Projectiles Hit Iran’s Qeshm Island As Washington-Tehran Trade Blows

New Delhi:

More than 10 projectiles struck Iran’s Gulf island of Qeshm in the strategic Strait of Hormuz today, state media reported, as hostilities resumed between Tehran and Washington.

“Between 10 to 11 enemy projectiles have struck Qeshm Island since Sunday afternoon,” Hossein Amir Teymouri, governor of Qeshm township, told the IRNA state news agency, adding that “all of the targets were military” and that there had been no casualties.

The Trump administration sees Iran’s assertion of control over the strait as a direct challenge to freedom of the seas with consequences reaching far beyond the region, from the Strait of Malacca to the Bosporus.

Iran and the US were at the midway point of their 60-day interim deal aimed at reaching a permanent end to the war when the hostilities resumed.

The US military’s Central Command said it hit some 140 targets, including missile and drone launch sites, ammunition dumps, communication equipment and other sites. It said the attacks, heavier than in recent days, would weaken Iran’s ability to threaten shipping.

“We bombed the hell out of them last night,” President Donald Trump told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Saturday night.

Over the last week, Iran has attacked ships heading through the strait using a route off Oman, seeking to avoid the Islamic nation’s territorial waters.

The US Central Command in a post on X said the strait was “open to all vessels seeking to lawfully transit the international waterway”. It said US forces were “positioned and prepared to ensure” freedom of navigation, adding, “Iran does not control the strait. Traffic is flowing.”

The Strait of Hormuz is open to all vessels seeking to lawfully transit the international waterway. U.S. forces are positioned and prepared to ensure that freedom of navigation remains available despite unwarranted Iranian aggression, harassment, threats, and arbitrary… pic.twitter.com/FS3TUBOZEj

— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) July 12, 2026

Iran’s response to the US strikes came quickly, with sirens and explosions heard in Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, AFP and local authorities reported.

Qatar said three people were injured by Iranian attacks, while the UAE issued a warning for incoming missiles but later said they did not enter its territory. Kuwait also said it was working to intercept an attack, and Jordan said three Iranian missiles fell inside the kingdom. Iran’s Guards said they also hit Oman, which has rarely been targeted.

Muscat summoned the Iranian ambassador and handed him a formal protest, a rare move for the sultanate which has been trying to balance competing demands from Washington and Tehran.

The attack came just hours after the country hosted Iran’s foreign minister to discuss the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran’s supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei has vowed revenge for the killing of his father and predecessor on the first day of the war, and said Iran had compiled a list of individuals to be targeted.

With inputs from AFP