The United States launched new strikes on Iranian targets Tuesday, as the two countries reignited the war over the Strait of Hormuz and the U.S. military prepared to restart its naval blockade on Iranian ports.

The attacks are the latest exchanges of strikes between the United States and Iran in recent weeks, as they both seek to assert control over the strait, a crucial transit route for oil and gas shipments. The military action has left President Donald Trump’s preliminary ceasefire deal with Iran in tatters, and his plan to impose a 20% tax on ships moving through the strait threatens to heap more pressure on a global economy already pummeled by the war.

Iranian state media reported several explosions in the southwest of the country Tuesday. The deputy governor of Bushehr province, Ehsan Jahanian, said four locations in the port city of Bushehr, home to Iran’s only civilian nuclear power plant, had been attacked, according to the state news agency, IRNA.

Asked about the reports of new strikes, a U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters, confirmed that U.S. forces had conducted “a few additional strikes to eliminate emerging threats.”

U.S. Central Command, which oversees U.S. forces in the Middle East, said the naval blockade of Iranian ports, which was in effect from April to June, would resume at 11:30 p.m. Tuesday local time — 4 p.m. in the eastern United States. It added that its strikes on Iran over recent days were intended to degrade the Iranian military’s ability to target commercial ships in the strait.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said overnight that it had fired on two tankers after they attempted to transit near the coast of Oman rather than through Iranian-controlled waters.

The Iranian military also said it had launched strikes at U.S. military facilities in Bahrain and Jordan. Officials from those countries said the attacks were intercepted and have not said whether they had caused any damage.

Oil prices soared Tuesday following the overnight strikes in one of the biggest daily jumps since the start of the war. The number of vessels transiting the waterway has also plummeted as the fighting intensifies. Only 10 ships were reported to have passed through Monday — the lowest level in more than a month and far lower than the roughly 130 vessels that transited daily before the war.

Here’s What Else to Know:

— War powers: Trump notified Congress that fighting with Iran had resumed and dismissed the importance of the ceasefire deal that he had long trumpeted.

— Oil soars: The price of Brent crude, the international benchmark for oil prices, rose above $86 a barrel Tuesday for the first time in a month. The price has soared about 12% in the past 24 hours and is 17% higher than before the war.

— Shipping tax: Trump said the United States would charge a fee on each ship passing through the strait equal to 20% of the value of its cargo in return for providing security, just weeks after his administration said imposing tolls was unacceptable.

— European airlines: The European Union’s aviation safety regulator Tuesday warned airlines to stop operating in the region, saying the increased military attacks posed a “high risk to civil flights.” The agency said airlines should avoid the airspace of Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and part of the Gulf of Oman.

—

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Ravi Mattu, Eric Schmitt and Qasim Nauman
c. 2026 The New York Times Company