DUBAI - US military strikes on Iran entered a second day on Monday in a new surge of fighting over the status of the Strait of Hormuz that endangered a fragile interim agreement and sent oil prices spiking.
US strikes killed two people on Monday in southwestern Iran in an oil-producing region near Kuwait and Iraq, the Iranian Fars and Tasnim news agencies reported.
"At this time, two people have been reported dead and three wounded," the agencies said, citing a Khuzestan province official. Media and residents also reported having heard explosions near Bandar Abbas and the island of Qeshm, Mehr news agency said.
The US military later said it had completed a new round of strikes in Iran aimed at preventing the Islamic republic from attacking shipping in the vital Strait of Hormuz.
"CENTCOM forces struck Iranian military air-defense systems, coastal radar sites, missile and drone capabilities, and small boats," it said in a post on X.
On the same day, Iran fired "warning shots" at two ships attempting to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, state television reported, as Tehran and Washington battle for control of the strategic waterway.
Two ships "illegally" transiting the strait "were targeted and stopped by warning shots fired by the navy of the Revolutionary Guards," said a correspondent on national television based near the strait.
Afterward, Iran's Revolutionary Guards claimed strikes against Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait and Oman, saying they destroyed radar systems in Oman and targeted US military facilities on the southern edge of Manama.
Air raid alerts sounded in Bahrain, while Kuwait's army said its forces were intercepting "hostile aerial targets". Jordan's army said it had intercepted four Iranian missiles. Bahrain's military accused Iran of targeting "civilians" with its latest attacks.
The fresh flare-up between the United States and Iran rattled investors and world oil prices surged on the news.
Brent North Sea crude, the international benchmark, rallied as much as five percent, before paring gains to trade around 3.5 percent higher at about $78 a barrel. The main US contract, West Texas Intermediate, also spiked.
Nonetheless, Iran's foreign ministry spokesman said the government was talking with mediators from Qatar, Pakistan and Oman in a bid to prevent an escalation in the war with the United States.
Earlier the ministry said the new US attacks on its territory had "rendered futile" all the diplomatic efforts of the past few months and warned it would no longer abide by a memorandum of understanding signed with the United States if Washington failed to uphold its commitments.
"The US regime has also caused the return of insecurity in the Strait of Hormuz and disruption of international commercial shipping by openly interfering in the process of Iran implementing the necessary arrangements in the Strait of Hormuz," a foreign ministry statement said.
US President Donald Trump told CNN on Sunday that the United States and Iran had been close to "a deal" on Saturday.
"They were giving up everything, and then all of a sudden two hours after that they hit a ship with a drone. These people, there is something wrong with them," he said.
