TEHRAN, Iran — The United States and Iran exchanged fire for the first time in a month after American forces attacked two rocket launchers on a key island in the Strait of Hormuz over the weekend. The U.S. strikes Sunday marked the first known attack by American forces since late July, with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, saying several of its “fighters and compatriots” were killed in the assault. The attacks mark the first major military escalation in weeks in the war between the U.S. and Iran, which began after American and Israeli forces launched a sweeping assault of Iran in late February, killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Central Command, or CENTCOM, said in a post on X late on Sunday that it had taken “limited” action against IRGC minelaying in the Strait of Hormuz. The IRGC vowed “punishment” in response to the U.S. strikes, later announcing it had launched attacks against U.S. military bases in Jordan. Jordan’s military said it had intercepted at least eight missiles Monday morning.
Iran also launched drones at an air base in the United Arab Emirates, with that country’s defense ministry saying its air force had “engaged” at least one drone. Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs warned that the country’s forces would “firmly respond as appropriate to any military aggression,” in a statement carried by the semiofficial Fars news agency. Last week, President Donald Trump said all mines laid in the Strait of Hormuz by Iran had been removed or detonated, and that Iran had been warned that any vessel seeking to lay new ones would be destroyed.
CENTCOM refuted Tehran’s branding of its attack as an act of “aggression,” saying in its post that “Iran created the threat and the U.S. military eliminated it to protect civilian mariners, commercial shipping, and the free flow of global commerce.” Larak Island, the site targeted by the U.S. strikes, is a small Iranian island located off the coast of Bandar Abbas in the Strait of Hormuz, the key trade route through which some 20% of the world’s oil passed before the war began. The vital waterway has been largely closed throughout the conflict, with Iran launching a blockade on the trade route in a move that has sent energy prices soaring, while the U.S. has imposed its own blockade on Iranian ports in response. Posting on his Truth Social platform, Trump appeared to threaten the possibility of further action against Iran, posting what appeared to be an AI-generated video showing a military member looking out of an aircraft as what appears to be oil infrastructure explodes.
Before the war, Kharg Island, which Trump has repeatedly threatened to seize, accounted for more than 90% of Iran’s oil exports. An Iranian energy official dismissed Trump’s apparent threat, telling the semiofficial Fars news agency that the posts were “absurd and the situation on Kharg is calm and stable.” He said oil operations had not stopped and that workers were busy repairing previous damage “without interruption.”
Extract — continue reading at the source.
