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US, Iran launch strikes as Trump backs down on Hormuz levy
The United States and Iran launched new attacks on each other's interests in the Gulf on Tuesday, as President Donald Trump backed down on his threat to heavily tax ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump has vowed to reimpose a naval blockade on Iranian ports that was due to take effect on Tuesday evening, but said a negotiated deal was still possible even as fighting surged to a scale unseen since an April ceasefire.
Iran reported fresh strikes late Tuesday on its Gulf island of Qeshm in the strategic Strait of Hormuz waterway, the key shipping channel for Gulf oil and gas that has been largely blocked by Tehran since the start of the war.
It came after the US military said it hit targets across Iran including in the port cities of Bushehr and Bandar Abbas to "degrade Iran's ability to attack commercial shipping".
Local authorities said the US struck "four points" in Bushehr -- which hosts Iran's only civilian nuclear power plant -- as well as an Iranian border area near Iraq and Kuwait.
Iran in turn hit two ships in Omani waters the Strait of Hormuz, killing a crew member, according to the United Arab Emirates.
A Norwegian tanker was also hit by an explosion caused by an unidentified device off the Omani coast early Tuesday, the crisis response company MTI Network said.
As attacks in the waterway continued, Trump said he was scrapping a planned levy on ships passing through it that he announced a day earlier, 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.
Iran's top diplomat Abbas Araghchi had mocked Trump's threat before attacks between the decades-old foes continued.
- 'Act of war' -
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.
After the strikes, Iran's Revolutionary Guards announced they had in turn fired missiles and drones on Bahrain, targeting a residential building for US forces and other facilities.
Bahrain said it had intercepted "several treacherous aerial attacks launched by Iran" and accused Tehran of targeting civilians, after explosions and sirens were heard in Manama several times.
Iran started blocking the strait after US-Israel attacks in February, which prompted Washington's blockade on Tehran's ports -- but restrictions eased after the sides agreed a preliminary deal in June.
Monday was the quietest day for crossings of Hormuz by commodity vessels since June 13, before the preliminary deal briefly boosted traffic through the strait.
US Central Command (CENTCOM) said Iran's ports on the waterway would be blockaded from 2000 GMT on Tuesday.
Washington has vehemently opposed Tehran's desire to charge tolls in the strait, which international law generally forbids.
Oil prices had jumped more than five percent after the latest strikes, but later pared gains as Trump backpedalled on his proposed levy.
- 'Decisive blow' -
Tehran launched attacks on other US allies in the region, including Jordan, which said it had shot down four missiles from Iran.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards said their strikes targeted US forces at an air base and urged Jordanians to issue a "serious demand for the removal of the occupying American bases from the region".
Iran insists it only targets US interests in the Gulf, but its military command spokesman said any collaboration by Gulf countries with the United States would be considered "an act of war".
Trump also threatened to destroy Pickaxe Mountain, a deeply buried nuclear site near Natanz where Western intelligence suspects Iran is building an undeclared enrichment facility.
"Tell the Iranians to be ready. Let them know we're coming (and) there's not a damn thing they can do about it," he told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt.
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."
burs-amj/jfx/dc
Q.Vincent--PS
