Fresh US strikes on Iran on Saturday, 27 June 2026, drew immediate retaliation, with Tehran’s Revolutionary Guard firing missiles and drones at American military sites in Kuwait and Bahrain.
The exchange marked the first military action since Washington and Tehran signed a ceasefire framework on Tuesday, 17 June 2026, as reported by NPR.
The deal set a 60-day truce meant to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and ease hostilities across the region.
What triggered the latest US strikes on Iran
American forces hit several Iranian targets on Saturday in response to what the Pentagon called continued aggression against commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
It was the third time in three weeks that US warplanes had struck similar sites following Iranian drone attacks on tankers passing through the waterway.
The Strait of Hormuz sits at the heart of the standoff. The narrow channel between Iran and Oman carries a large share of the world’s seaborne oil, and any disruption there tends to push global crude prices higher and rattle shipping insurers far beyond the Gulf.
President Donald Trump warned that the campaign could widen sharply. Writing on Truth Social, he said:
“There may come a point when we are no longer able to be reasonable, and will be forced to militarily complete the job that we very successfully started.”
The framework signed on 17 June 2026 was the product of weeks of talks and was described by both sides as a memorandum of understanding rather than a final peace deal.
It left the thorniest questions, including Iran’s nuclear programme, to be settled during the truce period.
How Iran responded to the strikes
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it launched joint missile and drone attacks on American bases in Kuwait and Bahrain, accusing Washington of breaching the truce.
The Guard declared that “any enemy aggression, whatever the pretext, even against insignificant targets, will have a crushing response.”
The Guard also warned that any further ceasefire violations would bring the wider diplomatic process to a complete halt, a threat that hardens the stakes around the next round of contact between the two governments and leaves little room for miscalculation on either side.
Tehran pushed back on claims it had violated the agreement. Iranian lawmaker Ebrahim Azizi, who chairs parliament’s national security commission, said the Strait of Hormuz is governed by Iran and warned the Trump administration not to “mistake control for escalation,” calling the response ceasefire management.
Trump later called off a further round of strikes he had threatened for Sunday evening, saying talks with Tehran were under way.
Whether the 60-day truce holds now depends on those negotiations and on whether shipping through the Strait of Hormuz can resume without renewed fire.
