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Iran reports 10 strikes on Qeshm Island, says only military targets hit

A picture taken on April 29, 2023, shows a shipping vessel sailing past Iran's Gulf island of Qeshm. (AFP Photo)
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A picture taken on April 29, 2023, shows a shipping vessel sailing past Iran's Gulf island of Qeshm. (AFP Photo)
July 12, 2026 07:43 PM GMT+03:00

Iran's Qeshm Island, a strategically critical landmass sitting at the mouth of the Strait of Hormuz, was struck by between 10 and 11 projectiles on Sunday afternoon, the island's top official said, as hostilities between Tehran and Washington resumed after a fragile ceasefire period.

Hossein Amir Teymouri, governor of Qeshm township, told Iran's IRNA state news agency that all targets hit were military in nature and that no casualties had been reported. "All of the targets were military," he said, adding that there had been no civilian losses.

An island at the center of a strategic standoff

Qeshm is Iran's largest island in the Persian Gulf and sits along the northern edge of the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway through which roughly 20 percent of the world's seaborne oil trade passes.
The island forms a core component of what Iranian military planners have described as an "arch defense" posture over the strait, and has been heavily militarized by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which operates naval and drone assets from the island to monitor and, at times, interdict commercial shipping.

The strait, just 34 kilometers wide at its narrowest point, has long been one of the world's most consequential maritime chokepoints. Control over vessel movements through it has been a central axis of tension between Iran and the United States for decades, with the Islamic Republic periodically threatening to close it entirely as leverage in diplomatic or military disputes.

Hostilities resume after a ceasefire breakdown

Sunday's strikes come as relations between Tehran and Washington have deteriorated sharply following an earlier ceasefire period. The resumption of hostilities marks a renewed escalation in a conflict that has kept the strait, and global energy markets, on edge.

Iranian state media confirmed that the projectiles struck military sites on the island. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the strikes, and no statement had been issued by US Central Command at the time of reporting.

July 12, 2026 07:43 PM GMT+03:00
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