Iran targeted the vessels on Monday night, the officials said.
President Donald Trump announced “major combat operations” against Iran on Feb. 28, with massive joint U.S.-Israeli strikes targeting military, government and infrastructure sites.
Delegations from the U.S. and Iran entered negotiations last month aimed at a war-ending deal based on a memorandum of understanding signed by both countries.
The U.S. and Iran nonetheless exchanged limited strikes in late June despite the signing of the memorandum and amid the continuation of peace talks.
Key Headlines
Here’s how the news is developing.
2 hours and 39 minutes ago
Strikes expected to be more intense than last month’s: US official
Tonight’s airstrikes on Iran targeted port facilities, missile and drone sites, coastal surveillance sites and air defense sites, according to two U.S. officials.
The strikes are expected to be much larger in scope and scale than the U.S. attacks on Iran in late June, according to a U.S. official.
Last month’s strikes were also launched in response to Iranian aggression in the Strait of Hormuz, but officials said that more limited military action then was designed to avoid upending the memorandum of understanding with Iran.
-ABC News’ Shannon Kingston and Luis Martinez
3 hours and 44 minutes ago
Iran condemns US strikes
Iran’s deputy foreign minister, in a statement published by the FARS news agency, is calling the U.S. strikes on Iran a serious violation of the memorandum of understanding signed last month between the U.S. and Iran.
“Iran will take decisive measures to protect its national interests and security, while issuing a serious warning about the consequences of America’s breach of the treaty,” the deputy foreign minister said in the statement.
Iranian officials also slammed the U.S. government’s decision to revoke a license that authorized the sale of Iranian oil — a key aspect of the MOU — following Iran’s reported missile strikes on tankers in the Strait of Hormuz.
5:26 PM EDT
US launches ‘powerful’ airstrikes in response to Iranian attacks in Strait of Hormuz, CENTCOM says
U.S. forces are carrying out “powerful” airstrikes against Iran in response to earlier Iranian attacks on vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, U.S. Central Command said.
“U.S. Central Command forces have begun launching a series of powerful strikes against Iran to impose heavy costs for targeting and attacking commercial shipping crewed by innocent civilians in an international waterway,” CENTCOM said in a social media post. “The U.S. strikes are in response to Iranian attacks on three commercial vessels that were transiting the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s demonstrated aggression was unwarranted, dangerous, and a clear violation of the ceasefire.”
5:17 PM EDT
Reports of explosions in southern Iranian port city: State TV
There are were reports of several explosions in the southern Iranian port city of Sirik, Iranian state TV reported.
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