US hits more than 80 Iranian targets after three tankers struck in the Strait of Hormuz

CENTCOM's largest strike wave since June hit anti-ship missile sites and more than 60 IRGC fast boats after attacks on three tankers; Tehran answered at US bases in Bahrain and Kuwait, and the June ceasefire looks dead.

U.S. Central Command completed strikes on more than 80 Iranian targets Tuesday night, its response to Iranian attacks on three commercial tankers transiting the Strait of Hormuz, the command said. Precision munitions hit air defense systems, command and control networks, coastal radar and anti-ship missile sites, plus more than 60 Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps small boats in and near the strait, TWZ reported.

CENTCOM named the ships: the Marshall Islands-flagged Al Rekayyat, the Saudi-flagged Wedyan and the Liberian-flagged Cyprus Prosperity. One LNG carrier took an unidentified projectile in its engine room and caught fire about eight nautical miles east of Limah, Oman, per UKMTO. All three attacks came on the southern corridor Washington and Muscat had declared open, days after Iran's military warned tankers to use routes it approved.

A U.S. official put Tuesday's wave at four to five times the scope of the late-June strikes, Axios reporter Barak Ravid wrote. Hours before the first explosions were heard around Bandar Abbas, Qeshm Island and Sirik, the Treasury revoked the general license that had allowed Iranian oil sales since June 21, unwinding a central plank of the June 18 memorandum of understanding. Brent crude climbed more than 3 percent, past $76 a barrel.

Tehran's answer came Wednesday. The IRGC said it fired missiles and drones at 85 U.S. military facilities in Bahrain and Kuwait, among them a Navy headquarters and an air base, BBC News reported. Kuwait condemned the "repeated attacks" on its territory. At the NATO summit in Ankara, Trump said the ceasefire "is over" and that negotiators are wasting their time; alliance chief Mark Rutte called the U.S. strikes "absolutely necessary."

Under the June 18 memorandum, Iran and Oman are supposed to negotiate the strait's future administration, and Iran's Fars news agency has reported Tehran expects to manage the waterway with Muscat, service fees for transiting ships included. The corridor the three tankers used is the same one a U.S. Navy-led maritime center told shippers on Monday had been expanded and remained open to all traffic. Khamenei's burial is set for Thursday in Mashhad. Talks stay paused at least until then.