Live Updates: Cease-Fire Unraveling as U.S. and Iran Trade Strikes Again
A fresh round of attacks by the U.S. on Sunday was the latest volley in a familiar pattern of back-and-forth strikes fueled by disputes over the Strait of Hormuz. Share full articleImageOil tankers and cargo vessels anchored off the coast of Oman in June.Credit...Elke Scholiers/Getty Images See more of our coverage in your search results.Encuentra más de nuestra cobertura en los resultados de búsqueda. Add The New York Times on GoogleAgrega The New York Times en Google Latest PinnedUpdated July 12, 2026, 5:54 p.m. ETLeo SandsSanam MahooziAaron BoxermanErica L. Green and Eric Schmitt Here’s the latest.The United States conducted another round of strikes on Iranian targets early Monday morning local time, the U.S. military said, extending a pattern of attacks between the two sides as their fragile cease-fire continued to unravel. U.S. Central Command said the strikes were intended to thwart Iran’s ability to attack commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz, the economically vital waterway at the center of a tug of war between the two countries. A U.S. official who was not authorized to speak publicly said the strikes were expected to be bigger than an earlier wave carried out by the United States on Sunday, a day after an Iranian attack on a container ship that set off the latest hostilities. That attack prompted a heavy barrage by the United States and an Iranian military response aimed at U.S.-allied Persian Gulf Arab states. Back-and-forth attacks have played out between the two countries over nearly a week, driven by a dispute over the Strait of Hormuz, where the U.S. has repeatedly accused Iran of attacking commercial vessels. Iran had not claimed responsibility for any attacks until Saturday, when it said it had fired on a Cypriot-flagged container ship that tried to use an unapproved route through the strait. Iran also declared the waterway, through which roughly 20 percent of the world’s oil supply passed before the war, closed. President Trump insisted on Sunday that the strait was open to shipping traffic, adding that the U.S. had “bombed the hell” out of Iran last night. The Trump administration has said the truce struck last month would fully lift Tehran’s blockade of the strait. But Iran has insisted that all ships transiting the waterway travel through its territorial waters, as it seeks to use it as leverage in peace talks. Washington has demanded that Tehran abandon that claim and allow the free movement of commercial vessels. The United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, said on Sunday he was deeply concerned about the renewed confrontations and called for an end to the fighting. He warned that “a return to full-scale hostilities would have catastrophic consequences” for the region and for the global economy. Trading fire: The U.S. strikes on Sunday came as part of a familiar pattern. The flurry of hostilities began on Saturday with the Iranian attack on the commercial ship. Not long after, the United States announced that it had hit about 140 Iranian military targets. Iran then launched attacks targeting American military assets in Jordan, Oman and Qatar. The United Arab Emirates and Kuwait also reported incoming fire over the weekend. U.S. Central Command said on Sunday there were no reports of service member deaths or injuries. Negotiations: Mr. Trump suggested on Sunday that the two sides had been close to a deal over the weekend, before the attack on the ship, but offered no details. Iran has not said that it had agreed to any new deal, and Mr. Trump has often made unsubstantiated claims about the war. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Mr. Trump’s remarks. Strike on ship: Omani authorities said on Sunday morning that one crew member was missing after the Cypress-flagged container vessel, the GFS Galaxy, came under Iranian attack. At least 23 mariners were rescued after the vessel issued a distress call near its coast, they said. According to initial reports from Iran’s state media, among the targets of tonight’s U.S. strikes was a telecommunications tower near the village of Tahroi in Sirik, Hormozgan Province, which abuts the Strait of Hormuz. There were no reported civilian casualties or damage to residential or commercial infrastructure, the regional government said. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps “fired at commercial shipping transiting the Strait of Hormuz” within the last hour, according to Capt. Tim Hawkins, a U.S. Central Command spokesman. “U.S. aircraft have successfully shot down an Iranian cruise missile and one-way attack drone so far,” he said in a text message on Sunday. A U.S. official said to expect a “bigger” wave of American attacks against Iranian military targets on Sunday night than the strikes earlier in the day. U.S. Central Command said it began launching fresh strikes on Iran about 30 minutes ago, saying they were aimed at degrading Tehran’s ability to carry out attacks in the Strait of Hormuz. The latest strikes appear to be at least the second time the U.S. bombed Iran on Sunday — a U.S. official said the United States had carried out a round of attacks earlier in the day with the same purpose. Esmail Baghaei, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, defended Iranian strikes on American targets in the Persian Gulf as lawful acts of self-defense in response to an earlier statement from the U.N. chief that expressed concern about “renewed military confrontations.” “This is not a ‘military confrontation,’” Baghaei wrote on social media. “It is the continuation of a blatant and unprovoked act of aggression initiated on 28 February by the United States and Israel.” Oman summoned Iran’s ambassador to the country on Sunday to express “profound dismay” over drone strikes that had targeted sites along the Strait of Hormuz, according to Oman’s official state news agency. Oman called on Iran to adhere to principles of “good neighborliness,” condemning the attacks as “irresponsible.” Iran and Oman are located along opposite sides of the Strait of Hormuz and are in talks over manangement of the vital waterway as part of a U.S.-Iran agreement signed last month to pause hostilities and end a chokehold on shipping there. On Sunday, Esmaeil Baqaei, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, said that the foreign ministers of Iran and Oman had met in the Omani capital of Muscat the day before and had agreed to continue negotiations on shipping through the strait, Iran’s state media reported. The United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, on Sunday said he was “deeply concerned by the serious escalation and renewed military confrontations in the Gulf.” Citing recent Iranian attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz, American strikes on Iran, and Iranian retaliation against neighboring countries, the U.N. chief said the fighting must stop and warned that “a return to full-scale hostilities would have catastrophic consequences” for the region and for the global economy. Kuwait’s army said in a statement Sunday that three border centers in the northern part of the country had been damaged in recent attacks. An offshore drilling platform affiliated with the Kuwait Oil Company was also targeted by a drone, causing damage and injury to a worker. Overnight, the army had said it was intercepting aerial attacks. The Persian Gulf Strait Authority, a governing body that Iran created amid the current conflict to control the Strait of Hormuz, said in a post on social media on Sunday that there would be no passage for ships through the vital waterway until calm was restored, blaming U.S. military activity for the closure. The Iranian authority has insisted that vessels can only transit on a route it has designated through Iran’s waters. Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa, Ruler Who Transformed Qatar, Dies at 74ImageSheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani is often described as the founding father of modern Qatar.Credit...Eric Feferberg/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesSheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the former monarch who oversaw Qatar’s transformation from a little-known desert peninsula in the Persian Gulf into a country with vast wealth and global influence, died on Sunday. He was 74. His death was announced by the Qatari royal court, which did not specify the cause. The court declared a public mourning period of four days. Sheikh Hamad is often described as the founding father of modern Qatar. When he overthrew his father in a bloodless coup in 1995, Qatar was rich in natural gas but largely subordinate to neighboring Saudi Arabia. Sheikh Hamad helped turn the tiny country into a more independently minded state with political and financial influence far greater than its size, before handing over power to his son, the current emir, in 2013. During his reign, the nation’s gross domestic product swelled 24-fold, buoyed by enormous investments to develop its natural gas-exporting industry. Qatar created Al Jazeera news network and established a sovereign wealth fund that now oversees roughly $600 billion in assets. It also won the rights to host the 2022 men’s soccer World Cup, in a bid that was marred by allegations of bribery. More recently, under the rule of his son Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad, Qatar has fashioned a reputation as a mediator in a series of wars. Its officials have facilitated diplomacy between Western nations on one side, and Iran, the Palestinian militant group Hamas, or the Taliban in Afghanistan on the other. Qatar has been one of the mediators in efforts to end the current war between the United States and Iran. Born in the Qatari capital of Doha in 1952, Sheikh Hamad studied at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, in the United Kingdom, and then returned to Qatar to join its armed forces, according to a royal court biography. He was groomed for power early on; Qatar is an authoritarian monarchy, with hereditary rule by the Thani clan. Sheikh Hamad’s father, Sheikh Khalifa bin Hamad, deposed a relative to become emir in 1972. In 1977, Sheikh Hamad was appointed Qatar’s heir apparent. That same decade, abundant deposits of natural gas were discovered, propelling the country — with a tiny population of citizens that today numbers around 400,000 — toward immense wealth. Analysts and diplomats at the time portrayed the emir, Sheikh Khalifa, as deferential to regional powers such as Saudi Arabia. In 1995, Sheikh Hamad staged a palace coup while his father was abroad, seizing power. “I am not happy with what has happened, but it had to be done, and I had to do it,” Sheikh Hamad said at the time, in a televised address.
Original Source: NYTimes
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