U.S. Forces Conduct Second Strike Near Bandar Abbas in a Week

U.S. forces shot down four Iranian drones and struck a ground control station near Bandar Abbas on Wednesday, according to Reuters and The Associated Press citing unnamed U.S. officials. The strikes occurred in Hormozgan province, where the port city is located.

Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs accused Washington of violating the ceasefire through “aggressive acts” in the province. The semiofficial Iranian news agency Tasnim reported that Iranian forces fired on an “American airbase” in the region in response.

Abbas lies on Iran’s southern coast along the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway linking the Gulf to the Gulf of Oman. The city had a population of more than 526,000 at the time of Iran’s 2016 census and sits roughly 60 to 70 kilometers north of the strait’s narrowest point.

The port serves as headquarters for both Iran’s conventional navy and the naval arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Iran has used the location to oversee shipping through the strait, through which about one-fifth of global oil and gas supplies transit during peacetime.

A ceasefire between Washington and Tehran has been in place since April 8. Since then, Iran has continued to control shipping through the strait while U.S. forces have imposed a blockade on Iranian ports. Samir Puri, a visiting lecturer in war studies at King’s College London, told Al Jazeera the latest exchanges remain limited compared with earlier strikes.

He described the incidents as “tit-for-tat military-to-military engagements” that have not yet formally ended the ceasefire. Puri said both sides continue parallel military and negotiating tracks. He noted that the U.S. seeks to limit Iran’s ability to control the strait while Iran aims to demonstrate it retains that capability.