USA reports first attacks against Iran since framework agreement

The situation at a glance

USA reports first attacks against Iran since framework agreement

The USA accuses Iran of attacking a ship in the Strait of Hormuz – and is attacking Iranian targets. Iran says it is hitting back. Are the guns silent again?

For the first time since the signing of the framework agreement with Tehran to resolve the war, the US military has launched attacks again Iran reported. The aerial attacks on Iranian missile and drone storage facilities as well as coastal radar systems were carried out in response to the attack on a cargo ship on Thursday, the Centcom regional command responsible for the Middle East said late on Friday afternoon US Eastern Time.

US President Donald Trump had previously attributed the attack on the cargo ship to Iran and viewed it as a violation of the ceasefire agreement.

In response to the US attacks, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Navy (IRGC) attacked US targets in the region, said a statement from the Iranian elite unit. The information cannot be independently verified; confirmation from the US side was initially pending.

According to Iranian reports, noises of explosions were reported from the Iranian city of Sirik on Saturday night. This was reported by state television Irib, among others. The city in Hormuzgan Province is located on the Persian Gulf near the Strait of Hormuz and has repeatedly been the target of US attacks in the past. Projectile impacts were also reported from the island of Gheschm.

Several US media outlets, citing a US official, reported that six US Air Force fighter jets attacked four Iranian positions along the Strait of Hormuz and on the island of Gheshm. The attacks therefore lasted around 90 minutes.

An attack on a cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz was reported on Thursday. According to the US military, Iran hit the Singapore-flagged merchant ship with a drone as it exited the Strait of Hormuz along the Omani coast.

The incident off the coast of Oman came a few hours after Iran’s Revolutionary Guards warned that passage was only safe on routes set by Tehran.

In response to the attack on the ship, the World Maritime Organization (IMO) initially suspended its evacuation of stranded sailors. According to its own information, it was able to evacuate 2,500 sailors by the time its mission was interrupted in the Strait of Hormuz.

In the wake of the American-Israeli attacks on Iran, the Islamic Republic largely closed the important strait to shipping traffic at the beginning of March through threats and attacks. The USA responded with their own naval blockade of ships arriving at or leaving Iranian ports. As part of the framework agreement, both blockades have now been lifted.