One Indian crew member was killed and eight others were wounded when two Emirati oil tankers were struck by Iranian cruise missiles in the Strait of Hormuz, the United Arab Emirates Ministry of Defence said on Tuesday, in the latest escalation in the strategic waterway.

The ministry said the tankers, the Mombasa and Al Bahiyah, were targeted in the southern lane of the strait while in Omani territorial waters. The dead crew member was aboard the Mombasa, it said.

Of the eight wounded, four were seriously injured. Six of the wounded were Indian nationals and two were Ukrainian nationals, the ministry said.

The attacks caused material damage to both tankers after fires broke out on board. The ministry said the fires had been brought under control.

It condemned what it called a "blatant attack" and said the UAE retained "its full right to respond to this escalation".

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said on Tuesday that two "offending" supertankers had been hit and disabled in the Strait of Hormuz after ignoring repeated warnings, turning off navigation systems and attempting to pass through what the Guards described as a mined route.

The IRGC's statement did not name the vessels or say whether it was referring to the same tankers cited by the UAE Ministry of Defence.

Separately, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency said on Tuesday that a tanker had been hit by an unknown projectile while travelling 40 nautical miles northeast of Oman's Qalhat.

The US military carried out a third consecutive night of strikes against Iran on Monday as President Donald Trump reinstated a blockade of Iranian shipping and proposed charging a 20 per cent fee to guard the Strait of Hormuz.

US Central Command said it began strikes at Trump's direction just after the US president told the "Hugh Hewitt Show" that Iran would be hit "very hard tonight, and we're going to hit them hard tomorrow. And there's not a damn thing they can do about it." He later told reporters at the White House that the US was attacking Iranian capabilities in the strait.

The UAE Ministry of Defence later said Iranian cruise missiles struck two Emirati oil tankers, the Mombasa and Al Bahiyah, while transiting the southern lane of the strait in Omani territorial waters, wounding one crew member and injuring eight others. 

Bahrain's air defence systems intercepted and destroyed Iranian aerial attacks over the kingdom, Nabeel Alhamer, media adviser to Bahrain's king, said in posts on X.

"The Hormuz Strait is OPEN, and will remain OPEN, with or without Iran. We are reinstating THE IRANIAN BLOCKADE," Trump had said earlier on Monday on Truth Social.

"The USA will be, from this point forward, known as 'THE GUARDIAN OF THE HORMUZ STRAIT', but as such, and as a matter of FAIRNESS, will be reimbursed, at the rate of 20 per cent on all cargo shipped." 

Iran's top joint military command said the US had no role in determining the future of the waterway and would not be allowed to intervene. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi wrote on X that Tehran was the guardian of the strait and would remain so "forever", adding in response to Trump's comments that: "20 per cent is of course too much. We will be fair." 

'Hostile' US Vessel 
Soon after the US military announced renewed strikes on Iran, Iranian media reported explosions in the port city of Bandar Abbas, Iran's Kish and Qeshm islands and on Abu Musa Island in the Gulf.

Iran's Fars news agency said residents in the city of Jam in Iran's Bushehr province also heard several explosions but that the exact location of the blasts was not clear. No casualties were reported. Iranian media reports of explosions continued for more than three hours.

Iran's southwestern Khuzestan province was hit by US projectiles early on Tuesday, Iran's official news agency IRNA reported, citing a provincial security official, adding that four people were wounded and rescue operations were underway. A loud explosion was also heard in Iran's southern city of Bushehr, according to Iran's semi-official Mehr news agency.

Iran's state TV cited the Iranian army as saying that it targeted a "hostile" US vessel with cruise missiles and US facilities and equipment in Kuwait with drones. Iranian media also said Iran's Revolutionary Guards shot down a US MQ-1 drone over Hormuz, while sirens sounded early on Tuesday in Bahrain - home to another US military base.

The incidents, which followed earlier exchanges of missile and drone attacks, extended the hostilities that followed Iran's announcement at the weekend that it was closing the vital waterway, casting further doubt on an interim deal to halt the war and driving oil prices higher.

The UN shipping agency pushed back against Trump's proposal, saying it opposes any fees for straits used in international navigation and stressing that there is no legal basis for introducing mandatory tolls on strait transits.

Trump has previously suggested the US could charge tolls on shipping through the strait, but has not done so and it remains unclear whether he would follow through this time.

The US Navy-led Joint Maritime Information Center said the blockade would take effect at 2000 GMT on Tuesday and apply to all vessel traffic regardless of flag, covering the entire Iranian coastline including ports and oil terminals.

It said the measure would not impede neutral transit passage through the strait to or from non-Iranian destinations, and that humanitarian shipments would be permitted subject to inspection.

The US Embassy in Abu Dhabi and US Consulate General in Dubai have cancelled consular appointments from July 13 to 15 due to the regional security situation, the embassy said in a security alert.