighting Escalates

Just after 5am Australian time on Wednesday, US Central Command posted a statement on X: American forces had carried out a 90-minute attack on Greater Tunb Island, a strategic outcrop in the Strait of Hormuz that Iran has held since 1971. The targets, it said, were Iranian defence and missile sites used to threaten vessels transiting the waterway, and the command described the action as holding Iran accountable at the Commander-in-Chief's direction.

The strikes were part of a larger push. Central Command said a wave of attacks hit dozens of targets over seven hours, then resumed in daylight, an unusual step that pointed to a faster tempo. Iran's semi-official Mehr News agency reported explosions in the southern port city of Bandar Abbas and three explosions in Chabahar, on the Gulf of Oman. Iranian state television said one strike hit a barracks of the 388th Mechanised Infantry Brigade, a tank and armoured vehicle unit, in Sistan and Baluchestan province, with at least 13 missiles fired. Seven troops died, it said, a mix of conscripts and career soldiers.

The wider toll, as Iranian officials describe it, is heavy. Health Ministry spokesperson Hossein Kermanpour said more than 260 people were injured in the overnight strikes alone, far more than in any earlier round of recent violence between the two countries. He did not say how many died overnight. Government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani said more than 30 people have been killed in recent days, including those at the barracks, without giving details. The army promised a decisive response to what state TV called an aggressive action by the American enemy.

The blockade is also back. Central Command said it fired Hellfire missiles at an empty oil tanker heading for Iran's Kharg Island, saying the vessel ignored repeated warnings while trying to break the blockade and is no longer transiting to Iran. Two other ships were stopped from sailing to or from Iranian ports. The US first imposed the blockade in April and lifted it last month when it signed an interim deal that paused fighting and opened a 60-day window for talks on issues including Iran's nuclear program. Those talks have stalled as fighting over the strait has intensified.

Iran has answered with missiles and drones across the Gulf. Warning sirens sounded in Bahrain and Kuwait, which have faced incoming fire daily in recent days. Kuwait's army said it shot down four cruise missiles and 21 drones. Jordan said it downed three Iranian missiles. Iran claimed attacks on all three countries, which host US forces. Security sources told Reuters an explosive-laden drone was shot down over Erbil in Iraq, falling near the US consulate. Admiral Brad Cooper, who leads Central Command, said Iran had fired dozens of missiles and drones at neighbouring Gulf Arab states. Iran's Revolutionary Guard threatened to halt all energy exports from the Middle East, saying oil and gas exports would be "either for everyone or for no one."

The strait is the centre of it. In peacetime, a fifth of the world's oil and natural gas trade passes through it. Iran choked it off early in the war, and during the interim deal some ships used a route near Oman overseen by the US military and outside Tehran's control. Iran recently attacked ships on that route. The US has threatened to reopen the strait by force, but experts say that would take a much larger armada, possibly tens of thousands of ground troops.

President Donald Trump told Fox that Iran wanted to meet and badly wanted to settle, and that more strikes would come over two days. Bridges and power plants could be targeted by next week unless talks resume; at least one bridge has already been hit. "You better make a deal, or you're not going to have anything left," he said. Iran's top negotiator, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, said that if Iran does not benefit from its memorandum of understanding with the US, it has no reason to adhere to it, and that Iran's security depends on keeping "Iranian arrangements" in the strait. Iran's UN ambassador, Amir Saeid Iravani, wrote that the US is the aggressor, not the victim.

IMF analysts Azim Sadikov and Jean-Marc Natal warned that the oil surplus that kept prices low has been largely used up, with inventories drawn down. Regional mediators are still trying to bring both sides back to the table, and the next few days, including Trump's deadline on infrastructure targets, will show whether they can.