A tanker came under attack early Tuesday in the Strait of Hormuz off Oman, the British military said, in the latest assault on shipping in the strategic waterway. The attack followed two other strikes on ships in the strait over the past day, with Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard claiming those assaults, as tensions between Iran and the United States continued to rise.

The latest incident came as the US military said late Monday it was carrying out its 10th consecutive night of strikes on Iran in a push to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Even as the two sides moved closer to another all-out war, there were some diplomatic moves, with Iran's interior minister travelling to Pakistan for talks, but an interim deal signed last month has fallen apart, shipping has largely stalled and pressure on energy markets has grown.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations centre said the ship reported over the radio that it had been hit by an unknown projectile. In peacetime, a fifth of all traded oil and natural gas passed through the Strait of Hormuz, but Iran has maintained a chokehold on the waterway since the war began on February 28.

The British military's maritime trade centre said a second ship had also been attacked a day earlier in the Strait of Hormuz, off the coast of the United Arab Emirates. Another vessel caught fire after being hit by a projectile near Oman's coastline, and its crew abandoned the ship, which remained adrift and ablaze hours later. The route around Oman had been the one the US military encouraged ships to use to avoid Iran's control, but the Guard later said it had been targeting tankers in the strait.

US Central Command said the latest strikes "are designed to further degrade Iranian military capabilities used to attack commercial shipping" in the strait. It said Sunday's airstrikes targeted Iranian military command centres, air defence and coastal surveillance sites, maritime capabilities, missile and drone launch sites, and communications networks. It also said that last week the US struck bridges and a tower at an Iranian port. Iran's state-run IRNA news agency reported that American strikes killed at least one person around Tabriz, a northwestern city believed to host underground missile bases run by the Revolutionary Guard. IRNA also said strikes probably hit Bandar Imam Khomeini in Khuzestan province, Sirik and Jask in Hormozgan province, and Konarak and Chahbahar in Sistan and Baluchistan province.

The fighting has also spread across the region. Kuwait said its air defences fired at an incoming barrage, while Jordan's armed forces said they shot down three Iranian missiles on Monday evening and reported no damage or casualties. Bahrain's Foreign Ministry condemned Iranian drone strikes on the country's air traffic systems, saying they endangered civilian travel. Iran-backed rebels in Yemen also said on Monday that they planned to stop Saudi Arabia from shipping in the Red Sea, an alternative route for oil exports during the war.

The latest escalation has added to pressure on global energy supplies. The interim deal meant to end the fighting has collapsed, shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has largely stalled, and both sides have targeted civilian infrastructure used by millions of people. Benchmark Brent crude was trading above USD 88 a barrel on Monday, while regular petrol in the US rose to an average of USD 4 a gallon ahead of the midterm elections this fall.

The US military identified two soldiers killed in Jordan in attacks that also left a third person missing. Separately, it confirmed another death in Iraq on Saturday during the "controlled detonation" of a downed Iranian drone. President Donald Trump said on social media on Monday, "Every time Iran kills an American Soldier they will pay for that killing many times over!" He was due to attend a ceremony on Tuesday evening at Dover Air Force Base, where at least one service member's remains were expected to arrive.

The Pentagon's chief spokesman said nearly 100 US service members had been injured since the US resumed strikes on July 7, and that 96 per cent of them had returned to duty. "The vast majority of injuries experienced were minor concussions," Sean Parnell said on X on Monday, while denying a New York Times report that the Pentagon had withheld information about troop injuries from Iranian strikes. However, the Defense Casualty Analysis System had not been updated by Monday evening to reflect the latest attacks in which three US troops were killed and others were injured.

The latest tanker attack in the Strait of Hormuz has added to a fast-widening conflict centred on one of the world's most important shipping routes, with repeated strikes at sea, US attacks inside Iran, regional spillover and mounting pressure on oil supplies.

With PTI Inputs

- Ends

Published By:

India Today Web Desk

Published On:

Jul 21, 2026 07:02 IST