Sawt Falasteen - US renews blockade, trades strikes with Iran over Hormuz strait

The strikes came hours after US President Donald Trump backed down on his planned 20 percent levy on ships using the strait, which is at the centre of a flare-up in a war that has rattled the Middle East and pushed up global energy prices.

Tehran insists it controls the key oil shipping corridor, which was open to free navigation before the US-Israeli attacks in late February sparked the conflict.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said the renewed US blockade had cut off oil and gas exports to the world, including "America's economic rivals", and warned that routes serving US and allied interests could also be shut.

"Oil and gas exports from the region will either be available for everyone or for no one," the Guards said, without elaborating.

Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said the US decision to restore the blockade "has, in a way, dismantled the Islamabad memorandum", referring to the interim deal reached last month to halt hostilities and pursue peace talks.

In a flare-up that entered the fifth day, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) said it struck dozens of Iranian military targets near the strait and elsewhere along the country's coast to "degrade Iran's ability to threaten commercial shipping and civilian crews".

Iranian state media reported explosions near the port city of Bandar Abbas, on the island of Qeshm and on Bandar Imam Khomeini.

Soon after the strikes, sirens rang out in Bahrain, while Kuwait and Jordan reported intercepting drones and missiles fired from Iran.

State news agency IRNA reported that Iranian forces launched a drone attack on a military base in Jordan that hosts American warplanes, while the Guards had hit US facilities in Bahrain and Kuwait.

Trump warned he would widen the strikes next week to hit power plants and bridges if Tehran does not return to the negotiating table. "Next week it gets really bad for them," he told Fox News.

- Trump scraps levy -

Since the war began, Iran has asserted its control over the Strait of Hormuz and opened fire on ships for taking routes it says are unauthorised.

Tehran's strikes on vessels in the strait have triggered retaliation from the United States, and the tit-for-tat violence has sent prices of crude rising more than 10 percent since last week.

"The retaliatory operations of the fighters will continue, and the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed until the United States ends its acts of aggression," the Guards said in a statement on Wednesday.

Admiral Brad Cooper, head of CENTCOM, said Tuesday that over the past week, "Iran has intentionally targeted civilians across the region by attacking seven commercial ships resulting in nearly a dozen civilian crew members killed, missing, or injured."

"US forces are holding Iran accountable for unwarranted aggression that continues to endanger innocent lives," he added.

A Norwegian tanker was hit by an explosion caused by an unidentified device off the Omani coast early Tuesday, the crisis response company MTI Network said.

And Kuwait said one of its naval vessels was struck during an Iranian missile and drone barrage, wounding four crew members.

Trump meanwhile said he was scrapping a planned levy on ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz that he announced Monday, replacing the fee with trade deals with Gulf allies.

"I have decided to replace the 20% United States Reimbursement Fee with Trade and Investment Deals that the various Gulf States will be making into the United States," Trump said in a post on his Truth Social network.

Since last week, renewed US attacks have killed at least 28 people in Iran, according to an AFP tally based on Iranian media and official announcements.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a fierce opponent of Iran's alleged nuclear ambitions, warned Iranian leaders Tuesday that Israel would deal a heavy blow if they launched an attack on his country.

Speaking from Dimona, a southern town widely believed to house Israel's undeclared nuclear arsenal, he told them: "Do not count on things remaining quiet if you attack us."

"The days are over when someone strikes us and we don't hit back with a decisive blow."

N.Awad--SF-PST