WASHINGTON — U.S. forces struck two Iranian rocket launchers on Larak Island in the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday, and Iran retaliated hours later with ballistic missiles at two American bases in Jordan and drones aimed at the United Arab Emirates, ending a monthlong lull in a war that has intermittently closed one of the world's most important oil chokepoints.

The exchange is the first direct fighting between the two countries since July 29 and comes days after the Trump administration said it would pivot from military strikes to economic pressure to force Tehran back to negotiations. Crude oil prices climbed on the news, with U.S. oil up 1.8 percent to $84.94 a barrel and Brent up 1.9 percent to $89.79, the Associated Press reported.

What the U.S. hit

U.S. Central Command said it took "limited, precise action against IRGC minelaying forces posing an imminent threat in the Strait of Hormuz" in a statement cited by Al Jazeera. Tim Hawkins, a Centcom spokesperson, said forces with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had been observed preparing to launch rockets with sea mines into the strait. The U.S. military last week said it had finished clearing sea mines from the waterway's international shipping routes.

Iran's IRGC said the strikes on Larak, just offshore from the port of Bandar Abbas, killed two people and injured two others, and vowed "response and punishment" against the U.S., the BBC reported. President Masoud Pezeshkian said in a statement carried by state television: "We are not seeking war, but we will deliver a decisive response to the aggressors," the BBC reported, citing AFP.

Iran's response

Within hours, the IRGC said it had fired ballistic missiles at the King Hussein and al-Azraq bases in Jordan and had launched dozens of drones at Al-Minhad airbase in the UAE, where U.S. forces and helicopters are stationed. Iran's foreign ministry called the Jordan strikes a "legitimate defence" under the U.N. Charter.

Jordan's army said its air defenses had intercepted "eight missiles that breached the Kingdom's airspace at dawn today," according to a statement from its spokesperson quoted by Al Jazeera. The UAE's Ministry of Defence rejected the reports of an attack on Al-Minhad as "unfounded" but said its air force intercepted a drone approaching from Iran over territorial waters.

A U.S. official told Al Jazeera Arabic that American forces had knocked down the missiles fired at Jordan, adding that "the missile attack on US forces in Jordan proves that Iran is no longer the power it once was".

Trump's video reply

Hours after the strike, President Trump posted apparent artificial-intelligence videos on Truth Social showing oil infrastructure exploding, one captioned "Kharg Island being blown to smithereens!!!" — a reference to a major Iranian oil terminal Trump has threatened to seize. He did not elaborate. Larak Island sits about 410 miles east of Kharg.

Trump had said on Aug. 1 that he would order the military to hold off at the urging of Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, and the administration on Aug. 24 rolled out a fresh sanctions package it named "Operation Economic Outcast". Trump last week said he is "not in a hurry" to bring Iran back to negotiations. An IRGC spokesperson, Gen. Hossein Mohebi, called Sunday's U.S. strike a "fatal mistake by the Trump regime during the economic war" and said Washington would pay "in both the economic and military arenas".

The strait

The Strait of Hormuz carried nearly a fifth of the world's crude oil and liquefied natural gas shipments before the war began Feb. 28, and traffic has since dwindled. A multinational coalition overseen by the U.S. Navy said commercial transit remained at "reduced levels" over the weekend. Trump has said 24 vessels passed through last week, a fraction of the roughly 130 per day before the fighting. Iran is currently forcing tanker traffic to pass by Larak Island for checks and, the BBC reported, to pay $2 million per crossing. As of Sunday, Centcom said its naval blockade of Iranian ports had redirected 83 commercial vessels and disabled three.

Gulf pushback

The UAE's presidential adviser, Anwar Mohammed Gargash, criticized the renewed fighting, saying "the policy of targeting the Arab Gulf states and Jordan has proven to be a failure" and adding that "Political solutions must begin with de-escalation and restoring normal shipping through the Strait of Hormuz," according to Al Jazeera. Harlan Ullman, a retired U.S. senior naval officer, told Al Jazeera that Iran's Jordan strike was a "political statement" meant to warn Amman against continued support for Washington.

High-level delegations from Oman, Pakistan and Qatar visited Tehran last week to try to restart negotiations. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sunday that more sanctions on entities accused of doing business with Iran are coming in the days ahead, according to Al Jazeera's Washington correspondent.