India, July 16 -- The US reimposed a naval blockade on Iran and intensified its airstrike campaign on Wednesday in retaliation for Tehran's attacks on ships trying to pass through the Strait of Hormuz. The American strikes hit an Iranian army barracks, killing at least seven troops and wounding more than 260 people across the country, Iranian officials said.

Days of back-and-forth strikes by the US and Iran across the Middle East - and renewed threats to the waterway crucial to global energy supplies - have shredded the interim deal to end the conflict, and the region could tip back into all-out war.

The US first imposed a blockade in April and then lifted it last month after signing the interim deal that paused the fighting and set a 6...