US Hits Iran Near the Strait of Hormuz Again as Tehran Vows to "Punish the Aggressor Today" and Brent Tops $92

The United States carried out a fresh heavy wave of strikes on Iran overnight on July 29 and 30, hitting the southern port city of Bandar Abbas and islands near the Strait of Hormuz, CNBC reported. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it "will punish the aggressor today" and warned that countries assisting the United States would "receive a harsh response." Iran again declared the Strait of Hormuz closed, a claim the US Central Command disputes. Central Command says commercial ships continue to transit and that Iran does not control the waterway, through which a large share of the world's seaborne oil passes. Earlier US strikes near Bandar Abbas targeted bridges and roads leading to the port, Iran's main maritime hub and the site of an IRGC naval base.

President Donald Trump renewed his threat to seize Kharg Island, the northern Persian Gulf terminal that handles roughly 90 percent of Iran's crude oil exports. The new operation follows what Central Command called a heavy wave of strikes against dozens of IRGC targets, including military command centers, missile and drone facilities, and coastal defense sites, Al Jazeera reported on July 30. Central Command described that operation as retaliation for an Iranian ballistic missile attack on Muwaffaq Salti Air Base and a US command facility in Jordan. Early accounts had said defenses intercepted the assault with no casualties, but The Washington Post reported that the strike killed two American service members and left one missing, and NPR said those deaths prompted the renewed US operation.

The fighting has spread across the Gulf. Jordan's military said its air defenses intercepted and shot down five Iranian missiles. Hours earlier, an Iranian strike hit a Chinese firm's building in northern Kuwait, severely damaging the structure and killing a worker, according to Kuwait's military. The IRGC asserted that it retained "full control" of the strait, and Iran's state news agency IRNA said strikes on Qeshm killed three people and wounded two. The Hindu reported the US response drew in Iranian allied forces in Iraq, and the Israeli outlet Ynet reported, citing The Wall Street Journal, that the Central Command commander had prepared a roughly two-week plan of intensive strikes intended to disable Iran's missile capability.

Crude prices extended their advance on the renewed threat to supply around the strait. Brent rose above $92 a barrel on July 30, building on the prior session's 7.9 percent jump to settle near $90.74, with West Texas Intermediate up 6.6 percent at $84.46. The gains followed the Federal Reserve's decision to hold its policy rate at 3.50 to 3.75 percent, an accompanying inflation warning, and three dissents in favor of a quarter-point increase. That decision pushed the Dow Jones Industrial Average down roughly 800 points and raised the 30-year Treasury yield. Gold traded near $4,080 an ounce.