Iran launches widespread strikes across Gulf, announces closure of Strait of Hormuz

Iran's Revolutionary Guards commander said the Strait of Hormuz is closed, Iranian media reported.

Iran is to set any ship trying to pass on fire, Iranian media reported.

Live updates ➡️ Iran live: Israel strikes, Hezbollah, UK base hit, Cyprus conflict widens.

Iran struck the U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia’s capital with a drone early Tuesday as it kept hitting targets around the region, while the United States and Israel pounded Iran with airstrikes.

The expansion of Iranian retaliation across the Gulf and the intensity of the Israeli and American attacks...portend a possibly prolonged conflict with far-reaching consequences.

“The Strait of Hormuz is closed,” declared Iranian Brig. Gen. Ebrahim Jabbari…“Don’t come to this region.”

The Iranian Red Crescent Society said the U.S.-Israeli operation has killed at least 787 people… Israel’s retaliatory strikes against Hezbollah killed 52 people in Lebanon.

A wave of United States and Israeli strikes on Iran, and retaliation by Tehran on targets across the region have forced much of the Middle East’s airspace to shut down.

The closures came after the US and Israel carried out attacks across Iran that US President Donald Trump pledged would raze Iran’s missile industry and destroy its navy.

“All American and Israeli assets and interests in the Middle East have become a legitimate target,” a senior Iranian official told Al Jazeera.

Al Jazeera’s Ali Hashem said the joint US-Israeli attack and Iran’s response have created two “parallel” conflicts, making the crisis highly intertwined and complicated.

The narrow and congested Mideast waterway has become a site of escalating U.S.-Iran tensions.

Trump’s war on Iran has placed it in the middle of the battlefield, driving a spike in oil and gas prices.

After…Khamenei was killed…Tehran retaliated by attacking U.S. military bases across the region and threatening ships in the Strait of Hormuz.

The United States has long considered freedom of navigation a vital interest, setting the stage for confrontation should Iran try to block shipping.

Donald Trump’s attempt to overthrow the Iranian government by force could trigger a new wave of cost-of-living pressures...

Shipping through the strait of Hormuz... effectively closed after the missile attacks as companies swiftly moved to restrict transport.

Of all the possible Middle East scenarios, the current state of play is one of the worst for the global economy.

There are obviously a range of potential outcomes and we shouldn’t lose sight of the terrible human cost of another military conflict.

The Strait of Hormuz has since become the focal point of global energy markets, as retaliatory missile and drone attacks across the Gulf disrupt tanker traffic.

Insurers remain unwilling to take on new risk and are instead cancelling policies and raising rates for any journey in one of the world’s riskiest chokepoints.

Opec+ agreed to raise output by 206,000 bpd from April to help steady markets amid escalating Gulf tensions.

While the strait is not formally closed, commercial movements have slowed with many holding position and pending security assessments.

UAE condemns in strongest terms Iran’s blatant missile attacks targeting the country and brotherly nations.

The statement frames Iran’s missile attacks as ‘blatant’ and as targeting both the UAE and ‘brotherly’ neighboring states.

Language emphasizes solidarity with regional partners and presents the attacks as unjustified aggression.

President Donald Trump said that he expected death in Operation Epic Fury, telling NBC News Sunday: 'We expect casualties with something like this.'"}

Congressional staffers learned Iran had no plan to attack U.S. forces unless Israel struck first, contradicting earlier administration claims about an imminent threat.

The White House posted a collection of headlines and comments 'celebrating Operation Epic Fury,' even as polling showed only one in four Americans supported the strikes.

Iran’s foreign minister told the UN the U.S.–Israeli strike on Khamenei was an 'outrageous and criminal act' and a grave breach of international law, demanding accountability.

The Israel Defense Forces said Sunday morning it has launched strikes in the 'heart of Tehran,' hitting targets that belong to the Iranian terror regime.

'Khamenei, one of the most evil people in History, is dead,' Trump wrote, calling the strike 'the single greatest chance for the Iranian people to take back their Country.'

War Secretary Pete Hegseth: 'If you kill or threaten Americans anywhere in the world — as Iran has — then we will hunt you down, and we will kill you.'

Sen. Lindsey Graham: 'The mothership of terrorism is about to go down' and called Khamenei 'Hitler in a robe' and a 'religious Nazi.'