United States strikes Iran after cargo ship attack

The United States on Friday struck Iran a day after a cargo ship was attacked in the Strait of Hormuz, testing the ceasefire in West Asia.

The US military said that it targeted Iranian missile and drone storage facilities, and coastal radar sites.

The US Central Command alleged that Iran on Thursday hit Singapore-flagged MV Ever Lovely with a one-way attack drone when the ship was transiting the strait. The vessel was near the Omani coast when it was struck.

“The unwarranted aggression against commercial shipping by Iranian forces clearly violated the ceasefire,” the US military said in a statement. “Furthermore, Iran’s dangerous behaviour undermined freedom of navigation as commerce increasingly flows through the vital international trade corridor.”

The Central Command said that it had continued to provide safe passage coordination and support to commercial vessels passing through the strait.

On Saturday, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said that the US had again demonstrated “its pattern of breaching commitments” by striking the Iranian coast “under the pretext of preventing the passage of a non-compliant vessel through an unauthorized route” in the Strait of Hormuz.

Tehran said that in response to the US attack, its naval forces had “targeted and struck positions” of the US military in the region.

Before the strikes on Friday, US President Donald Trump...

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