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Two tankers in three days: The shipping attacks that are destroying the US-Iran peace deal
Statesman News Service
June 28, 2026 8:53 am
US hits Iran twice in 48 hours after second tanker attack. Iran fires back at US bases
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The United States military carried out a new round of strikes on Iran on Saturday after an Iranian drone hit a Panama-flagged oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz. It was the second attack on a commercial vessel in three days and pushed an already fragile ceasefire closer to collapse.
US Central Command said its forces targeted Iranian military surveillance infrastructure, communications systems, air defence sites, drone storage facilities, and mine-laying capabilities. The strikes came hours after a drone struck the MT Kiku, which was carrying more than two million barrels of crude oil through the strait.
“Iran was given a chance to honour the ceasefire agreement but elected not to when its forces launched a one-way attack drone that hit MT Kiku,” Centcom said in a statement. The strikes, it added, were “in direct response to continued Iranian aggression against commercial shipping.”
Iranian state broadcaster IRIB reported explosions in Sirik, a coastal city in southern Iran, shortly after the strikes concluded. The IRGC said the US had hit five of its coastal posts, framing the attack as an assault on legitimate Iranian naval operations rather than a response to ceasefire violations.
The attack that triggered it
The MT Kiku was transiting the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday morning when it was struck by a one-way Iranian attack drone at around 4:30 a.m. local time. The tanker was carrying Qatari crude oil and was headed to the port of Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates.
It was the second such incident in three days. On June 25, an Iranian drone had hit the MV Ever Lovely, a Singapore-flagged cargo ship operated by Taiwan’s Evergreen Marine. That vessel was exiting the strait along a southern route near the Omani coast, a corridor the US had cleared and was promoting for commercial traffic. The Ever Lovely sustained damage to its bridge but remained operational. The crew, cargo, and vessel were reported safe.
Centcom had described its response to the Ever Lovely attack as “a powerful response,” hitting Iranian missile and drone storage locations and coastal radar sites. Iran said those US strikes were themselves a ceasefire violation. Rather than stand down, Tehran launched the drone that struck the MT Kiku the following day.
What the US struck and why
Saturday’s US strikes went further than the first round. Centcom said it targeted a broader set of Iranian military assets, including surveillance infrastructure, communications networks, air defence positions, drone storage sites, and facilities used for laying mines in the waterway.
The expansion in targets reflected Washington’s position that Iran had been given an opportunity to comply with the ceasefire and had chosen not to. “Commercial vessel transits through the Strait of Hormuz continue,” Centcom said. “US forces remain vigilant, lethal, and ready.”
The Pentagon has not released details on the number of aircraft or specific locations involved in Saturday’s strikes beyond Sirik, where explosions were confirmed by Iranian state media.
The IRGC pushed back on the US framing. It said the strikes hit five coastal posts and were carried out under what it called the “pretext” of confronting a vessel that had violated the passage rules Iran says it is entitled to enforce. “America’s blind shots at Sirik will not resolve our dominance over the Strait of Hormuz,” the IRGC said. “But our shots at violators will remind the rest of the vessels of the clear passage route.”