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A small boat sails past cargo ships and other commercial vessels anchored in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Aug. 5. Amirhosein Khorgooi/ISNA via AP hide caption
AMMAN, Jordan — The U.S. military struck what it said were Iranian rocket launchers in the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday while Iran retaliated with strikes on U.S. forces in Jordan and the United Arab Emirates in the first major attacks between the two sides in more than a month.
State of the World from NPR Life in Iran after six months of war The U.S. military said in an email to NPR that it struck two Iranian rocket launchers on Sunday that it said were preparing to fire sea mines into the Strait of Hormuz.
The Iranian armed forces said those attacks against sites on Larak Island in the strait killed military personnel and civilians. Iran retaliated by firing ballistic missiles at U.S. forces and helicopters at an air base in the UAE, and targeted bases in Jordan.
It said the Jordanian bases and aircraft had been used to launch and support the U.S. attack on Larak Island, a strategic Iranian military post that overlooks shipping lanes near the port of Bandar Abbas.
The UAE denied Iranian state media reports that its al-Minhad Air Base had been targeted by missiles, but said it intercepted drones over its territorial waters that, it said, had been launched from Iran.
Jordan's armed forces said it had shot down eight missiles that entered the country's airspace. The Jordanian military did not comment on whether other drones or missiles had penetrated its defenses and reached the air bases.
U.S. Central Command commander Adm. Brad Cooper said last week that U.S. forces had completed clearing sea mines from the strait's international shipping routes. Iran however said a supertanker that had caught fire over the weekend had struck two naval mines in the Strait of Hormuz, bringing it to a halt.
Iranian state TV quoted the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard as saying the tanker was trying to pass through the waterway "illegally" and warned that it would do the same to any other vessel violating Iran's navigation restrictions.
Iran considers entry without its authorization through the strait illegal, although maritime law provides for freedom of navigation through the waterway shared between Iran and Oman. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Iran would respond to attacks, but was not seeking war.
Middle East conflict After 6 months of war, Iran's battered regime remains entrenched "We will never remain silent in the face of any aggression and will respond decisively to the aggressors," he was quoted as saying on state media.
The attacks Sunday followed weeks of threats, as well as even more restrictive economic sanctions on Iran announced last week by President Trump.
Trump also overnight posted what appeared to be an artificial intelligence-generated video of a large oil facility being attacked by missiles, accompanied by a caption that said "Kharg Island being blown to smithereens." Kharg Island is 410 miles west of Larak Island, the site of the most recent U.S. strikes.
There was no indication that Kharg Island had actually been attacked, and a senior Iranian oil official ridiculed the claim . "Trump's tweets are laughable and conditions in Kharg are calm," said Hamid Bovard, head of state-run National Iranian Oil Co. He said workers were continuing to repair damage from previous attacks on Kharg Island.
The last time the U.S. struck Iran was on July 29, before Trump had ordered a halt to attacks after discussions with Gulf leaders. The UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia all host U.S. military personnel and extensive installations, which Iran has targeted repeatedly since the start of the U.S. and Israeli war on Iran in February.
While senior U.S. and Israeli officials have said their goal was to topple the Iranian regime, Iran's leaders have held on to power. The Trump administration's focus has since shifted to reopening the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway between Iran and Oman that has been a chokepoint for oil traffic and other shipping, causing global energy prices to spike over the past six months.
Jane Arraf reported from Amman, Jordan, and Hadeel Al-Shalchi reported from Istanbul, Turkey.
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