Iran and US continue strikes

Two ships were reported to have transited the Strait of Hormuz in the early hours of Thursday as the US and Iran continued exchanging strikes, according to The Independent’s live coverage citing shipping-industry sources. Tehran, meanwhile, accused Washington of hitting the area around Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant, a claim the US has not publicly confirmed in the same terms.

The narrow waterway has been the practical choke point of the latest breakdown in US-Iran diplomacy. A ceasefire that Donald Trump had described as a framework for de-escalation has been treated by both sides as conditional on uninterrupted shipping; once tankers were attacked, Washington resumed strikes, and Tehran answered with launches at US-linked targets in the Gulf. The Independent reports that traffic through the strait was close to a standstill, and that more vessels are switching off AIS transponders, reducing visibility of movements precisely when insurers, navies and charterers are trying to price risk.

That shift matters because it changes who bears the cost of the conflict. When shipowners can no longer rely on normal tracking, routings and schedules, each transit becomes a bespoke operation: higher premiums, longer delays, and greater reliance on naval protection. The Independent notes that the two vessels that did cross included one that had loaded at Iran’s Kharg Island and is subject to US sanctions, underscoring how a thinned-out shipping lane does not stop trade so much as concentrate it among actors already accustomed to operating in legal and security grey zones.

On land, the reported proximity of strikes to Bushehr adds a second layer of risk. An Iranian deputy governor told state media that a US projectile struck the surrounding area of the nuclear facility, while explosions were also reported in Iran’s southern coastal region, including Bushehr province and the city of Konarak, according to the same report. Tehran also launched fresh strikes on Kuwait and Bahrain in response to overnight US attacks, The Independent says, widening the set of states pulled into the confrontation whether or not they want to be.

A US official cited by CNN said technical talks were ongoing, and The Independent reports a Trump-Netanyahu phone call in which the leaders agreed to continue coordination. In the Gulf, coordination is now measured less in communiqués than in how many commercial hulls are willing to enter the strait with their transponders on.

By Thursday morning, The Independent reported, only two tankers had made the passage. The rest of the world’s most watched shipping lane was being navigated by absence.