American forces struck 10 Iranian targets after Washington said Tehran attacked the tanker Kiku with a drone in the Strait of Hormuz. The exchange has sharpened fears over ceasefire collapse, shipping security and the wider US-Iran deal.

The US military said on Saturday it struck 10 targets in Iran on President Donald Trump’s orders after what Washington described as an Iranian drone attack on a merchant vessel in the Strait of Hormuz. The latest exchange has added to fears that the conflict could escalate again despite an uneasy ceasefire and an interim US-Iran deal aimed at ending the war.

US Central Command said American aircraft hit Iranian military targets at multiple locations in and near the Strait of Hormuz. It said the targets included military surveillance infrastructure, communication systems, air defence sites, drone storage facilities and minelayer capabilities.

In a social media post, Trump said the US had “struck Iranian missile and drone storage locations, and coastal radar sites, for violating the Cease Fire Agreement, AGAIN!” He warned there could come a point where the US would no longer be able to be reasonable “and will be forced to militarily complete the job”. “If that happens, the Islamic Republic of Iran will no longer exist!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

The latest incident came days after a similar exchange in which an Iranian drone struck a merchant vessel off Oman on Thursday and the US responded with strikes the next day.

According to US Central Command, Iranian forces attacked the oil tanker Kiku with a one-way drone early on Saturday. It said the vessel was carrying more than two million barrels of crude oil and was sailing through the Strait of Hormuz. Ship-tracking websites showed the Kiku had left a Qatari oil field earlier in the week and was headed to a port in the United Arab Emirates on the other side of the strait.

The tanker appeared to be using a route near the coast of Oman that has emerged as an alternative to the route approved by Iran through its own waters. On Saturday, a multinational maritime body overseen by the US Navy said it would expand the Omani route to allow both inbound and outbound traffic. The US military said “Iran had a chance to honor the ceasefire agreement” but “elected not to” when its forces attacked the Kiku. Iran state TV later reported explosions in an area just north of the Strait of Hormuz.

Earlier in the day, Bahrain’s Foreign Ministry said “a number of Iranian drones” had targeted the country, calling it “a flagrant threat to the security of citizens and residents”. There were no immediate reports of damage. Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, in a statement carried by the state-run IRNA news agency, said it had targeted several locations “of the US terrorist army in the region”, but did not identify them.

Bahrain, which hosts the US Navy’s 5th Fleet, has been one of Iran’s strongest critics. It recently hosted US Secretary of State Marco Rubio for a meeting of Gulf Cooperation Council foreign ministers, which ended with a call for an end to Iran’s attacks and for the strait to be fully open. Overnight into Saturday, US Central Command also said it had struck Iranian missile and drone locations and coastal radar sites.

US Vice President JD Vance, who has led the negotiations with Iran, wrote on social media on Friday night that Iran should “pick up the phone” if there were disagreements over the ceasefire, “but violence will be met with violence”. The two sides are negotiating the terms of the deal, including safe passage for ships through the strait, which is vital to global oil and natural gas supplies, and the future of Iran’s nuclear programme and stockpile of highly enriched uranium. Under the interim deal, they have 60 days to work out the details. Ending the fighting in Lebanon between Israel and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group is also a key part of the arrangement.

The British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations centre said a tanker was attacked in the strait on Saturday, though the crew was safe and there was no environmental damage. No one immediately claimed responsibility. Soon after that report, the Joint Maritime Information Center, overseen by the US Navy, announced that the route near Oman’s shore would be expanded for inbound and outbound traffic. Iran has insisted that ships must obey its orders and has warned it will begin charging transit fees through the strait, though ships have increasingly been trying to leave the Gulf in recent days.

Ebrahim Azizi, who heads the Iranian parliament’s national security commission, wrote on Friday: “the Strait of Hormuz is governed by Iran, so: Respect the rules.” The US and Gulf Arab states have rejected Iran’s position, saying the strait is an international waterway despite also being the territorial waters of Iran and Oman. The Joint Maritime Information Center warned the threat to shipping was “substantial” and said mariners should be aware of mines and expect a naval presence as clearance operations continue. The International Maritime Organization on Friday halted a new effort to evacuate ships, saying it would not resume until there were guarantees that vessels would not be attacked. It said about 115 ships had moved out of the strait in recent days.

The fresh US strikes, the reported attack on the Kiku, drone claims involving Bahrain and the widening dispute over shipping routes have all added to pressure on a ceasefire that was meant to create space for a broader agreement between Washington and Tehran.

With PTI Inputs