US launches 'self-defense' strikes on Iran amid escalating tensions

The US military says it has launched "self-defense" strikes on Iran and shot down ballistic missiles and drones fired at ships and Gulf countries.

US Central Command (Centcom) said strikes on Qeshm Island, in the Strait of Hormuz, were "in response to attempted attacks by Iran across the Middle East".

Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps said it had attacked US bases and helicopters in a regional country using missiles and drones, in what Iranian state media reported was a response to a US strike on an a communications tower south of Qeshm Island.

The latest attacks come amid stalled ceasefire negotiations, after talks on a deal to end their months-long war failed to advance over the weekend.

Centcom also said Iran had fired two missiles at Kuwait, which fell short or broke apart and three that were launched at Bahrain were intercepted.

It said the strike on Qeshm Island had targeted an Iranian military ground control station, and that the US military also shot down three attack drones that had been launched by Iran toward "civilian mariners that were rightfully transiting regional waters".

The IRGC said "disrupting the security of the Strait of Hormuz will carry a heavy price for the aggressive US military".

Earlier, Centcom said it has struck and disabled an unladen oil tanker that was sailing towards Iran, as part of Washington's naval blockade on the Strait of Hormuz.

A US aircraft fired a Hellfire missile into the engine room of the Botswana-flagged M/T vessel, after its crew "ignored repeated warnings", it said.

Centcom also released a footage purportedly showing the moment the tanker was hit on Tuesday. Iran has not publicly commented on the issue.

The US military began enforcing its blockade of all vessels entering and exiting Iranian ports on 13 April.

In its statement, Centcom said US forces "enforced blockade measures against Botswana-flagged M/T Lexie as it transited international waters toward Kharg Island".

It said the ship's crew had failed "to comply with directions from US forces multiple times over a 24-hour period".

Overall, six commercial vessels have been disabled and another 122 redirected since the blockade went into force, Centcom said.

The latest skirmish comes as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio appeared publicly before Congress for the first time since the start of the war.

"Right now, everything that's been discussed with them is that … any sanctions relief is condition-based, which means it has to be in return for the reason why those sanctions were put in place in the first place, which is their nuclear programme," he said.