US-Iran strikes resume over Hormuz control, oil tops $90

Global oil markets face renewed pressure as fighting between the United States and Iran has resumed after a month-long pause, with strikes centered on the Strait of Hormuz. The waterway carries roughly one-fifth of world oil trade, and its partial shutdown has already lifted Brent crude above $90 a barrel.

Central Command said Tuesday that U.S. forces struck Iranian Revolutionary Guard missile launchers on Larak Island and other southern coastal sites. The command stated the targets were preparing to lay sea mines and had recently attempted attacks on commercial shipping and U.S. personnel. Iranian state media reported explosions in Kuhestak, Konarak, Bandar Abbas, Jask, Asaluyeh, and on Qeshm Island, and claimed at least 18 people killed across several provinces.

Iran responded with ballistic missiles and drones aimed at U.S. facilities in Jordan, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Iraq’s Erbil region. Jordanian forces said they intercepted 10 of 13 incoming missiles; Kuwait reported intercepting drones and containing a fire at a residential complex with no casualties; Bahrain said its defenses destroyed incoming projectiles. The IRGC claimed hits on airbases and said several U.S. drones were destroyed, assertions that U.S. officials have not confirmed.

President Trump warned on social media and in an interview that further Iranian retaliation would bring stronger U.S. strikes. He said the United States now holds near-total control of the strait and that Iran’s economy is collapsing under sanctions and the blockade. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Tehran would match any U.S. return to the expired June memorandum that had halted earlier fighting.

Iranian officials and state media described one U.S. strike as hitting a residential building during a wedding in Kuhestak, killing four or five people including a child and wounding more than 60. The Iranian Red Crescent and local officials supplied those figures. Central Command stated that U.S. forces never target civilians. No independent verification of the wedding incident or other specific casualty counts has been reported by multiple outlets.

Negotiations to end the six-month conflict and limit Iran’s nuclear program remain stalled. Fifty thousand U.S. troops and warships are deployed in the region under the naval blockade ordered by the Trump administration.