'Operation Epic Fury is over': US declares Iran bombing campaign over after 66 days of attack

Sixty-six days after the United States and Israel began bombing Iran, Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared the offensive campaign over, and then, within hours, President Trump paused the follow-on naval mission to leave room for a peace deal. The conflict, however, showed no sign of stopping.

"The operation is over. Epic Fury, as the president notified Congress, we're done with that stage of it. We're now on to this Project Freedom," Rubio told reporters in the White House briefing room. Hours later, he went further: "Operation Epic Fury is concluded. We achieved the objectives of that operation."

But as Rubio spoke, a British monitoring organisation reported that a cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz had been struck by an unknown projectile, a reminder that declaring an operation over and ending a conflict are two different things.

Project Freedom: Announced, then paused

Meanwhile, Project Freedom, the US-led effort to guide stranded commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz, lasted less than a day before Trump put it on hold. In a social media post on Tuesday, Trump said the mission would be paused "for a short period of time to see whether or not the Agreement can be finalised and signed," adding that he was acting at the request of Pakistan and other countries.

The US naval blockade of Iranian ports, however, would "remain in full force and effect," Trump said.

Violence had already erupted after the mission was first announced. Iranian forces opened fire on Monday on US warships in the region. The US military responded by destroying six Iranian small boats, according to US Central Command leader Admiral Brad Cooper. At least two merchant vessels transited the waterway with US assistance, while two American warships entered the Gulf.

Rubio was candid about the mission's limitations even before it was paused. "Look, it's not going to solve the whole straits problem," he said. "It's going to solve a lot of it, but it's important to challenge what Iran is doing now." He added, "Iran cannot be allowed to normalise this control of the straits. It's completely unlawful, illegal, it's outrageous. And every country should be joining us in condemning it and doing something about it, but the United States has stepped up and is trying to do something about it."

The human and economic toll at Hormuz

The scale of disruption at the Strait of Hormuz is significant. General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters that roughly 22,500 mariners on more than 1,550 commercial vessels are "trapped" in the Arabian Gulf due to Iranian military restrictions on shipping. The strait carries approximately one-fifth of the world's oil exports.

Oil markets have been volatile. Brent crude dropped around 3.6% on Tuesday to under $111 a barrel, after jumping almost 6% on Monday.

The UAE said on Tuesday it was responding to missile and drone threats, having intercepted almost all of roughly 20 projectiles fired from Iran the previous day. Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf also said Tuesday that the US-led mission in the strait, along with the continued American naval blockade of Iranian ports, constituted violations of the ceasefire.

Iran dismisses talks as 'impossible'

Iran's president rejected American demands to resume negotiations. "The problem is that while the US pursues a policy of maximum pressure against our country, it also expects the Islamic Republic of Iran to come to the negotiating table and ultimately submit to its unilateral demands, an equation that is impossible," President Masoud Pezeshkian said in a call with Iraq's prime minister-designate Ali al-Zaidi, according to the semi-official Fars News Agency.