US attacks Iran after oil tankers struck in Strait of Hormuz | BBC News

Hello, I'm Lewis Vaughan Jones. This is the Iran War Today, bringing you right up to date with all you need to know on the US-Israel war with Iran.

Let's start with some of today's key developments. The US carries out a fresh wave of strikes on Iran.

Iranian state media says four projectiles have struck cities close to the Strait of Hormuz.

The renewed strikes come hours after two oil tankers were struck by projectiles in the Strait of Hormuz

as they tried to exit the crucial waterway Iran says it's willing to return to the terms of the preliminary ceasefire agreement signed in June if the US fulfills its side of the deal

We'll assess how a new round of strikes may change that

And at a summit in Kyrgyzstan Vladimir Putin says Moscow stands in solidarity with the Iranian people

adding it's regrettable the ceasefire between the US and Iran didn't halt.

Now, the US says it's launched a new wave of attacks on Iran just a day after the two sides exchanged the first tit-for-tat strikes in weeks.

In a post on social media, US Central Command said strikes followed recent attempted attacks by the IRGC

against commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and against American service members deployed to the region.

Let's speak to our State Department correspondent, Tom Bateman, who's in Washington for us now. Hi, Tom.

So a second wave of US strikes on Iran in recent days. How significant is this?

I think it is significant. You know, we're into another round of escalation, basically, after what had happened yesterday,

which was the Americans had bombed Larrak Island to take out Iranian rocket launch, as they said.

And then the Iranians retaliated very quickly with attacks over towards Jordan at U.S. bases there and to the UAE.

Now, this is the Americans are saying retaliation for that to the Iranians.

And in the last few minutes, President Trump has posted on his social media account saying that if the failed nation of Iran retaliates for this very justified attack,

they will be hit again at a much harder and higher level.

And they're warning that even bigger attacks than that are waiting in the wings.

So I think, you know, we're clearly back into a phase now of the use of military force that has the potential once again to slide out of control.

Given President Trump had tried to shift the sort of tactical operation here towards economic pressure, punishing economic pressure on the Iranians.

And we have seen the Iranians try to reassert their grip over the Strait of Hormuz.

The Americans say that was in the form of trying to lay mines that the Americans say they have cleared.

But clearly we've gone from a war that began with Mr Trump saying he was going to end the potential for Iran to ever have a nuclear program.

Here we are six months later now in what is a fight over control of the Strait of Hormuz.

And this is happening at a time where there's interesting storylines coming out of the U.S. military itself.

America's top civilian leader in the U.S. Army residing. Talk us through the significance of this.

Yeah, the Secretary of the Army, Dan Driscoll, who was appointed by President Trump, confirmed by the United States Senate in the hierarchy of the Pentagon,

you know, a rung down from the Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and the civilian leadership level in charge of the U.S.

Army. Now, there have been widely reported to be for many, many months now a power struggle between Dan Driscoll and the Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth.

Dan Driscoll had a direct line to President Trump, had his ear to some extent.

And what had been reported over many months to be the case is disagreements

between the men, both over the future

of the United States Army, whether it should move to a more agile, drone-led form of fighting and warfare,

whether it should sort of keep its traditional infantry battalions in their current forms. But not just that.

The way in which Mr Hegseth had tried to, he said, take out woke from the United States military.

His critics had said that he had tried to micromanage the promotion of generals.

part of that had been the complete elimination of diversity programs.

Dan Driscoll was one of those people that was said to be pushing back against some of that along with other senior military figures, some of whom have also gone over the last year.

Critics of Mr Hegseth say that has amounted to a purge of the US Army and here you have now a very, very senior figure just directly below Mr Hegseth

who some had seen as a potential successor to him if Mr Hegseth ever lost his position who has now gone from his post as Secretary of the US Army.