Middle East on edge again as US strikes on Iran’s Hormozgan province, Qeshm Island leaves one dead | World

The tensions remained high in the Gulf on Sunday after the hostilities resumed between the United States (US) and Iran, with more than 10 projectiles striking the Qeshm Island, which is located in the strategic Strait of Hormuz. The strikes comes even as the US maintains that the critical waterway remains open for all merchant vessels.

“Between 10 to 11 enemy projectiles have struck Qeshm Island since Sunday afternoon,” Qeshm township’s governor Hossein Amir Teymouri told Iran’s Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), while adding that there had been no casualties and “all of the targets were military”.

Iran’s southern province of Hormozgan was also targeted, which left one person dead and two others injured. The IRNA said the strikes targeted Farur in Bandar Lengeh, killing an employee of the Mobile Communications Company, who was “carrying out his duties”.

The two sides had signed a peace agreement last month, aiming to end the conflict that started on February 28 and led to killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. But the ceasefire ended after Iran targeted a merchant vessel in the Hormuz, while it was crossing the strait. That triggered a fresh round of tensions in the Middle East.

Iran maintains that the Hormuz remains under its control and no foreign vessel can pass it “without being identified, tracked, and monitored” by its forces. However, the US has said that the strait is an international waterway, and its forces are positioned near it “to keep it that way”.

“The Strait of Hormuz is open to all vessels seeking to lawfully transit the international waterway,” the US Central Command (CENTCOM) said earlier in the day on X (formerly Twitter). “U.S. forces are positioned and prepared to ensure that freedom of navigation remains available despite unwarranted Iranian aggression, harassment, threats, and arbitrary declarations. Iran does not control the strait. Traffic is flowing.”

The CENTCOM has also targeted multiple Iranian military and drone sites in the region. In response, Iran targeted US bases in Qatar, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain, a move that has been condemned by Gulf nations. 

As tensions escalate, President Donald Trump said the US and Iran have agreed for talks again, but asserted that the ceasefire is ‘over’. But on the contrary, Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has vowed to avenge the killing of his father and predecessor Ali Khamenei, noting that the Middle East nation has prepared a list of individuals who will be targeted.

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