To weaken Iran's ability to attack merchant ships, the US military launched the fourth round of strikes.

The US Central Command said that on Sunday (July 12th) afternoon, the US military launched another air strike against Iran, aiming to further weaken Iran's ability to attack civilian ships in the Strait of Hormuz.

Bloomberg reported that the US Central Command posted a message on the social media platform X, stating that the air strike began at 5 p.m. New York time (5 a.m. Singapore time) on Sunday. This was the fourth time the US military had launched a strike against Iran in the past week.

Iranian media reported at 03:00 on the 13th that explosions were heard in various locations including Abas Port and Shirik District of Iran.

The New York Times quoted an unnamed US official who was not authorized to speak publicly as saying that the scale of the fourth round of air strikes is expected to be larger than that of the third round launched by the US military earlier. The day before, Iran attacked the container ship GFS Galaxy, which was flying the flag of Cyprus, causing the ship to catch fire and be damaged, and one crew member went missing. As a result, the US military launched the third round of air strikes against Iran, triggering another round of retaliatory actions by Iran against US military targets in the Middle East.

On the 12th, US President Trump, during an interview with NBC, insisted that the Strait of Hormuz remained open.

Trump said: "This strait is open. We launched a fierce bombing attack on them last night."

Trump also blamed Iran for the recent mutual attacks between the US and Iran, saying, "They just agreed on an agreement yesterday... But less than an hour later, they launched an attack."

The Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy announced at 4 a.m. local time on the 12th that due to the illegal interference by foreign forces causing an unsafe situation, the Strait of Hormuz has been closed as of now until further notice and until the United States stops interfering in this region. Meanwhile, the US Central Command stated on the X platform at 10 a.m. Eastern Time on the 12th that "passage is still ongoing" through the Strait of Hormuz and Iran does not control this strait.