The United States has launched additional strikes on Iran in an effort to secure the vital Strait of Hormuz waterway.

US Central Command announced on Sunday that at 5pm EDT, forces began launching strikes on the country ‘to continue degrading their ability to attack civilian mariners and commercial ships freely transiting the Strait of Hormuz.’

It noted that President Donald Trump directed the strikes to ‘hold Iranian forces accountable’ after he declared on national television that the strait was open. 

The governor of Qeshm Island near the strait also told Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency that projectiles were fired at military targets, with no casualties. Explosions were also heard in the coastal city of Bandar Abbas and Hajiabad city to the north.

A US official speaking with the Associated Press on the condition of anonymity said a few strikes were conducted on missile and air defense systems and paramilitary Revolutionary Guard boats at a couple of locations to further degrade Iran’s ability to attack commercial shipping.

A spokesperson for US Central Command also claimed on CNN that Iranian forces had launched more attacks on commercial ships passing through the Strait, through which one-fifth of the world’s oil supply passes. 

The strait, which has long considered an international waterway, has become a sticking point in ceasefire negotiations despite the US military announcing that more than 140 ships had transited the waterway over the past week.

A multinational body overseen by the US Navy also said traffic continued ‘at reduced levels’ off both Oman and Iran, and that nearly 140 vessels transited daily before the war.

But as tensions remained, Iranian forces attacked a container ship in the strait, setting it ablaze and leaving one crew member missing on Saturday. 

President Donald Trump directed additional strikes on Iran on Sunday to secure the Strait of Hormuz waterway

Shipping vessels are pictured in the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth vowed revenge, saying: ‘Iran made a poor choice. Now they pay.’ 

The US military then retaliated by hitting some 140 targets, including missile and drone launch sites, ammunition dumps, communication equipment and other sites, the military said earlier on Sunday.

‘We bombed the hell out of them last night,’ Trump added to NBC’s Meet the Press.

Iran then responded with attacks on Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Jordan and Oman – the nation on the other side of the strait that Tehran has pressed to collaborate in managing shipping traffic.

Iranian officials, however, insist they alone must control the strait – and have the authority to potentially charge vessels for traveling through it. 

‘The era of one-sided deals is OVER,’ Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, the speaker of Iran’s parliament and a main negotiator, wrote on social media. 

‘We told you: keep your word or pay the price. Reality is knocking.’ 

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) also declared the strait closed until further notice after the attacks over the weekend, vowing to attack ‘additional enemy bases in the region’ if it faced more strikes.

Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, the speaker of Iran’s parliament and a main negotiator for the country, declared that Iran must maintain control of the Strait of Hormuz

US Central Command posted dramatic video earlier on Sunday of the retaliatory strikes against Tehran after the Middle Eastern country fired on a ship in the Strait of Hormuz

The US said that the munitions hitting the Iranian targets on Saturday had been launched by aircraft, drones and vessels

Iranian forces had claimed the Cyprus–flagged container ship that was targeted on Saturday, which American authorities named as the M/V GFS Galaxy, was attempting to use an unauthorized route to cross the strait. 

The ship suffered ‘significant engine room damage,’ the US military has said.

Oman’s maritime authority later said it rescued 23 crew members but one was missing. India’s foreign ministry called the missing crew member an Indian national.

The attack came as Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met with his Omani counterpart on Saturday to discuss the strait.

Araghchi explained that the meeting in Muscat, Oman, was meant to discuss ‘appropriate mechanisms for ensuring the safe passage of ships,’ according to the Associated Press.

A regional official involved in mediation told the Associated Press that efforts to shore up the ceasefire continued Sunday. Pakistani officials also said its foreign minister spoke by phone with Iran’s top diplomat and urged ‘de-escalation’ on both sides. 

But on Friday, President Trump said on Truth Social that while he had agreed to continue negotiating with Iran ‘the Cease Fire is OVER!’ 

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei released a written statement the following day, vowing to ‘avenge the blood of the martyred leader and ​all the martyrs of these two wars from the criminal and disgraced killers,’ per Reuters. 

‘Whether we ​are there or not, this will be accomplished, and soon every free person around ​the world will fulfill a part of this divine mission,’ Khamenei’s statement read.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei released a written statement, vowing to ‘avenge the blood of the martyred leader and ​all the martyrs of these two wars from the criminal and disgraced killers’

Khamenei has not been seen since he was appointed Supreme Leader after his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in US-Israeli airstrikes on February 28, when the war started.

Last week, Iranian forces struck three ships in the Strait of Hormuz.

The ships included a Qatari liquefied natural gas tanker, as well as a Saudi crude oil tanker, according to Al Jazeera. 

US forces then hit back at about 90 military targets, including at least 60 IRGC boats. In total, the three strikes this week hit more than 300 targets.

‘US forces remain vigilant, lethal, and prepared to execute operations directed by the Commander in Chief,’ a Central Command statement at the time said. 

As the attacks continued on Sunday, missile alerts sounded across several Gulf Arab countries.

Qatar’s military said it intercepted incoming Iranian fire, with explosions heard in the neighboring United Arab Emirates. Three people, including a child, were wounded by shrapnel from the interception of attacks, Qatar’s Interior Ministry said.

Missile alerts also sounded in Bahrain, home to the US Navy’s 5th Fleet.

Meanwhile, Kuwait’s Defense Ministry said three ‘land border posts’ in the north and an offshore drilling platform of the Kuwait Oil Company were damaged, with one worker wounded.

Three Iranian missiles also struck areas across Jordan, causing minor damage but no injuries, Jordan´s state news agency reported.

And the Omani state news agency said drones struck sites in an area on the waterway, a day after Oman and Iran held talks on the strait and agreed to continue discussions. The strait sits in Iran and Oman´s territorial waters.

Oman summoned the Iranian ambassador to protest the strikes, the first such move since the war began, calling Iran’s acts ‘irresponsible.’