US forces carried out a ninth consecutive day of strikes on Iran on Monday, July 20th, amid escalating tensions in the Strait of Hormuz, a vital international shipping lane. The strikes aim to degrade Iran's ability to attack commercial vessels in the area, according to US Central Command.

Iran reported that two oil tankers exploded and were immobilised after attempting to transit what it described as an unsafe southern route through the Strait of Hormuz. The Revolutionary Guards alleged that the vessels had been encouraged by the US military to use this passage and warned that the waterway would remain unsafe as long as US "aggression" continued, stating, "this passage will not be safe for the transit of petrochemical products, nor even a single drop of oil and gas."

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed responsibility for targeting US aircraft at Jordan's Aqaba airport with ballistic missiles, as well as US military assets and equipment at Kuwait's Al-Adiri camp, Ali Al Salem Air Base, and in Syria. Sirens sounded in Bahrain on Monday morning, with the country's interior ministry reporting the alert, while the Kuwaiti army intercepted hostile drones in an Iranian attack.

Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency reported that US missiles struck several Iranian cities early on Monday.

The renewed fighting has resulted in three US deaths, including a service member killed on Saturday, July 18th, in northern Iraq during a controlled detonation of unexploded ordnance on a downed Iranian attack drone.

These developments follow the unraveling of an interim ceasefire agreement signed a month ago, deepening the struggle for control over the Strait of Hormuz. This conflict has disrupted energy supplies and raised concerns about global inflation.

Sources