June 11 (Reuters) - Oil prices rose by more than $2 a barrel on Thursday after Iran announced it was closing the vital Strait of Hormuz for energy supplies following U.S. airstrikes.

Brent crude futures rose $2.30, or 2.47%, to $95.40 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures gained $2.60, or 2.89%, to $92.63. U.S. crude futures had risen by more than $3 earlier in the session.

Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya military headquarters announced the closure of the Strait of Hormuz to oil tankers and commercial vessels, saying that any ship attempting to pass through would be fired upon.

But the US military said commercial ships continued to pass through the strait. It denied that any of its warships had been targeted in the strait, after Iranian state media reported that US vessels near the waterway had been attacked with missiles and drones.

US forces began launching additional airstrikes on multiple targets in Iran at 5:15 p.m. Eastern Time (2115 GMT Wednesday), in the latest escalation of attacks that threaten to reignite a full-blown war, which was temporarily halted in early April when the two sides agreed to a fragile ceasefire.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported on Wednesday that crude oil inventories fell by 7.2 million barrels to 426.5 million barrels in the week ending June 5, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll of a 4 million barrel decline.

U.S. oil inventories, including those in strategic reserves, have fallen by about 79 million barrels since the start of the war with Iran on February 28, as the world's largest producer stepped in to compensate for the supply shortage caused by the de facto closure of the Strait.