US attacks Iran over ship being hit in Strait of Hormuz; Tehran lashes out again at Gulf Arab states

A man holds a poster of the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a gathering commemorating him at a square in Tehran, Saturday, July 11, 2026. Vahid Salemi/AP hide caption

toggle caption

Vahid Salemi/AP

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The United States attacked Iran early Sunday morning over an Iranian attack on a vessel in the Strait of Hormuz, setting the container ship ablaze and forcing its crew to abandon it. Iran apparently responded with strikes targeting Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

The strait has become the key sticking point in any further negotiations between Iran and the United States to find a permanent end to the war that began back on Feb. 28. About a fifth of all traded oil and natural gas passed through the strait before the war began. Iran's grip on it during the war led to a global energy crisis, though oil prices have sharply dropped since wartime highs of $120 a barrel.

The new crossfire in the Persian Gulf comes after U.S. President Donald Trump suggested an interim deal in the Iran war was "over."

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wrote online: "Iran made a poor choice. Now they pay."

Bahrain, Qatar and UAE all attacked

The United Arab Emirates warned the public Sunday of an incoming missile and drone attack as explosions could be heard in nearby Qatar. A missile alert sounded in Qatar shortly after the blasts. Qatar's military said in a statement it intercepted the incoming Iranian fire.

Meanwhile, missile alerts sounded in Bahrain, an island kingdom in the Persian Gulf home to the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet.

It wasn't immediately clear what locations were under attack in the UAE, which so far hadn't been targeted in the latest round of attacks by Iran.

In the Strait of Hormuz attack, a Cyprus-flagged container ship was hit by Iran and suffered "significant engineroom damage" and a civilian crew member is missing, U.S. Central Command said.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center, overseen by the British military, said the ship had been traveling in a route hugging the shoreline of Oman. That's been the way ships have gotten in and out of the Persian Gulf while avoiding Iranian territorial waters. The ship's crew abandoned the vessel as it was ablaze, the center said.

Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said multiple vessels "disregarded our warnings and instructions to correct their course and proceed along the approved route." One of them "was struck by a warning shot and brought to a stop."

Iran said that the strait would remain closed "until further notice" and said it would consider targeting "additional enemy bases in the region" if it faced more attacks.

The U.S. attacks on Iran apparently targeted Bandar Abbas and Sirik, as well as other areas, along the shores of the strait, Iran state media reported. Iran offered no immediate information about casualties or damage.

Attacks followed more diplomatic talks about the strait

The latest violence followed Iran and Oman's foreign ministers meeting on Saturday to discuss the strait, after days of Iranian attacks on ships and U.S. retaliation that dealt a blow to the interim deal to end the war. The narrow strait sits in both Iran and Oman's territorial waters, but long has been considered an international waterway.

Oman said it and Iran agreed to keep talking about the Strait of Hormuz "at the technical and political levels." However, Iran offered no statement about the strait being open to all — something sought by the Trump administration.

Iran's new supreme leader, still unseen since the war began, also vowed in his first statement since the funeral of his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, that Iranians would avenge his killing in the war's opening strikes on Feb. 28.

Such revenge "is the will of our nation and must certainly be carried out," Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei said in a statement carried on state televisions.