US forces targeted Iranian military facilities liable for launching a sequence of “unprovoked” missile, drone and small boat assaults in opposition to American warships transiting the Strait of Hormuz, US Central Command mentioned on Thursday.
“U.S. forces intercepted unprovoked Iranian attacks and responded with self-defense strikes as US Navy guided-missile destroyers transited the Strait of Hormuz to the Gulf of Oman, May 7,” CENTCOM mentioned in a information launch.
The Iranian services focused by US forces included “missile and drone launch sites, command and control locations; and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance nodes,” based on CENTCOM.
A US official advised NCS that military strikes had been carried out in a number of areas together with Bandar Abbas and Qeshm.
“Iranian forces launched multiple missiles, drones and small boats as USS Truxtun (DDG 103), USS Rafael Peralta (DDG 115), and USS Mason (DDG 87) transited the international sea passage. No US assets were struck,” the CENTCOM assertion added.
A spokesperson for Iran’s armed forces mentioned US airstrikes hit civilian areas alongside the coasts of Qeshm Island, Bandar Khamir and Sirik.
He additionally claimed that the US violated the continuing ceasefire by concentrating on an Iranian oil tanker heading towards the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran responded with “reciprocal action” by attacking US military vessels east of the strait and south of the port of Chabahar, the spokesperson mentioned in a video tackle carried by state media.
An Iranian state media report mentioned that business services on the Bahman Pier on Qeshm Island had been focused in an exchange of fire between Iranian safety forces and “the enemy.”
The US and Iran have been exchanging fire in current days regardless of the almost month-old ceasefire. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine mentioned at a press briefing on Tuesday that Iran had attacked US forces greater than 10 instances for the reason that ceasefire’s begin however none of these incidents crossed the edge of a return to full fight operations.
Both Caine and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confused that US forces had been at present working in a defensive posture however stay ready to reply to Iranian assaults amid the delicate ceasefire.
The newest confrontation comes after the US military disabled an Iranian-flagged tanker in the Gulf of Oman on Wednesday by firing “several rounds” of ammunition from a fighter jet into the ship’s rudder when it tried to sail in direction of an Iranian port.
The M/T Hasna, an oil tanker, was in worldwide waters enroute to an Iranian port in the Gulf of Oman when US forces “issued multiple warnings” telling the ship it was in violation of the continuing US blockade, CENTCOM mentioned on the time.
In its assertion, US Central Command mentioned that the US forces do “not seek escalation” however that the military is “ready to protect American forces.”
This story has been up to date with extra particulars.
NCS’s Haley Britzky contributed to this story.