The fragile Middle East ceasefire collapsed as a major direct military conflict erupted between the United States and Iran, marked by an intense exchange of air strikes and retaliatory missile barrages across the Persian Gulf. U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) initiated consecutive nights of heavy air strikes, launching dozens of precision attacks on Iranian coastal defense systems, missile launching installations, and drone bases in strategic port cities like Bandar Abbas, Qeshm Island, and Sirik. Concurrently, President Donald Trump ordered the immediate reinstatement of a complete naval blockade on Iranian ports, deploying over twenty warships and authorizing the first-ever combat deployment of one-way attack sea drones to degrade Iran’s capability to disrupt commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. In rapid retaliation, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced the total closure of the strategic waterway and launched a massive volley of missiles and drones targeting U.S. military bases and allied Gulf facilities. The IRGC claimed successful strikes against critical American assets, including a radar site in Kuwait, a command facility and jet maintenance center in Qatar, and drone hangars in Jordan, alongside aerial assaults that triggered air defense sirens in Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. As the conflict intensifies and the United Nations urges an immediate return to diplomatic negotiations, the sudden halting of global oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz has sent global crude prices surging, raising international alarm over a catastrophic expansion of regional warfare.
