US strikes Iranian military site in Bandar Abbas amid fragile ceasefire

The United States military has conducted new strikes on a military site in Bandar Abbas, a strategic port city in Iran, targeting a ground control station as it prepared to launch a fifth drone. US Central Command (Centcom) confirmed that forces also shot down four Iranian one-way attack drones that posed a threat around the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian media reported explosions heard to the east of the city, marking a significant escalation in a conflict that has already choked regional traffic and driven up global energy prices.

These strikes occurred during a fragile ceasefire between the US and Iran, which began on 8 April 2026, ending a three-month war launched by Israel with US involvement on 28 February. Centcom described the actions as "measured, purely defensive, and intended to maintain the ceasefire." This follows previous "self-defence" strikes earlier in the week on Monday, where US forces targeted missile sites and vessels in southern Iran that were attempting to lay mines.

US President Donald Trump stated during a cabinet meeting on Wednesday that Iran is "negotiating on fumes," indicating that the US is "not satisfied" with the current progress of peace talks. While Trump had previously struck an optimistic note over the weekend, claiming a peace deal had been "largely negotiated," his tone shifted sharply as he insisted his war strategy would not be impacted by November's US midterm elections. "Maybe we have to go back and finish it, maybe we don't," he said, threatening to resume a large-scale bombing campaign if Iran does not agree to his terms.

Iran condemned the strikes as a "grave violation of the ceasefire" and vowed that the government "will not leave any act of hostility unanswered." Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed on Tuesday that it had downed a US drone and fired at a fighter jet and another drone that entered Iranian airspace. The IRGC asserted the "legitimate and definite" right to retaliate against any US ceasefire violations, although it did not specify the timing of those incidents.

The diplomatic landscape remains volatile, with Iranian negotiators having arrived in Doha for high-stakes peace talks earlier this week. However, the White House previously dismissed Iranian state television reports of a draft agreement as a "complete fabrication." During the same cabinet meeting, President Trump urged Gulf nations to sign on to the Abraham Accords to normalise relations with Israel, which is also embroiled in a war with Iranian-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.