Indian sailor killed, eight injured as Iranian missiles hit UAE tankers in Hormuz
IRAN,JULY 14 : An Indian crew member was killed and eight others were injured after two UAE oil tankers were struck by Iranian cruise missiles in the Strait of Hormuz.
The UAE Ministry of Defence confirmed that the attack on the tankers killed one Indian national and injured six Indians and two Ukrainians.
“The UAE reserves its full right to respond to this escalation and to take all necessary measures to protect its territory, its citizens and residents,” the ministry said.
Bahrain also came under renewed attack early Tuesday as Iran retaliated following the latest round of US airstrikes. The country sounded its missile alert sirens, urging the public to seek shelter. There was no immediate word on any damage or casualties.
The Iranian strikes on the UAE oil tankers were in retaliation for the US strikes on Tehran early Tuesday morning, hours after President Donald Trump said Washington was “reinstating” a blockade on Iran in the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump separately suggested the United States will charge other ships for safe passage, upending hundreds of years of American policy supporting freedom of navigation across the globe.
After the tankers were hit, the Emirates threatened to retaliate against Iran, potentially drawing the nation home to Abu Dhabi and Dubai back into fighting with Tehran.
The attacks come as Iran and the US both vie for control of the strait through which a fifth of all crude oil and natural gas once passed in peacetime.
The price of benchmark Brent crude oil rose 7.8% to $81.92 a barrel, still well below the nearly $120 reached at the height of the war but threatening to make costs everywhere higher.
Three boys play in the shallow waters of the Strait of Hormuz, as a plume of smoke rises from an explosion in the background, off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Monday, July 13, 2026.
Trump reimposes Iran naval blockade, threatens 20% Hormuz fees; Tehran mocks announcement
US Central Command announced on social media that the US military had begun another round of strikes against Iran.
“These strikes will continue imposing a heavy cost on Iranian forces and degrade their ability to attack innocent civilians and commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz,” the US military said.
Moments after the military announced the new strikes, Trump called it “another major attack.”
“We’re hitting them very hard. And it’ll continue, and we’ll see what happens,” he told reporters in the Oval Office. “We’re knocking out all of their offensive capability and we’re controlling the straits. We’re putting the blockade back.”
Trump also provided new details on his administration doing an about-face and suggesting it will charge tolls for ships going through the strait, after previously suggesting that it wouldn’t.
“We’re protecting a very rich portion of the world,” he said. “We’re spending money. And so, what we’ve done is, we are going to be reimbursed for protection.”
It’s a change in US policy that, until now, said the strait should remain open to all without tolls, as it was before the US and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28. Any attempt by the US or Iran to charge fees would violate global norms on freedom of navigation and raise tensions, likely causing further economic disruption far beyond the region.
-AFP
