The United States carried out strikes against Iranian military sites on Friday in retaliation for a drone attack on a commercial ship in the Strait of Hormuz, an escalation that has tested a ceasefire reached less than two weeks earlier, Al Jazeera reported.
A cargo ship struck, then a US response
The sequence began on Thursday, June 25, when Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps launched at least four one-way attack drones at ships passing through the strait, according to U.S. accounts. One drone struck the Ever Lovely, a Singapore-flagged container vessel, off the coast of Oman. No crew members were hurt and the ship continued its voyage, Fortune reported.
The following day, U.S. Central Command, which oversees American forces in the Middle East, said it had delivered what it called a "powerful response." In a statement cited by CBS News, the command said American aircraft had "struck Iranian missile and drone storage locations and coastal radar sites." It described Iran's drone attack as unwarranted aggression that endangered freedom of navigation. It was the first direct U.S. military action against Iranian territory since the truce took hold.
Dueling claims over who broke the truce
President Donald Trump accused Iran of a "foolish violation" of the ceasefire, writing on Truth Social that the country had fired "at least four One Way Attack Drones at Ships transversing the Strait of Hormuz."
Tehran rejected that characterization. Ebrahim Azizi, who heads the Iranian parliament's national security commission, responded that Iran governs the waterway and was entitled to enforce its rules. "This is not a violation of the ceasefire; it is ceasefire management," he wrote, urging Washington not to "mistake control for escalation," according to Al Jazeera. The dispute reflects a deeper disagreement over which shipping corridors vessels must use and who holds authority over passage through the strait, one of the world's most important energy chokepoints.
A ceasefire already under pressure
The strikes landed against the backdrop of a ceasefire framework that Washington, Tehran, Israel and Lebanon have been struggling to hold together. The truce had shown signs of strain even before Thursday's drone attack, with each side accusing the other of breaches tied to wider regional fighting.
The Strait of Hormuz carries roughly a fifth of the world's seaborne oil, and its stability is closely watched by energy markets. Earlier in the crisis, when traffic through the waterway was choked off, oil prices spiked sharply; by the time of Friday's exchange, prices had largely returned to pre-war levels, leaving traders weighing whether the renewed hostilities would again disrupt shipping. The fresh strikes injected new uncertainty into a market that had only recently calmed, and raised the question of whether the two governments would step back from the brink or escalate further.
