The United States Central Command (CENTCOM) announced this Wednesday the start of a new wave of military attacks against Iran, marking the fourth consecutive night of bombings since President Donald Trump declared the ceasefire broken a week ago.
According to the official statement from CENTCOM, the attacks began at 6 a.m. Eastern Time and are intended to "further degrade the military capabilities that Iranian forces have used to attack commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz".
This new phase of the conflict was triggered by the collapse of the so-called "Islamabad Memorandum," a 60-day truce agreed upon between June 17 and 19 in Switzerland. The definitive break came when Iran attacked three merchant ships with drones in the Strait of Hormuz on July 6 and 7, violating the ceasefire.
On July 8, Trump declared the truce with Iran over from the NATO summit in Ankara with a direct warning: "We are going to hit them very hard."
The most recent trigger was the attack by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on the Cypriot-flagged container ship GFS Galaxy on July 12 in the Strait of Hormuz, which caused a fire on board, leaving ten crew members rescued and one missing.
Since then, the U.S. has completed successive waves of bombings that on July 13 targeted locations in Bushehr, Chah Bahar, Jask, Konarak, Abu Musa, and Bandar Abbas for five consecutive hours.
In less than a week, over 300 Iranian military targets have been struck by U.S. forces, according to operational dossier data.
In parallel, the U.S. reactivated the naval blockade of Iranian ports from 8:00 PM GMT on Tuesday, intercepting vessels with origins or destinations in Iran.
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) described the situation as the "effective end of the ceasefire," warning that the fighting in the Persian Gulf has exceeded even the intensity levels recorded during the initial phase of the conflict.
Iran responded by attacking military installations in Kuwait and Bahrain, resulting in at least one death and over 60 injuries. The IRGC declared that the Strait of Hormuz "will remain closed until the malicious actions of the United States cease."
CENTCOM rejected that claim and asserted that the strait “is open” and that Iran “does not control the route,” a strategic pathway through which 20% of the world's oil transits.
The conflict originates from Operation Epic Fury, jointly launched by the U.S. and Israel on February 28, 2026, which included nearly 900 attacks in the first 12 hours. During that offensive, the Supreme Leader of Iran Ali Khamenei was killed on March 1, 2026, and the nuclear facilities in Natanz, Isfahan, and Fordow were destroyed.
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