retaliation

July 25 (UPI) — The Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen announced Saturday that they had attacked Saudi Arabia with missiles and drones in retaliation for Saudi attacks on Hodeida, Yemen.

Houthi Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree, the group’s spokesperson, posted on X that the Houthis launched two military operations “in response to this blatant and criminal aggression” from Saudi Arabia.

“The first targeted sensitive Aramco-affiliated facilities in Jizan with dozens of ballistic missiles and drones,” he said. “And the second operation targeted sensitive Aramco-affiliated facilities in Yanbu with a number of ballistic and cruise missiles and drones.”

Aramco is the Saudi Arabian state-owned oil company.

“Both operations successfully achieved their objectives thanks to Allah Almighty, with accurate and direct strikes,” Saree said.

But the Saudis claim that the attacks were intercepted by air defense systems operated by Greek military units.

It’s the latest escalation between the two countries. On Wednesday, the Houthis claimed responsibility for two attacks on Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea with missiles and drones. They have said they have blocked the Bab al-Mandab Strait. That strait is on the other side of the Arabian Peninsula from the Strait of Hormuz. It’s the gateway between the Arabian Sea and the Red Sea, and blockades of both straits would cut off Saudi Arabian ships entirely.

The Saudis and the Houthis have been in an effective cease-fire since 2022. But tensions recently flared when the Houthis accused the Saudis of striking the airport in Yemen’s capital Sanaa. The spat came from a dispute when an Iranian plane had tried to land at the airport.

Saudi Arabia on Friday hit the Houthi-held port city of Hodeida with strikes, the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen said. The attacks were in response to the Houthi hits on oil tankers.

“The Saudi enemy’s targeting of civilian facilities in Hodeida and Kamaran Island constitutes a dangerous escalation,” the Houthis’ Ansarollah media posted on Telegram.

“We affirm that these recent crimes will not go unanswered,” the post said.

Al Masirah television, which is run by the Houthis, said Saturday that the strikes from Saudi Arabia targeted facilities that belong to the state telecommunications corporation and Kamaran Island. It said one worker in Hodeida was injured, and a woman was injured on the island, Deutsche Welle reported.

The Saudis said they would do whatever is necessary to protect their ships. They warned the Houthis that if they continued “hostile acts, then there will be no hesitation in responding.”

On Thursday, President Donald Trump said his administration would “hold Iran responsible” for any Houthi attacks on ships, The Hill reported.

“Please let this TRUTH serve to represent that if they do this again, the U.S. will hold Iran responsible, in that the Houthis are a Surrogate and/or Proxy of Iran, and major military punishment will be inflicted upon Iran and, of course, the Houthis, themselves, who I am very disappointed with in that they have, until now, acted very professionally and smart,” Trump said in a Truth Social post.

The US military says it launched another round of strikes against Iran to “further degrade” its capabilities to attack ships in the Strait of Hormuz.

The strikes – the 10th consecutive night of attacks – come after US President Donald Trump vowed to punish Iran for the deaths of US soldiers.

Trump earlier said Iran had been hit “very hard” the previous night “in honour” of three US soldiers killed recently – two in Jordan and one in Iraq.

In response to the latest wave, Iran said it struck two oil tankers in the waterway, as well as US military assets in Bahrain and Kuwait, state news agency IRNA reported. President Masoud Pezeshkian said Iran was now fighting a “full-scale war” with the US.

At the same time, Tehran said diplomatic messages were still being exchanged by both sides through intermediaries, despite a collapse of a ceasefire.

US Central Command (Centcom) said on X that the latest strikes had hit Iranian “military command centres, maritime capabilities, missile and drone launch sites, and air defense systems”.

Commercial vessels have continued to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, Centcom said.

Iran said rescue teams were removing the crews from the two oil tankers it had struck while attempting to transit through the vital waterway, according to the state news agency IRNA.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency (UKMTO) said a tanker in the Strait of Hormuz had reported being struck by an unknown projectile, forcing its crew to abandon the vessel and board a lifeboat.

It was not clear whether the tanker reported by UKMTO was among those cited by Iran.

On Tuesday night the Department of Defense confirmed the identities of two of the US soldiers – Pte Isabella Gonzales, 19, from Texas, and Lt Tyler James Feehan, 25, from Hawaii – who were killed in an Iranian strike on the Muwaffaq Salti base in Jordan over the weekend.

Centcom said earlier a third service member also went missing in action after the attack, and unidentified remains were later found in the area.

Elsewhere in the region, Jordan’s military said late on Monday it had shot down three Iranian missiles as sirens sounded across the country warning of incoming fire.

Earlier in the day, Kuwait’s armed forces said they had intercepted Iranian drones.

Bahrain said drones launched by Iran had targeted its air navigation systems – but traffic remained unaffected.

On the US strikes the previous night, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reported that several cities had been hit including Tabriz, Chabahar, Konarak, Bandar Mahshahr and Bandar Imam Khomeini.

Iranian state media reported that two oil tankers had exploded as the vessels tried to cross the strait.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said the tankers were going through what it called an “unsafe and hazardous southern route” of the strait and “exploded and were brought to a halt”. Centcom disputed the claims.

U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) announced that its forces have launched “a series of powerful strikes against Iran to impose heavy costs for targeting and attacking commercial shipping crewed by innocent civilians in an international waterway.” The U.S. strikes “are in response to Iranian attacks on three commercial vessels that were transiting the Strait of Hormuz,” CENTCOM stated on X. “Iran’s demonstrated aggression was unwarranted, dangerous, and a clear violation of the ceasefire.”

The official Iranian state media outlet IRIB reported 13 explosions in southern Iran.

The CENTCOM attacks follow the U.S. Treasury Department revoking a general license authorizing the sale of Iranian oil. That abrogates a key part of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by Washington and Tehran on June 18.

Here’s the new Treasury license on Iran: “Revocation and Wind Down of June 21, 2026 Authorization for the Production, Delivery and Sale of Crude Oil, Petrochemical Products, and Petroleum Products of Iranian Origin” pic.twitter.com/2jgRRTQudu

— Phil Mattingly (@Phil_Mattingly) July 7, 2026

While the future of Iran’s nuclear ambitions and its stockpile of enriched uranium are among other key issues addressed in the document, the Strait of Hormuz continues to be a flashpoint.

The latest attacks on shipping all involved tankers.

“A LNG tanker reported being hit by an unknown projectile on the port side engine room causing a fire, whilst travelling southbound through the SOH,” UKMTO reported. That incident took place about eight nautical miles east of Limah, Oman.

Before that, a “VLCC reported being hit by an unknown projectile on the port side upon exiting the SOH” about 16 nautical miles east of Khor Fakkan, UAE, UKMTO added. “Vessel was able to proceed to NPOC [nearest point of call] and no crew injuries were reported.”

The first of the three vessels struck today was a tanker that reported being attacked six nautical miles east of Musandam Peninsula, Oman “by an unknown projectile and has sustained minor structural damage,” UKMTO stated. “No casualties or environmental impact reported and vessel is proceeding to NPOC.”

These attacks all took place along the southern-most route in the Strait, which is controlled by the U.S. and Oman. Iran controls the northern route and the mid-section of the body of water is considered too dangerous to transit due to the threat of mines.

Last Thursday, Iran’s military warned that all oil tankers moving through the Strait must use its approved routes. It also said that interference by U.S. forces in the strait “will be met with a rapid and decisive reaction.”

But the Joint Maritime Information Center (JMIC), a multinational body overseen by the U.S. Navy, told shippers Monday that the route around Oman “has been expanded and remains available for all traffic.”

The most recent attacks on shipping came after that JMIC notification and about a week after Iran and the U.S. promised to stop striking each other. 

What happens next is unknown. The peace talks were paused while Iran holds a weeklong funeral for former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed on the first day of the war in an airstrike.

In an interview with Iranian media posted on X, Iranian Maj. Gen. Mohsen Rezaei, advisor to Iran’s supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei, seemed to appeal to Iranian hardliners who want to resume fighting.

“Friends who oppose negotiations, be patient; the Americans themselves will derail these talks,” he posited.

This is a developing story.

UPDATE: 6:22 PM EDT –

Video and still images purporting to show the U.S. attacks on Iran are emerging on social media. Bandar Abbas, site of Iran’s key naval base on the Strait of Hormuz, appears to be one of the targets. Bandar Abbas has come under attack several times during this conflict.

Fires seen burning at the Port of Shahid Haqqani in Bandar Abbas, Southern Iran, following tonight’s wave of retaliatory strikes against Iranian military and infrastructure sites by the U.S. Air Force and Navy. pic.twitter.com/ccZPuZvDPG

— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) July 7, 2026

Bandar Abbas Airport was a major target tonight, where a senior figure in the Islamic regime was present and from where the regime has launched missiles and drones toward neighboring countries. This regime only understands Hebrew and Arabic; it does not understand American… pic.twitter.com/RdDPTgR87T

— Amjad Taha أمجد طه (@amjadt25) July 7, 2026

Video from Shahid Haqqani Port, validated by the network, following U.S. airstrikes on the facility in Bandar Abbas, Iran. pic.twitter.com/msNbYm6r7O

— Faytuks Network (@FaytuksNetwork) July 7, 2026

In a post on X, Axios reporter Barak Ravid said the U.S. strikes on Iran today were “four or five times bigger in scope and power than the previous strikes 10 days ago.”

The U.S. strikes in Iran on Tuesday were four or five times bigger in scope and power than the previous strikes 10 days ago, the U.S. official told me https://t.co/TiDTGTxMTV

— Barak Ravid (@BarakRavid) July 7, 2026

Authorities “have launched a search effort for K2 Airways Cargo 737 AP-BOI after the flight did not land as scheduled in Karachi,” FlightRadar24 reported. “KTA1732 was en route from Sharjah to Karachi when contact was lost with the aircraft. Preliminary ADS-B data indicate a loss of altitude, followed by a climb, and then a second, sudden and dramatic loss of altitude. The final received data point from the aircraft was at 16:21 UTC, placing the aircraft at 1,100 ft AMSL with a reported vertical rate of -22,400 feet per minute.”

According to FlightRadar24’s data, the cargo jet flew east over the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf of Oman when it disappeared from radar screens at about 12:20 PM EDT.

The Pakistan Airports Authority reported on X that the aircraft was suffering a “navigational system issue” before contact was lost. There were five people onboard at the time.

However; at time 2121PST aircraft was observed on RADAR rapidly descending and with rapid heading change, subsequently RADAR contact and communication was lost approximately 155 NM west of Karachi.

— Pakistan Airports Authority (@Pk_PAA_Official) July 7, 2026

The exact cause of this incident is unknown at this time. While there are no indications that the aircraft was lost due to hostile activity, the area is extremely tense.

UPDATE: 947 PM EDT –

CENTCOM says it has “completed its strikes against Iran, July 7, hitting over 80 targets with precision munitions as an immediate response to Iran’s latest attacks on commercial vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz.”

“U.S. forces struck Iranian air defense systems, command and control networks, coastal radar sites, anti-ship missile capabilities, and more than 60 Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps small boats in and near the strait to degrade Iran’s ability to continue attacking international commerce flowing through the international trade corridor,” the command said in a statement.

“Iran recently attacked three commercial vessels transiting the strait including Marshall Islands-flagged M/T Al Rekayyat, Saudi Arabia-flagged M/T Wedyan, and Liberian-flagged M/T Cyprus Prosperity,” CENTCOM added. “The unwarranted aggression by Iranian forces is a clear and dangerous violation of the ceasefire and undermines freedom of navigation. CENTCOM forces remain postured and prepared to hold Iran accountable when the agreement is not adhered to or obeyed.”

Contact the author: howard@twz.com

Trita Parsi tells Al Jazeera that Iran has abandoned strategic patience for a new doctrine: swift, severe retaliation against any US attack. Parsi added that Iran aims to deny Washington the ability to strike with impunity, viewing immediate escalation as vital to its deterrence.

President Trump accused Iran of shooting down a US Apache helicopter over the Strait of Hormuz and said the US will respond out of “necessity.” The Pentagon confirmed both pilots were rescued by a US sea drone and are uninjured. Kimberly Halkett reports from the White House.