TEHRAN – Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on July 18 that two oil tankers exploded after hitting mines in the Strait of Hormuz, as the US and Tehran continued to trade drone and missile strikes.

“An hour ago, two oil tankers, which were trying to pass through the minefield south of the Strait of Hormuz by deceptive American intelligence agencies, exploded and caught fire,” the Guards said in a statement published by state news agency IRNA, without identifying the tankers.

The Revolutionary Guards also said on state television they “stopped” four ships trying to transit the critical waterway.

US forces, meanwhile, reported striking Iran for the seventh consecutive night with attacks designed to “continue degrading Iranian military capabilities”, according to a statement by US Central Command shared on X.

In the biggest escalation since the foes resumed hostilities, Iran accused US forces of targeting civilian infrastructure, including an airport, a railway station and two bridges, and said it had struck US assets across the region.

US President Donald Trump has previously threatened to hit Iranian infrastructure, but there was no confirmation from the US side on July 17 that US forces have begun to do so.

Major General Mohsen Rezaei, a senior military advisor to Iran’s supreme leader, said Tehran will resume “full-scale offensive operations” if US strikes against it continue for another two or three days.

“Iran will no longer limit itself to retaliatory, like-for-like responses... and no political border will be safe,” Rezaei said, according to the Iranian news agency IRIB.

The war began on Feb 28 with deadly US-Israeli strikes on Iran, which retaliated by effectively closing the Strait of Hormuz,...