The U.S. military’s Central Command said on Wednesday (July 15, 2026) it launched airstrikes on Greater Tunb Island in the Strait of Hormuz, targeting Iranian defence and missile sites.

West Asia War LIVE updates – July 15, 2026

The island, seized by Iran since 1971 from what would become the United Arab Emirates, is viewed as a strategic point in the strait.

Central Command said it launched a 90-minute attack targeting the island.

“The strikes further degraded Iran’s ability to attack commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz,” it said.

The U.S. military said early Sunday (June 28, 2026) that it had struck multiple targets in Iran at President Donald Trump’s direction, continuing a string of attacks that have shaken the war’s uneasy ceasefire.

U.S. Central Command, in a post to social media, said that U.S. military aircraft targeted Iranian military “surveillance infrastructure, communication systems, air defense sites, drone storage facilities, and minelayer capabilities” following an attack on a merchant vessel early on Saturday morning (June 27, 2026).

West Asia war LIVE updates – June 27, 2026

The ongoing strikes in West Asia show the danger of the Iran war again spinning out of control, even after Iran and the U.S. reached an interim deal to try and agree on a final accord to end the conflict.

In a social media post, Mr. Trump said the U.S. had “struck Iranian missile and drone storage locations, and coastal radar sites, for violating the Cease Fire Agreement, AGAIN!”

He warned of a point where the U.S. may no longer be able to be reasonable “and will be forced to militarily complete the job.”

“If that happens, the Islamic Republic of Iran will no longer exist!” Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social.

The incident follows a similar back and forth that occurred just days prior when an Iranian drone struck a merchant vessel off the coast of Oman on Thursday and the U.S. military retaliated with strikes the next day.

U.S. says strikes were a response to Iranian attack on oil tanker

U.S. Central Command said that in this latest attack Iranian forces attacked the oil tanker ‘Kiku’ with a one-way drone. The tanker was laden with more than two million barrels of crude oil and sailing through the Strait of Hormuz.

According to ship tracking websites, the ‘Kiku’ left a Qatari oil field in the middle of the Persian Gulf earlier in the week and was bound for a port in the United Arab Emirates that sits on the Gulf of Aman, just on the other side of the Strait of Hormuz.

It appeared to be attempting to use a route that was established near the coast of Oman that is serving as an alternative to the route sanctioned by Iran that runs through its own waters.

A multinational maritime body overseen by the U.S. Navy said that it would expand the Omani route to allow for both inbound and outbound traffic, likely setting up a new flashpoint with Tehran, which sees the strait as a key source of leverage in ongoing talks with the US.

The U.S. military said that “Iran had a chance to honor the ceasefire agreement” but “elected not to” when its forces attacked the ‘Kiku’.

Iran state TV reported explosions in an area just north of the Strait of Hormuz.

The U.S. struck Iran on Friday (June 26, 2026) in response to a drone attack a day earlier on a cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz. It’s the most significant test yet to an interim understanding reached a week ago by the two countries to begin working to end their months-long war and reopen the pivotal waterway.

U.S. President Donald Trump said the drone attack violated the ceasefire. The strikes came shortly after Mr. Trump told reporters, “You’ll find out,” whether the U.S. would respond.

U.S. Central Command said the military struck missile and drone locations and coastal radar sites in Iran.

“I don’t like the fact that they took a shot yesterday, actually four of them,” Mr. Trump said at the White House shortly before the U.S. struck back. When asked why there would be strikes when Mr. Trump has insisted talks with Tehran are going well, Mr. Trump said of Iran, “They’re a little bit different.” He then abruptly cut off questions and reporters were ushered out of his office.

Ebrahim Azizi, who heads the Iranian parliament’s national security commission, responded to Mr. Trump on social media earlier Friday, saying, “The Strait of Hormuz is governed by Iran, so: Respect the rules” and to “not mistake control for escalation.” “This is not a violation of the ceasefire; it is ceasefire management,” Mr. Azizi wrote.

Strikes conclude an hour later

 The U.S. strikes on Iran concluded about an hour after U.S. Central Command announced the military action on social media, a U.S. official with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing military operation.

The British military said on Thursday (June 25, 2026) that a container ship was hit by a projectile off the coast of Oman, coming hours after Iran threatened vessels to stop using the route. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations centre said no injuries were reported.

The development came during a fragile time for the U.S. and Iran as they work to negotiate a permanent end to the war. Iran has increasingly challenged the region and the U.S. over its control of the Strait of Hormuz, even with the current interim deal it reached with the U.S. last week.

The attack on the cargo ship happened while a United Nations maritime agency was beginning an operation to move stranded ships out of the strait this week, using an alternative route, hugging the shores of Oman rather than sailing through the central part of the strait.

The International Maritime Organisation halted the evacuations after the attack and said on Friday (June 26, 2026) they won’t resume until there are guarantees that the other ships won’t be attacked.

About 115 ships were able to move out of the strait in recent days, leaving about 500 still in the area, said Arsenio Dominguez, the agency’s secretary-general.

The opening of the alternative passage through the strait was expected to relieve pressure on the world economy and remove Iran’s main source of leverage in ongoing peace talks with the U.S.

The U.S. and Iran are still negotiating terms of the deal, including issues such as getting ships through the key strait and addressing the future of Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium. Under the interim deal, the two sides have 60 days to work out the details.

Cargo ship attack poses a test for shipping

Shipping analysts said the drone strike cast a shadow over what had been a growing stream of trapped vessels finally leaving the Gulf and an increasing flow of tankers carrying crude oil.

“A week of widening commercial confidence in the Strait of Hormuz has hit its first significant test,” said marine data company Windward on X. It said that while the strait remains operationally open with 43 transits recorded after the incident, “the pace of normalisation has slowed.” On Wednesday (June 24, 2026) 78 vessels transited the strait, the highest since the war began, although below the pre-war averages of 130 or more per day.

At least two tankers reversed course while attempting to transit the strait on the UN-backed route near Oman after Iran insisted vessels use only the Teheran-approved routes, according to marine data and analytic firm Lloyd’s List Intelligence.

More than two dozen ships were still transiting the strait’s southern route after the attack, Lloyd’s said Friday (June 26, 2026).

Oil ‌prices climbed about 1% on Wednesday (June 10, 2026), moving away from a ​seven-week low touched in the previous session, after the ⁠U.S. military launched new strikes against Iran and as market data showed another large draw in U.S. crude stocks.

The U.S. military’s strikes on Iranian targets ‌followed after President Donald Trump vowed on Tuesday to respond to the downing of a U.S. Apache attack helicopter overnight, ‌in a fresh escalation that threatens to unravel a fragile ‌ceasefire ⁠between Washington and Tehran.

Brent futures rose 83 cents, or ⁠0.9% to $92.29 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude climbed 68 cents, or 0.8%, to $88.97.

Brent had settled at its lowest on Tuesday (June 9, 2026) since April 17, while WTI had ​closed down at its ‌weakest since May 29 after Israel and Iran halted direct attacks on each other after Mr. Trump urged them to stop.

Tehran said it would resume hostilities if Israel continued to attack the Hezbollah militia ‌in Lebanon. Israel’s refusal to end its campaign against Iran-backed ​Hezbollah has hindered Trump’s efforts to extend a tenuous ceasefire in the wider U.S.-Israeli war with Iran into a ⁠durable settlement.

At the same time, Tehran has continued to block most shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, which normally carries a fifth of ‌the world’s crude oil and liquefied natural gas. Washington has imposed its own blockade of Iranian ports.

U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said on Tuesday that ship traffic in the Gulf and oil exports through the Strait of Hormuz are rising even as Washington and Tehran struggle to reach a deal on ending their more than ‌three-month-old war.

On the supply side, U.S. crude oil inventories fell last week for ​an eighth consecutive week, according to market sources citing data from the American Petroleum Institute released on Tuesday, while ⁠gasoline stocks also declined.

Crude stocks fell by 9.12 million barrels in the ⁠week ended June 5, the sources said on condition of anonymity, while gasoline inventories fell by 1.19 million barrels.

The United ‌States has acted as a marginal supplier of crude and products during the war and ramped up exports to Asia ​and Europe. Lower U.S. inventories could hurt exports and push up prices.

Trump administration officials acknowledged in closed-door briefings with congressional staff on ‌Sunday (March 1, 2026) that there was no intelligence suggesting Iran planned to attack U.S. ​forces first, two people familiar with the matter said.

Iran-Israel conflict LIVE: Lebanese President rues Hezbollah’s missile attacks on Israel as West Asia conflict widens

The United States ⁠and Israel launched their most ambitious attacks on Iran in decades on Saturday (February 28, 2026), killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, sinking Iranian warships and hitting more than 1,000 targets so far, officials say.

But Sunday’s (March 1, 2026) ‌remarks to Congress appeared to undercut one of the key arguments for the war made by senior administration officials.

They told reporters the day before ‌that President Donald Trump decided to launch the attacks in part because of indicators ‌that ⁠Iranians might strike U.S. forces in West Asia “perhaps preemptively.”

Mr. Trump, one ⁠of the officials said, was not going to “sit back and allow American forces in the region to absorb attacks.”

Pentagon briefings lasted more than 90 minutes

Pentagon officials briefed Democratic and Republican staff of several national ​security committees in both the Senate ‌and the House of Representatives for more than 90 minutes on the unfolding U.S. attack in Iran, White House spokesperson Dylan Johnson said earlier.

In the briefings, administration officials emphasized that Iran’s ballistic missiles and proxy forces in the region posed an imminent ‌threat to U.S. interests, but there was no intelligence about Tehran attacking ​U.S. forces first, the two sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters.

Mr. Trump said the attack, which is expected to run for weeks, aimed ⁠to ensure Iran could not have a nuclear weapon, contain its missile program and eliminate threats to the United States and its allies.

He has urged Iranians to rise ‌up and topple the government.

Democrats criticise ‘War of Choice’

Still, Democrats have accused Mr. Trump of waging a war of choice and have taken aim at his arguments for abandoning peace talks that mediator Oman said still held promise.

Mr. Trump has argued, without presenting evidence, that Iran was on track to soon secure the ability to strike the United States with a ballistic missile.

His missile claim was not backed by U.S. intelligence reports and ‌appeared to be exaggerated, sources familiar with the reports have told Reuters.

Questions about the justification for the ​war come as the U.S. military revealed on Sunday the first American casualties of the conflict.

Three U.S. troops killed, five wounded

Three U.S. troops ⁠were killed, and five seriously wounded, U.S. Central Command said on Sunday (March 1, 2026), adding that several ⁠other U.S. troops suffered minor shrapnel injuries and concussions.

U.S. aircraft and warships have struck more than 1,000 Iranian targets since Trump ordered the start of ‌major combat operations, the military said.

The strikes include B-2 stealth bombers dropping 2,000-lb (900-kg) bombs on hardened, underground Iranian missile facilities.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll on Sunday showed 27% of ​Americans approved of the strikes, while 43% disapproved and 29% were not sure.